LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDRB) — CJ Baxter knew something was wrong because of the silence.
Practice never stopped at Texas. It was constant motion. Fast-paced. Get lined up and go.
Then Baxter went down.
"I knew something was wrong because we stopped practice," he said. "And all I heard was cars passing by, and it was quiet."
Sometimes you remember pain. Sometimes you remember sound.
Baxter remembers the cars. They were still moving. For the first time he could remember, he wasn't.
Football has been part of Baxter's life since he was 4 years old. He became the No. 1 high school running back in the country, a 5-star prospect from Orlando who could have gone almost anywhere and chose Texas.
He'd spent his life running past people. Then in August of 2024 he tore the LCL and PCL in his right knee during practice and suddenly couldn't walk without crutches. He couldn't drive. For a while, he couldn't take a shower by himself.
"My girlfriend was literally going to softball, leaving practice early to drop me off to go do PT," Baxter said. "I had a point where I couldn't take a shower by myself. So that was, like, you know what I'm saying, very humbling."
For someone whose physical ability had opened nearly every door in his life, his body suddenly wouldn't perform the most ordinary tasks.
He spent two months on crutches. The rehab was excruciating at times. He remembers lying on his stomach while someone bent his knee back toward him, trying to restore its range of motion.
"There were times … crying," Baxter said. "It was that bad."
But there was another kid of pain.
Right after the injury, Baxter couldn't even travel to the games. The kid who had never really missed a football game since he was 4 suddenly was sitting on a couch watching.
"I'd be like, dang, I want to be out there," he said. "Not like in a jealous way, just the competitive nature in me. Like I want to be out there, making plays for this team and these guys."
His father was there for him, but not always. And that was intentional.
"He was like, 'I'm not going to let you be alone, but I'm going to let you get through some stuff on your own,'" Baxter said.
His father's reasoning makes sense to him now. Someday Baxter might have a wife and children and others who depend on him. There would be adversity his father couldn't fix.
So there were moments Baxter had to endure. And there were moments when his father came. His mother was there. His girlfriend. And his faith was there.
These days, Baxter talks often about the book of Job. He said the injury tested his faith and ultimately strengthened it. But he identified with the Biblical man who lost so many things in life. This past May, back home in Orlando, he was baptized by his high school pastor near the school where his football career took off.
CJ Baxter in a game against Rice in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 2, 2023.
He figured it would be a small ceremony. Family and a few coaches. Instead, much of the community showed up. By then, Baxter had come to understand his injury differently.
"I'm not thankful it happened to me," he said. "But I'm thankful for what it did for me."
The injury gave him perspective. It tested his independence. And it made him think of adversity not as something that singled him out but as something that comes to everyone at some point.
It also made a 5-yard run seem like a touchdown when he did finally return to the field. He was anxious about that return. Everybody wanted to know about the knee. He did too.
Specifically, he wanted somebody to hit it.
"I remember the first hit," he said. "I was more excited to get hit than score a touchdown. Like, I wanted to get hit."
The play gained maybe five yards. Baxter got tackled, then he got up.
"All right," he remembers thinking. "I'm good. I can still do this."
But his comeback at Texas never quite became the one he imagined. Baxter returned last season but suffered a hamstring injury and missed more time. Even after his comeback, he was far from 100%. Eventually, he entered the transfer portal.
He didn't arrive at Kentucky having forgotten the player he had been. Quite the opposite. When Baxter visited Kentucky, he sat in coach Will Stein's office and told him exactly what he thought.
"I firmly believe I was the No. 1 running back in the country for a reason," Baxter told him. "I was like, I need to restart, and I think this is the perfect place for me to restart."
Notice what Baxter said. Not rebuild. Just restart.
For its part, Kentucky doesn't need Baxter to become somebody else. It needs him healthy enough to discover how much of that No. 1 running back is still there.
Offensive coordinator Joe Sloan has watched Baxter work toward that point. Baxter has dealt with some smaller physical issues, enough that Kentucky has been cautious with him, but Sloan said Baxter has handled the process "like a pro."
"You've got to stay up, right? You've got to stay engaged," Sloan said. "And he's done a really nice job as he's worked himself back into being fully healthy, of really staying locked in and being prepared for the season coming up."
Sloan also acknowledged that Baxter's history will factor into how Kentucky uses him. The Wildcats have Javonte Barnes and depth at running back. There's no reason to ask Baxter to carry the ball 30 times in September just to prove he can.
There's a long season ahead, and this past Saturday brought another encouraging step.
Baxter did not take part in Kentucky's first fall scrimmage, but Stein said he looked good in pre-practice work and is expected to progress further this week.
"CJ was out there pre-practice, looking really good," Stein said. "Our training staff and our return-to-play staff really like where he's at, so he'll start getting more real practice in this upcoming week."
For Baxter, that means moving closer to the part he's been waiting for: full contact.
He told Stein during the transfer process that his goal is to play 16 games – or however many Kentucky will play – without setbacks.
At media day, he said he was 100%, and ready to get hit again.
"I haven't been hit since Thanksgiving last year," he said. "Texas A&M … We get hit every play."
There's something to be said for a guy who is grateful even getting hit.
He remembers lying on a Texas practice field, hearing nothing but cars going by. They kept going. Eventually, so did CJ Baxter.
And now he's come to Kentucky for a restart, carrying the confidence of the player he was and the perspective of everything that has happened after.
He was, he'll still tell you, the No. 1-rated running back in the country for a reason.
For the first time in a long time, he's healthy enough to try to remind everybody why.
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