After beating cancer, Pitt star James Conner back to full speed

By foxsports
Published

Pitt had a great sight Monday with the return of James Conner as a full participant as the Panthers opened practice. The star running back had been diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma last winter. In May, was declared cancer free by his medical team.

"It's bigger than the game of football," Conner said of his journey the past year. "It's bigger than myself. The impact that I have on others made me not take anything for granted. I'm just thankful to be out here. You won't hear me complain; my teammates won't hear me complain again. They aren't going to complain either. You always hear me say, 'Anything is better than receiving chemotherapy.' I'd rather stay out here on the field for 10 hours a day than receive chemotherapy."

Conner is also coming back from a shredded knee that sidelined him for almost all of the 2015 season. Before that, the 6-foot-2, 235-pounder won ACC Player of the Year honors in 2014, when he rushed for 1,765 yards and scored 26 touchdowns. He said the knee feels "great."

"They let me go; there are no limits," he said. "I am working on my conditioning still, but there are no limitations."

"It's great to have James, but I can't say he ever wasn't out there, that's the crazy thing," said coach Pat Narduzzi. "You would think he wasn't with us, but no. Through the workouts he was here, during spring ball, too. But now we know that he's full go. We try to have a quick whistle, whether he's in or somebody else. I had one of the players say, 'Coach, don't baby him. He's a man.' We know he's a man, but we still have to be smart. He had a good day today. It's great to get him out here. It's real, and he's back 100 percent, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do better.

"He's doing everything. He's not limited. He's going to be limited by us more than him because he's never going to turn anything down. As coaches we're going to have to limit him, but he's over there throwing shoulders at people with shorts on. We've got to slow him down."