By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Elder's Kyle Koester runs the ball in this 2000 photo. (Jeff Swinger file photo) | ZOOM |

Kyle Koester thought he had lost the desire to play football. The former Elder High School star running back had a bad experience at Indiana University two years ago and left school in the middle of the season.

Monday afternoon he was back on the turf at Nippert Stadium, trying to resuscitate a once-promising career at the University of Cincinnati.

"Just watching football last fall made me decide that I missed it enough to want to get back into it," Koester said. "It feels pretty good. I'm starting to get back into shape. The hard part is learning the offense."

At Elder, Koester was a bruising 6-foot, 250-pound tailback whose punishing, straight-ahead running style more closely resembled a fullback.

He graduated from Elder in 2000 as the school's career (4,307 yards) and season (1,474 yards) rushing leader. He headed off to the Big Ten expecting to make an impact as a freshman.

Instead, he found himself standing on the sideline wondering if he had made a mistake.

"I didn't know what I was going to do really," Koester said. "I just wanted to get away from the game."

He transferred to UC, where he planned to play football, but found that the desire was waning.

Now Koester, who has three years of eligibility and will be available to play at UC this fall, has the desire again.

But he's far from a sure thing.

He says he weighs 258, down from 267 at the start of spring practice on April 2.

But UC head coach Rick Minter views him as a reclamation project worth pursuing.

"He's got a chance," Minter said. "We're way ahead of ourselves with him. Months from now, with conditioning and familiarity, he'll be in the mix. He'll give us a chance."