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The twitch in Blaine Irby's right foot was so subtle no one else could have seen it. For Irby, it was the moment he had been aching for.
The twitch meant the nerves in his right leg were coming back to life. It meant he might walk normally again.
To him, even if not to anybody else, it meant he might play football again.
Nearly three years after a devastating collision dislocated his kneecap and left his leg a mangled mess of shredded ligaments, cartilage and nerves, Irby will return to the field for the Texas Longhorns on Saturday night. He will do it against Rice, the team that almost knocked him out of the game forever.
''I always knew in my heart I would come back,'' Irby said. ''I think it's definitely a miracle .... God had something to do with this.''
In September 2008, Irby was Texas' future at tight end. A former high school All-American from Camarillo, Calif., he had great hands with good speed and was set to follow in the footsteps of former Longhorns tight ends Bo Scaife, David Thomas and Jermichael Finley, all of whom were playing in the NFL.
Irby scored a touchdown in each of the first two games. Texas was in the third quarter of a 52-10 win over Rice when a defender smashed into his knee just as he was catching a pass.
''I remember turning around and seeing a really white object coming low, and then I flipped over,'' Irby said. ''My next memory is when (athletic trainer) Kenny (Boyd) was on top me telling me to calm down.... I remember screaming a little bit, but I was in shock.''
Boyd immediately knew Irby had suffered a devastating injury. The first priority was to check the blood flow inside the knee. If it was compromised, Irby faced the possibility of damage severe enough to force amputation.
Fortunately it wasn't, but the extent of the injury suggested Irby would never play football again Even after three surgeries to rebuild his shattered knee, the nerve damage was so bad that Irby had a foot drop, a condition where he couldn't flex his ankle to pick up his foot. Irby's doctors gave him a less than 5 percent chance of walking normally again.
Irby heard the prognosis and ignored it, spending hundreds of hours in rehabilitation to bring his leg and foot back to life. Everything started with simply trying to press his foot against his workout partner's hand.
Jeff Madden, Texas assistant athletic director for strength and conditioning, called those first days ''just like teaching a kid how to walk all over again.''
For months, Irby wore a brace and walked using crutches. For long distances around campus, he drove a cart. Through it all, Irby swore to anyone who would listen - teammates, coaches and family - that he would play again.
The typical response was a hug and a sympathetic ''that's nice.''
The foot finally responded in December 2009. Irby, who was still spending time with the team, was in a position meeting preparing for the 2010 national championship game when he felt the twinge.
Irby looked at his foot, telling it to move.
''Then all of a sudden, it just kind of twitched for about maybe half an inch,'' Irby said.
Wanting to burst with excitement, Irby quietly excused himself and shuffled down the hall to tell Boyd the news. After a round of hugs, Irby went back to his room and spent the night trying to get the foot to move again.
''I did it probably a thousand times that night,'' Irby said.
The twitch gave Irby new zeal to get back to the field. He pushed himself from walking to jogging to regaining muscle strength. Everyone cheered his effort and positive attitude but few held real hope that Irby would play again.
''There's a long way to go from feeling that twitch and being able to block a defensive end,'' Boyd said.
Perhaps not quite believing what he was seeing, Boyd finally cleared Irby to join spring practice on a limited basis last February.
''I would say it would be a miracle,'' Boyd said.
Texas coach Mack Brown didn't want him to come back. Brown suffered bad knee injuries as a running back in college at Vanderbilt and Florida State, and had a knee replacement six years ago. Brown now walks with a noticeable hobble.
`I told him, `I would not play,''' Brown said. ''They hoped they could get him to a point where he would be able to play in the backyard with his kids ... I didn't want him walking like I do at 60 years old.''
But after hearing from Irby, his parents and the doctors that Irby was ready, Brown relented.
''He's been released by everybody and everybody says he's fine,'' Brown said. ''I'd say the first week of practice it scared me to death. I ask him every day and he says, `I'm fine.' I think he looks at me like `Will you please shut up and leave me alone' So I'm going to do that and let him go play.''
Irby has watched film of his injury just once. He had said he wasn't going to, but his curiosity got the better of him one night while studying for an exam and he suddenly saw himself get hit and his knee buckle in a grotesque contortion.
''It kind of caught me off guard. I remember getting up and walking around just making sure I was OK,'' Irby said. ''A leg is really not supposed to bend like that.''
There were other mental challenges to overcome.
On the first day of contact drills in fall practice, the offense was scripted to run the same play, called 27 Naked Ohio, that the Longhorns ran when Irby was injured. Tight ends coach Bruce Chambers purposely put him in the huddle to see how he would handle it.
Irby didn't flinch. He ran the route and caught the pass before trotting back to the sideline.
''Thanks, coach,''' Irby told Chambers.
Irby's teammates didn't want to tackle him. No one wanted to be the guy to injure him again.
''It was like the Red Sea would part whenever Irby would get the ball,'' senior safety Blake Gideon said. ''I don't think he appreciated that.''
Irby told his teammates to get tough with him and they did. When the hits started coming, Irby had to learn again how to take a hit without fumbling. He was soon playing like he had never left.
After one fumble, Texas ran the same play to Irby and he ''turned up and ran over half the defense,'' Gideon said.
Coming out of training camp, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Irby is listed as the starting H-back in Texas' new offense under first-year coordinator Bryan Harsin.
He has been warned his reconstructed knee could be injured again. Texas won't let him practice or play without a knee brace.
''We'll hold our breath when we see him go out in the flat for a ball and get tackled,'' Boyd said. ''But he's done everything he can do to prepare himself.''
