Reintroducing Latrell Caples
Alex Semadeni
Latrell Caples felt like he was on top of the world following the 2022 Frisco Bowl.
The Lancaster, Texas native was a massive reason why the Broncos defeated North Texas that night. Caples caught six passes for 87 yards en route to a 35-32 bowl game victory over the Mean Green. The win capped a breakout season for the redshirt sophomore, who led the team with 549 receiving yards on 51 catches. Caples also caught four touchdowns on the year.
With two years of eligibility remaining, Caples entered that offseason with a growing desire to etch his name among the Bronco receiving greats. He worked tirelessly, both in on-the-field workouts and in the weight room, hoping to build upon the standout season he had as a sophomore.
“I’m thinking that I had it all figured out at that point,” Caples said. “I was playing for a team that wins. Being able to go out there and carry on the Boise State tradition was great. I still felt very young and felt like I had a lot of room to grow. It was great just being able to get my feet wet that year. I was ready to get better. Football was fun.”
Those desires were put on hold in an instant, when during a normal summer workout on The Blue, Caples went down.
“It happened in the south end zone,” Caples said. “From the stands it was by the left pylon closest to the Fiesta Bowl signs. We had already done the rep twice. I was the first person in line on the last rep. I tried to take off and it popped and I fell. I heard it because it was so loud. Initially, for some reason I just thought someone dropped a water bottle on my foot because of the pop. I’m looking back, confused, trying to figure out what happened.
“Everyone is shocked and just staring. No one is saying anything. I’m on the ground at this point just looking back trying to figure out what happened. I remember looking for the water bottle. I tried to get up a little bit, and I look at my foot and realize I can’t really feel it. I knew what happened after that.
“It was my Achilles.”
Caples had friends who had suffered Achilles injuries before, so he knew instantly what had occurred. He was quickly helped into a truck and driven inside the athletic training room. Within 20 minutes, the athletic training staff informed him he had ruptured his Achilles and would be missing the 2023 season.
“I instantly started crying,” Caples said. “I knew that was the season. There was no chance.”
Caples called his mom, who coincidentally was celebrating her birthday, to break the news, fighting back tears in the process.
Garrett Holle, now the assistant athletic director for sport performance, health and wellness, had been on the job for less than two weeks as an assistant athletic trainer at the time.
“That’s one of those things that you know pretty much right away,” Holle said. “You know that you’re going to miss the season. What’s tough about those kinds of injuries is you feel all that weight in one moment. It’s not like he gets hurt and you have time to digest that before finding out how much time you’ll miss. It punches you in the face all at once. It’s a lot to handle for a guy that was looking forward to being the guy in the upcoming season.”
The news of Caples’ injury spread quickly throughout the building. As Caples sat in the training room working through tears, a majority of the offense came in to offer their support. The word traveled to the defensive side of the ball as they entered the facility to begin their day, including safety Rodney Robinson, who had become best friends with Caples since the two were roommates as freshmen.
“I walked into the training room and he just had his head down in his shirt crying,” Robinson said. “I walked in and I instantly started crying too. I was just sitting down in the room with him. I didn’t really say too much in the moment. We were just sitting there crying with each other really. That just broke my heart seeing him like that.”
Amidst all the consolation from the team, Caples was fitted with a boot. As the team began carrying on with its daily routine, Caples moved to the players lounge to wait for the team doctor to come by for an official diagnosis. He cried himself to sleep while waiting alone in the lounge.
After the doc came by and confirmed the diagnosis, Caples’ headspace was all over the place.
“It was a whole whirlwind for me,” Caples said. “I was so emotional. I didn’t even want to see football, I didn’t want to be around it, I didn’t want to watch it. It was like that for a week and a half. I didn’t want to have a lot of guys coming up to me saying that it would be alright. At that time, I didn’t feel like it was alright. I was about to miss a whole year after coming off a pretty good year in my eyes. It didn’t feel good at all. Those first two weeks were rough.”
Robinson saw his best friend struggling and was intentional about helping his former roommate as much as he could.
“I tried to pick him up every day in the morning,” Robinson said. “I helped him get up the stairs. He could barely walk and he lived two stories up. Every time I was going to pick him up in the morning I had to hold his crutches just for him to get down the stairs.”
Holle, who hadn’t had a long-term rehab assignment at Boise State before, was tasked with constructing the rehab plan. He distinctly remembers working through the initial acceptance phase with Caples.
“He was hurting, as he should be,” Holle said. “Anyone that’s going into season-ending rehab should be. In that early phase, there’s not a whole lot of motivation or interest in doing a whole lot of anything. All you can really see is that you’re not able to go until next year. There’s plenty of time between now and then to get after it.”
Caples admits the first month he really struggled with motivation. He had dealt with minor, nagging injuries that has caused him to miss some games during his tenure as a Bronco, and was questioning his own desire to continue to play the sport he excelled at.
“There were times where I didn’t even want to play football anymore,” Caples said. “It was a real depressing time the first month or two. I did a good job faking it. I faked the energy.”
Throughout that first month, Caples was on the receiving end of sympathy and well-wishes, from grandparents, his family, his coaches and teammates. He appreciated the care, but he wasn’t ready to hear it. About a month after the injury occurred, something snapped within him.
“One day I just finally accepted the fact that it is what it is,” Caples said. “I have to rehab and at least try to get it better. I just had to accept that it wasn’t going to happen this year. I started focusing on getting better. I wanted to get stronger, more explosive and really try to get the Achilles back. I started wondering how good I could get when I am able to come back. I had everything that I needed. I just had to believe in myself and keep being persistent.”
“There was a sense of denial at first,” Holle said. “He didn’t want to be here. Latrell’s an incredible person. In that early phase it was tough. You saw a whole different beast come out when he accepted it."
Caples committed fully to the rehab, prodding his athletic trainer with questions and techniques. Holle continued to find ways to push the wideout, utilizing numerous tricks in his bag to keep Caples’ competitive streak alive.
One example: Aaron Rodgers, the famed quarterback of the New York Jets, suffered an Achilles injury during the opening drive of the Jets' season-opener in 2023. A few weeks later, Rodgers publicly stated his intentions to return to the field at the end of the season. A Rodgers comeback would mean a 20-week timeline, an aggressive goal for a return to play.
Holle, however, used Rodgers’ eagerness to come back as a motivational tool, without the concern of rushing Caples back to the field. Holle challenged Caples to meet every rehab checkpoint that Rodgers was attempting to complete.
“I had the ideal scenario where I didn’t need to put him on a quick timeline,” Holle said. “I could be very specific and intentional and check every box that I wanted. We were able to get very granular and specific in how we returned him. I think it’s paid off for him. It’s a six to eight-month journey to take him from that tendon that was tore in half to being able to be a top tier athlete like Latrell is.”
Holle made sure that Caples checked off a variety of range of motion data including force-generating capacities, change of direction and sprint metrics. On the back end of his rehab, Holle wanted Caples to hit the same level of high-speed running that he was used to prior to the injury.
Another strategy that Holle implemented was progress videos. The duo was methodical about filming nearly every rehab session. Holle would use those videos later on in the rehab process, when Caples was feeling down about his progression.
“I saved those in my back pocket for days where he has come a long way, but he didn’t feel like he had it that day,” Holle said. “I’d pull out my phone and show him something easy that early on in his recovery he made look extremely hard. He usually couldn’t believe how much progress he was actually making.”
As his Achilles continued to heal, Caples maintained a healthy balance with strength and conditioning. He would fill his morning with upper body workouts before entering the training room with Holle.
“The rehab portion was like another lift,” Caples said. “It was like a summer lift for legs and calves. Garrett has so many different things I can’t even explain it. I was basically getting two workouts in. Especially when I was able to start jogging and running. Garrett didn’t waste any time.”
During the rehab process, Caples got close with offensive lineman JJ Talo, who was rehabbing a knee injury he suffered in the spring. The two, whose paths hadn’t crossed much previously, aided each other back to full strength during the recovery process.
“We were in that training room every day and every practice, trying to get back on that field,” Talo said. “We were there on days that we did not want to do anything. When I didn’t want to do anything, Latrell pushed me. He would do stuff and I would see it and it would compel and inspire me to follow in his footsteps. That’s the kind of leader Latrell is.”
As Caples continued to make progress during rehab, the season continued on. Game days were tough for the wideout, but he was determined to find a role to keep himself engaged. He immersed himself with the Bronco faithful, routinely cheering loudly on third downs as he witnessed firsthand the passion of the fans at Albertsons Stadium.
“It was good being able to see the fans have so much energy out there,” Caples said. “Our fans get all into it. How can you not have energy when you see their passion? Coming out to that was good. I just tried to help as much as I can. I tried to be one of the rowdiest guys on the sideline for them on third downs. I was trying to get everybody going. I was really just trying to help the crowd. I was just there to cheer them on at that point.”
Caples began running again in November, and was able to cut shortly after. He had reached full-speed around the bowl game, and participated in a majority of the winter workouts. By the time spring ball rolled around, Caples felt back.
“I wasn’t able to cut on a dime or make a defender miss until we got to spring ball, when we were actually playing football,” Caples said. “I think it was our first practice on The Blue, I had a really good practice that day. It was our first or second day with full pads and I had a really good touchdown in the corner. I finished with two touchdowns that day. I really felt back in place. After that the dust was knocked off. That’s when I knew I was back, back.”
His confidence only grew over the summer, as he continued high-intensity workouts at top condition. That momentum carried over into fall camp, where his consistent performance helped his poise. His highlight came during a scrimmage on the second weekend of fall camp, where he finished with seven catches for 184 yards, including a 98-yard touchdown reception.
“Being consistent in fall camp helped a ton,” Caples said. “I felt like I could play in every game this season and be able to be a star receiver. The second scrimmage was a big accomplishment. Hearing the compliments from my teammates were great. Knowing they could trust me like that was awesome.”
As Caples fully embraced the recovery process, he began setting his sights on the 2024 season. He knew what he was capable of on the field, but in this program, the leadership off the field had to match.
Caples started internally, deciding to alter how he approached the game by committing more of his time in the film room.
“I started preparing on a different level,” Caples said. “Before my injury it wouldn’t matter to me what the dude is doing in front of me. Now I take real time into watching film so that I can know what I’m getting on certain downs. I’m studying how the guy in front of me is playing me. I bought into the culture more. That year made me feel like I was playing for more than myself.”
Caples also began holding teammates accountable for the way they approached each and every day in the building. From the defensive side of the ball, Robinson noticed the change in leadership from Caples.
“He does it now on a day-to-day basis,” Robinson said. “He doesn’t really say too much when you’re handling your business. But once you’re not handling the little things that we know we should handle, that’s when he tends to step up and speak to things that need to be spoken to. He’s definitely stepped up and taken that role. The injury added fuel to the fire. That’s what molded him to be the leader that he is today.”
Holle believes the most impressive part of Caples’ rehab wasn’t the physical side of his recovery, but the type of person that emerged from the injury.
Keep going ??
— Boise State Football (@BroncoSportsFB) August 7, 2024
Latrell Caples has been named to the Comeback Player of the Year Watch List ????
?? https://t.co/LnffDVDVl5#BleedBlue | #BuiltDifferent pic.twitter.com/xEsnYuVSfZ
“I’m super proud of how he’s handled the journey,” Holle said. “Latrell came from a place where he wasn’t in a position on the team where he was a voice, a leader. Through this journey, all of a sudden, he’s not just a great player. He’s a guy you need on your team because he drives the culture and is a leader. He’s an even better person since starting the journey. That’s what I’m most proud about. Not only did he grow physically, but he grew mentally to being one of the top leaders on this team. It’s pretty cool.”
Caples’ presence, and what it brings to the team’s offense, was on full display during the Broncos’ first two contests of the 2024 season. In his first game back since the injury, Caples caught five passes for 81 yards against Georgia Southern. He caught five more passes for 51 yards against the Ducks, while also returning a pair of punts for 21 total yards.
“It felt great going out there,” Caples said. “I had fun out there. An Achilles isn’t the easiest thing to come back from. I feel like I’ve come back. A lot of people tell me I look better than before which is great. I feel better too. During that time, I was able to rest my body. I feel way better.”
Holle, who has gotten extremely close to Caples through the rehab process, was ecstatic to see Caples return to the field.
“It’s the best part of this job, for sure,” Holle said. “Those are the moments. I’m running up to Latrell and giving him a big chest bump. That’s months and months and months of, ‘I told you so. We’re going to get there. Have faith. Believe.’ In those moments it can all come out.”
With some time to reflect, Caples is extremely appreciative for Holle. He credits him for helping him work through accepting the injury and pushing him beyond just the rehab itself.
“He pushed me,” Caples said. "It felt good to have him there too. He allowed me to grow in my process and help me rehab better. We’re really close. He’s a guy that I listen to and respect. We’re really connected on a deep level.”
“We got really close and we still are really close,” Holle said. “That’s a relationship that I really cherish. He’s come such a long way. He’s someone that I count on a lot when it comes to having this room ran and look the way I want it. I got to learn a lot about Latrell. He’s a great guy with an awesome personality. He knows my family. My kids will run up and say what’s up to him. That’s cool.”
Now that Holle has seen the production in person over the first two weeks of the season, he can’t wait for Caples to go do it in front of Bronco Nation.
“He’s going to have a big game on Saturday on The Blue and you’re going to see me run up and maybe even headbutt him,” Holle said. “It depends on how crazy I’m feeling. The fans should be excited. He’s going to have better and better games as we go because he’s Mr. Consistent. He’s a guy that you go to when you need something and he’s going to go make the play.”
There’s still one last thing on Caples’ checklist to recovery: play in front of the fans he got to witness firsthand from the sidelines a year ago.
“It’s going to be exciting to play in front of our fans,” Caples said. “It’s different when you know there are people out there cheering for you. You can make a little kid happy or a grown man happy just because you’re out there playing the game you love. It’s just so great to be able to play for a program like this where the fans care so much."