David P. Hickman reminded everyone of this when we finally got to talk to Dustin Garrison last Tuesday and it’s a good anecdote: One of the first and only post-ACL looks we had at the WVU running back was at an Orange Bowl function when he got off the bus sans crutches and had the athletic trainers tell him what a terrible idea that was.

Turns out that Garrison, who just passed the latest quarter pole on the recovery trail and needs only to strengthen his quad before he can get back to football stuff, has been testing himself for quite some time.

Naturally, these things have happened away from the watchful and assuredly widening eyes of those athletic trainers who neither need nor want Garrison to limp into the office and explain away a kitchen juke gone awry.

“They really didn’t want me doing it, but I’d walk around the house and make a couple moves here and there,” he said. “It seemed stable enough.”

With his confidence raised, he’d push a little harder, though only away from the overseers of his recovery, who would surely flip out if they saw what Garrison was doing.

“I’d do a little running up the stairs at my apartment, run down the street, anywhere I could,” he said.

Give the kid this: His spirit is unbeatable.

He’s been told from the beginning the recovery is six months, and he’s right on track to be fully cleared next month in time for a good-enough warm-up before preseason practice begins Aug. 4.

But is good enough really good enough? Six months may be the word, but, man, don’t we know now that it’s really about a calendar year before everything works and, most importantly, feels right again? Complete functionality is one issue. Complete trust is another.

Quincy Wilson tore his ACL in the spring of 2000. Missed a full season, but, of course, turned out just fine. I realize there’s a difference in getting hurt in March and counting six months than there is in getting hurt in late-December and counting six months, and, no, medicine is not what it once was, but there’s a similar issue here.

Time is still time. It’s measured and it passes the same way.

Wilson’s six months put him weeks into the regular season. It wouldn’t have been right to use a fraction of a season. And really, he’d spend a fraction getting ready before he could use a smaller fraction on the field.

Garrison isn’t in the same spot, but it’s not wildly different. He’s essentially coming back right before camp starts, but remember, thereis no offseason now. He’ll have to find his way to get to where some of his peers have been idling for a while now. Then it’s perhaps a game of catch-up, and who knows how deep into the season that might take him, with or without setbacks?

The harsh truth of college football is that the game does not wait.

What’s good for Garrison is he didn’t tear the MCL with the ACL and the word is he’s a quick healer who, despite his mischievous ways, has been very obedient throughout the rehab. He’s done everything asked and needed to give himself a chance to play in 2012, but those first few weeks (days?) of August are significant.