Arizona football: Wildcats tight end Brion Anduze medically retires

In the very first spring practice of 2016, Arizona Wildcats tight end Brion Anduze suffered one of the most gruesome leg injuries anyone in attendance had ever seen.

It ended his 2016 season, and on Wednesday, Anduze announced it ended his career in a tweet.

After much prayer and talking with my family, I have decided to step away from the game of football due to medical reasons. My heart aches because of so much love I have for the game but I must do what is right for my health and for my future. I’d like to thank Coach Rich Rodriguez and all of the coaches for giving me the opportunity to play at The University of Arizona, and my teammates for their support and the fans. I will still be involved with the program by helping with the strength staff for this upcoming season. BEARDOWN.

Anduze injured just about everything in your knee that you can on that fateful play in Arizona Stadium. In a Q&A with the Daily Star’s Michael Lev back in January, the would-be redshirt sophomore tight end thought at the time that his career might be over:

“Of course. That always goes through your mind sitting in your bed – you can’t really do anything.”

However, he also said that he was on target to be full-go by this summer.

Before the injury, Anduze had garnered plenty of praise from his coaches and teammates, and seemed like he would be the guy to finally get the tight ends more involved in the Arizona offense.

Right now, Arizona’s tight ends are led by Trevor Wood. Jamie Nunley and Bryce Gilbert also appear to be on track to contribute in the near future. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this group after getting moved into the running backs meeting room and having Calvin Magee in charge of the position that he himself played in college and in the NFL.