BATON ROUGE — Stevan Ridley will be hanging around LSU’s campus all summer but not to get ahead in school.

Ridley is on a daily rehabilitation program for his right knee, which underwent surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament March 27.

The redshirt sophomore fullback had hoped to come home for the summer to relax with family and friends, but instead, the football coaches at LSU have him working with trainers and doctors daily in order to get him healthy in time for the season.

The Tigers first game is Sept. 5 at the University of Washington.

“They’re doing all of this so I can get back on the field,” Ridley said. “That’s the best move for me right now. They’re training me really hard right now.”

Ridley is working with LSU Director of Athletic Training Jack Marucci, who has him doing leg extensions and curls in the weight room and running both an underwater and a regular treadmill.

He’s also been doing a lot of bike riding.

“A lot of the work is on my hamstring and my quad, because those get really weak,” Ridley said. “I’m in the rebuilding stages right now, and I’ll start running in a week or so.”

Ridley said his doctor told him he was ahead of schedule, and light jogging and walking doesn’t hurt.

He even tried to swing a golf club this past weekend, and when it didn’t hurt, he got excited.

“It really felt like nothing was wrong, so I asked my doctor if I could start playing (golf) again,” Ridley said. “But he said I need to give it about six more weeks before I could start doing that. That’s disappointing, but I guess I’m not quite ready for that.”

Ridley said he will be in Natchez some weekends to visit his friends and family.

Since Ridley is stuck in Baton Rouge all summer, he will be taking summer school classes.

But because he finished the spring semester with a 3.0 grade point average, Ridley said he doesn’t have too busy a summer ahead of him in the classroom.

“I’ll have a month off from school, and I just decided to relax and train and lift weights,” he said. “I just want to continue to be ahead of schedule.”

He also said the community back home has been checking up on him a lot recently.

Trinity football coach David King said he tries to talk to Ridley once a week.

“Being in the condition that college athletes are in now, I think his recovery is going to be real quick,” King said. “College athletes now have the best healthcare in the business. He’s had that personal trainer standing over him every minute, so he’s got the best-case scenario.”

Ridley, whose only other injury was a broken foot in eighth grade, said he’s excited that the knee is virtually pain-free when walking and jogging. But he’s still disappointed that he cannot play around or go out as much as he would like.

But he said as much practice as he’s missed, he isn’t worried about being behind when the season starts.

“The biggest thing for me will be getting back in shape, but I’ll be ready to go in due time,” he said. “I expect to be 100 percent by halfway through the season at the latest, but I know I’ll be playing by the beginning of the season.”