Rice's Solomon wearing 35 to honor injured teammate Bradshaw

With catastrophic injuries a frequent and unfortunate occurrence at Rice, panic was justified on Friday morning when the following question came to mind as the Owls scrimmaged at Rice Stadium: Where is No. 13? As it turned out, Owls senior defensive end Scott Solomon was present, accounted for and, of greatest significance, optimally healthy. As the Owls conducted their second scrimmage of training camp, Solomon was wreaking havoc while sporting the No. 35, paying homage to his classmate Travis Bradshaw, the Owls' starting free safety whose career came to a premature end after he suffered a cracked vertebra last week. "It's just a tribute to Travis. I know what he's going through right now," said Solomon, who missed the 2010 season with a broken right foot. "Actually it's a lot worse for him because he knows he's not coming back. I knew I'd be coming back that next year and it was still hard for me. "I can't really imagine what he's going through right now. I want to wear his jersey this year just as a tribute to him, to kind of honor him and everything he's done for this team. He's done so much for us, and so I just want a little piece of him still with us. He's still part of the family, so I want a piece of him on the field with us." Solomon, who wore No. 13 previously, publicly debuted his new number Friday, a move that dovetailed nicely with Bradshaw addressing the media for the first time since his career-ending injury was announced last Saturday. Bradshaw opened camp healthy, raring to go, and tied for ninth in Rice annals with 286 tackles. His ascension from former walk-on to three-year starter represented an inspirational tale of perseverance in the face of adversity, an attitude revealed when Bradshaw was felled on Aug. 9. What Bradshaw described as a routine collision with junior receiver Vance McDonald turned out to be much more serious. Bradshaw assumed he had strained his neck, a logical conclusion given his problems with stingers last season. He met with medical personnel after practice and was instructed to take a couple days off. But on Thursday the discomfort lingered, and Bradshaw underwent a battery of tests. "They saw a crack in one of my vertebrae," said Bradshaw, who must wear a neck brace for six weeks. "I got a CT scan, an MRI and they looked at all the possibilities of what happened. And then I reminded them that I had taken an X-ray of my neck two years ago and so they pulled that up and compared them. And they said there was a lot of structural differences; some of my vertebrae had fused together, which I guess was probably one of the reasons for the crack. That fusion put pressure above and below where there wasn't that much flexibility." Renowned for the ferocity of his tackles and his reckless style of play, Bradshaw might have been symptomatic of serious neck problems last season when he battled frequent stingers and suffered a concussion against SMU on Oct. 2. Bradshaw sat out the Owls' 44-24 loss at UTEP the following week, snapping a string of 30 consecutive games played. Bradshaw expressed no remorse for his penchant for administering bone-jarring hits. His tenacity forced the Rice coaching staff to take notice, and his productivity -- Bradshaw led all of Football Bowl Subdivision with 7.50 unassisted tackles per game in 2009 -- led to his entrenchment in the starting lineup. That Bradshaw also excels in the classroom only enhanced the legend. A second team Capital OneCoSIDA Academic All-American last season (3.44 GPA), Bradshaw is set to graduate in December with a degree in chemical engineering. "I have so much respect for him as a person and as a player," Solomon said. "He's a very disciplined player and a very disciplined person as well. He works so hard in every aspect of his life, and that's why I respect him so much, because he's that person that will work through anything to be successful, to get to the top. That's what made him such a good player, and that's why I want to honor him this year in this way." When Solomon broached the idea of honoring Bradshaw by wearing his No. 35, Bradshaw noted that while he was sidelined, he wasn't deceased. Solomon pointed out that helmet decals are for the dearly departed; his uniform switch represented the perfect manner in which to pay his respects for a teammate who will find alternate means to contribute. With 36 games under his belt (including 29 starts), Bradshaw has plenty of wisdom to offer a depleted secondary. The Owls will be without junior cornerbacks Jarrett Ben (shoulder) and Shane Turner (wrist) this season, and with Bradshaw disqualified, youngsters like Tanner Leland, Gabe Baker and Jaylon Finner are being quickly advanced at safety. With clipboard in hand and experience at the ready, Bradshaw has a new role. "I've been doing that the past few practices," Bradshaw said. "I can't be on the sideline right now but I get to watch, and when they come to their breaks I'll come talk to them and try to help them out. I think it's good to hear it from my perspective I'm doing what I can to help." In the present, assisting doesn't quite fill the void of hitting. What's remarkable about Bradshaw is that he committed so fully both on the field and in the classroom, and with football having been snatched from his grasps, Bradshaw is positioned to bolster an already outstanding GPA and walk an academic path that should be easier minus distraction. "Maybe in five years I'll realize that, but right now all I want to do is play football," Bradshaw said. "It doesn't seem fair, but I know in the long run I'll be alright and I'll understand it. It's just hard to accept right now." "Once you realize your career is over you just replay it all in your head. When I came here, I'm not going to lie, I wasn't expecting to be a starter and play for four years. I got lucky and I had some opportunities, and it's been really crazy." The loss of Bradshaw only adds to the holes on the Owls' defensive two-deep. Ideally Rice would have featured Bradshaw, Ben, junior linebacker Trey Briggs (knee) and end Cody Bauer (knee) on its depth chart for the season opener at No. 24 Texas. Instead, Owls coach David Bailiff is once again filling gaps on his defense with the likes of Leland, a sophomore walk-on, sophomore end Josh Skinner, and true freshmen like Finner, cornerback Malcom Hill and tackle Christian Covington. After opening camp boasting that, for the first time in his five seasons, he wasn't reliant upon true freshmen contributing, Bailiff is eyeing a small handful of newcomers to provide depth in the playing rotation. "Gabe Baker is back now. Leland is back, so we're getting some numbers back with guys that have been in the system," Bailiff said. "But at the same time Jaylon Finner is playing really well. Jaylon is playing like he's been here a couple years. He's big, physical, fast and has a great understanding. His football IQ is extremely high, and those are the kind of freshmen right now that you still don't have to play them but you may need to because they're pretty good." Follow me on Twitter at FSH_Owls