University at Buffalo wide receiver Jovany Ruiz-Navarro, a Fredonia High School graduate, is hoping to be healthy by Sept. 3, the Bulls’ season opener at Maryland. Photo courtesy of University at Buffalo Athletics

AMHERST — Three-hundred and thirty-eight days.

It didn’t take long for Jovany Ruiz-Navarro to come up with the number Tuesday afternoon.

Its significance? The number of days since Ruiz-Navarro took his last snap for the University at Buffalo’s football team.

Ruiz-Navarro remembers it like it was yesterday.

With less than five minutes remaining in the Bulls’ second game of the 2021 season, Ruiz-Navarro caught a 6-yard pass from quarterback Kyle Vantrease at the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium. As the 2016 Fredonia High School graduate attempted to cut, his cleat got caught in the turf leaving his knee in a vulnerable position as he was tackled by the Cornhuskers’ Myles Farmer. Ruiz-Navarro jogged off the field and didn’t learn his fate until the following morning.

University at Buffalo wide receiver Jovany Ruiz-Navarro, a Fredonia High School graduate, is hoping to be healthy by Sept. 3, the Bulls’ season opener at Maryland. Photo courtesy of University at Buffalo Athletics

With four catches for 33 yards in the game and seven catches for 109 yards and a touchdown in the first two games of the season, it was supposed to be the start of a productive final campaign for the fifth-year senior.

Instead it was the end of his season. Ruiz-Navarro had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. A lengthy rehab process was ahead.

Again.

This wasn’t the first time Ruiz-Navarro had faced adversity. In fact, there’s rarely been a time he hasn’t faced adversity.

“If my life went to the plan that I wanted,” Ruiz-Navarro said Tuesday, “I’d be in the NFL right now and I would’ve been out of here two years ago.”

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In 2016, the former high school quarterback for the Hillbillies walked on to the track and field team as a freshman at UB. A year later, he decided to take a crack at walking on to the football team. He made the squad and redshirted.

Ruiz-Navarro played a little bit on special teams as a redshirt sophomore in 2018. He was confident 2019 was going to be his year to step into the spotlight as a wide receiver. A torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee during the final two weeks of training camp ended that hope.

Ruiz-Navarro returned for the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season and was finally awarded a scholarship by then-head coach Lance Leipold on Christmas Eve.

“I’ve just really been blessed to get the opportunity to get the education, scholarship or not,” he said. “Earning that scholarship really helped me financially, but I’ve always just been super excited to be part of UB, a great academic school.”

He had big plans for the 2021 season and added Navarro to his last name.

“I grew up with my mom’s family and I really wanted them to see on TV, that’s my last name. They were the ones who really were there for me every single step of the way,” Ruiz-Navarro said. “I love my dad and I love my dad’s family, but Navarro is really the family that allowed me to be here. I wanted to show respect to them and honor them in that way.”

Then, in the blink of an eye, his 2021 season was over.

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Most guys would given up on their dreams in their seventh year of college and sixth on the football team.

Ruiz-Navarro wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.

Already with a bachelor’s degree in public health and a master’s degree in finance in his back pocket, the son of Jose Ruiz and Maria Navarro decided to study for a master’s in educational studies.

“Jovany is working on his third degree right now,” second-year Bulls head coach Maurice Linguist said Tuesday. “That kid is getting everything you can get out of a scholarship.”

His ACL surgery and rehab a success, Ruiz-Navarro began preparing for the season when he tore the meniscus in his right knee in May. Earlier this month, with recovery nearly complete, he retore the same meniscus.

After watching teammates take part in spring practices and summer conditioning, Ruiz-Navarro was back at square one, rehabbing an injury.

“There’s been days when I come here and I don’t feel like I’m part of anything. I’m not part of the practice or not part of film. It’s really hard to keep that motivation and discipline to come here every day with a positive attitude,” Ruiz-Navarro said. “I’ve been engaged, taking mental reps and doing everything I can to stay on top of everything.”

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Still, Ruiz-Navarro joined his 109 teammates for Media Day on Tuesday inside the Murchie Family Fieldhouse with a smile on his face.

Now sporting the No. 8 instead of the familiar No. 87 he wore in years past, he and his teammates got their picture taken in the bleachers at UB Stadium before spending some time with local reporters discussing the upcoming season.

And that’s what’s important to Ruiz-Navarro. There WILL be an upcoming season.

“Eighty-seven, I kind of told my story with that and had a couple of injuries with it. I kind of wanted to move forward and go with a new number, a new identity,” Ruiz-Navarro said. “I feel like I’ve been through a lot. I’m a new person. I have a new story. I wanted to tell that new story with a new number, No. 8 now.”

Coaches and Ruiz-Navarro believe he will be ready for the team’s opener in just over two weeks at Maryland.

“He’s mentally strong. He’s a very mentally tough young man. You don’t see him miss a heartbeat in terms of the way he interacts with all of the guys. He’s encouraging. He’s extremely positive,” Linguist said. “We know the situation. We have to get him healthy. He’s in a great mental state of mind. He’s working toward that.”

Maybe Ruiz-Navarro will be ready Sept. 3. Maybe he won’t be ready until Sept. 10 at home against Holy Cross, or maybe not until the following weekend at Coastal Carolina.

“He’s going to make plays for us this year,” Linguist said. “He’s going to contribute this year, we just have to get him back ready to go and get him going.”

It may take a few more weeks to get healthy and Ruiz-Navarro will instead help fellow wide receivers get ready during the week and on game day.

“He does a great job of showing guys the ropes and leading guys, and being a great example for all of the younger guys and older guys as well,” said quarterback Cole Snyder, a 2018 Southwestern Central School graduate. “He’s a leader of this team and everybody knows it.”

Eventually, Ruiz-Navarro will play this season.

“Sept. 3 is my goal, but I take it day by day. I’m going to do my best today to be ready tomorrow,” he said. “If for some reason I’m not ready Sept. 3, then I know that I’ll be ready down the road. Any way that I can help the team is amazing. If I can help out the younger receivers in any way, then that’s me winning a game as well.”

Ruiz-Navarro also believes he can play following this season. His dream has always been to play in the National Football League.

“My goal at the end of this is obviously to give myself an opportunity to go to the NFL and have a mini camp,” Ruiz-Navarro said. “Just like I was a walk-on here, I know most likely I won’t be drafted unless I have an amazing season. I’m ready for that. I’m ready to be picked up and taken to a camp. I know what it takes to beat out anybody in my way. I’m excited for the future, but more than anything I’m excited for the season and winning a championship with this team.”

Wide receivers KJ Osborn and Anthony Johnson were players that Ruiz-Navarro shared the wide receiver room with in suburban Buffalo in years past. Osborn now plays for the Minnesota Vikings while Johnson saw time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers before signing with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League this spring.

Ruiz-Navarro believes he can do that.

It’d be hard to tell him no.

“I am a little older and I’ve been here a little longer, but I decided to stay back to try and reach my dream,” Ruiz-Navarro said. “Every day I’m here is a blessing.”

“I think there should be a book written about Jovany Ruiz,” Snyder said. “His perseverance, hard work, determination, you name it and he has it. His story is incredible.”