Injured Gonnella shows up in leg brace, and high spirits

Two powerful symbols defined Andrew Gonnella's appearance in front of the media yesterday.

His mere presence made it clear that despite his dislocated left knee — an injury that will end the Terrapins football senior guard's season — he will remain heavily involved with the team.

But the immobilizing brace he wore served as a reminder that he'll have to settle for a far different role.

"We're going to miss him on the field," coach Randy Edsall said. "Just sitting there today, just spending five, eight minutes with him, it was just a joy. … Here's a guy that comes into the office and he's ready to go play right now."

On Saturday, in fact, Gonnella thought just that immediately after getting hurt.

"My first instinct was, ‘Maybe it'll pop itself back in and I'll just be sore,'" Gonnella said. "But when I rolled over and saw it flop, I realized the bones were in two different directions and something was wrong."

"I wanted to stay on the sideline and finish it out," Gonnella added. "I figured, ‘Hey, if I'm screwed anywise, I might as well get to see the rest of the game.'"

Even after he was transported from Bobby Dodd Stadium, he refused to relax until he knew the final score of the game. Only when he finally learned that the Terps had fallen, 21-16, did he allow medical personnel to put him under anesthesia.

"As far as not going to sleep, it was easy," Gonnella said, smirking. "I just didn't sign the form for them to give me anesthesia."

That grit didn't surprise his teammates, though.

"He's sometimes just, like, sick in the head," defensive tackle A.J. Francis, one of Gonnella's roommates, said yesterday. "Like yesterday, he gets back to the room and he's like, ‘Yeah, you know they said everybody that gets that injury, they usually pass out as soon as they see their knee, but I was up the whole time.'"

"I was like, ‘What's wrong with you?' But that's the kind of guy Gonnella is."

Gonnella's absence leaves the Terps thin on the offensive line, where injured tackles Justin Gilbert and Pete DeSouza are already out indefinitely.

But as much as it pains him, Gonnella can't do anything to fix that. For now, he plans to maintain his role as a team captain and serve as a solemn reminder to his teammates of how quickly things can change for an athlete.

"I'm still a captain, still a leader on this team," Gonnella said. "It's literally the worst nightmare of every athlete. We always know how much football means to us and how much we love the game. … But when it's taken from you so quickly like that, you really know how much you love the game."

VELLANO STEPPING UP

As part of the foundation of a defense ravaged by injury, defensive tackle Joe Vellano admitted he's placed extra pressure on himself to perform.

He couldn't have hoped for much more than what he did Saturday. Vellano finished the game with a career-high 20 tackles, the most by a Terps defensive lineman since before 1990 and the most tackles for a player this season.

"I have never seen a performance like that out of a defensive lineman against the triple option," Edsall said. "What makes Joe so good is just … the intensity and the love of the game. He loves to compete."

Unfortunately for Vellano, though, one of the few Terps alumni who can match that single game output shares his last name.

His father, former Terps All-American defensive tackle Paul Vellano, posted more than 20 tackles in a 1973 Oyster Bowl victory over Duke, and he's not letting his son forget it.

"He's always just saying I could never block him and stuff like that," Vellano said yesterday with a smile.

NOT TOO SPECIAL

While the Terps have been largely inconsistent across the board this season, their special teams have been especially shaky.