(photo by SMU athletics).

Justin Willis said that at about the midway mark in the 2008 season, he finally felt like a wide receiver.

After two years at quarterback, Willis was moved to wideout last season, but admitted that he still felt out of place as he learned his new position.

“It took six or seven games before I felt comfortable,” Willis said. “The more I played, the more I understood what it took to play the position, and the more I got used to it.”

His breakout game was in the Mustangs’ season finale, when he caught a career-high 11 passes against Southern Miss. He followed that game by plunging into the Ponies’ offseason workout program — strength and conditioning coach Vic Viloria said Willis, who will be a fifth-year senior this season, was in the weight room almost every day, seven days a week, from the end of the season until spring practice, intent on retaining the starting spot he took over against Southern Miss and making himself one of the team’s top receivers in 2009.

In late March, Willis’s transition to receiver came to a sudden halt. Willis ran a crossing route in the Mustangs’ fifth practice of the spring workouts, and reached for a pass that was thrown slightly behind him. After making the catch, his shoes caught in the turf. When he turned upfield, his foot didn’t.

Justin Willis had his breakout game as a receiver in the 2008 finale, when he caught 11 passes for 88 yards against Southern Miss (photo by Travis Johnston).

Willis had suffered a “spiral fracture” in his right fibula, just above the ankle. Teammates stared, and then turned away before trainers wheeled him off the field.

“I felt the pop, and I knew something was broken,” he said. “I’d never broken anything … well, I broke my hand, but I don’t even count that. After I sat up and looked at it, I looked up at (wide receivers) Coach (Jeff) Reinebold and asked him how much practice I was going to miss. He just laughed and told me to lay back and relax.”

Willis had surgery the next morning. His doctor told Willis that it would be four to six months before he could resume running, an estimate Willis said he assumed was generous, because “I heal fast.”

Willis spent a few weeks in a hard cast, followed by two more weeks in a protective walking boot, after which he began a rigorous rehabilitation program that included extensive stretching to help break up scar tissue, exercising with resistance bands, elliptical workouts and running on a trampoline and in a pool.

Willis started running last week, and said he can sprint, as long as it’s in a straight line. “Going sideways is pretty good,” he said, “but it’s weak.”

Once he is cleared to resume cutting while running, Willis said he anticipates that his workout regimen will get him ready to join his teammates when the Mustangs report for preseason workouts in early August.

His pre-injury offseason workout regimen changed Willis’s physique, making him leaner, and he continues to work about five hours a day, either on his rehab or watching film … or more often, both. Now, while his teammates run in the summer heat in the team’s optional offseason workouts, Willis is working out on his own as he tries to get ready for practice in August.

“Toward the end of last season, I got really comfortable (at wide receiver),” Willis said. “Then the workouts I did in the offseason changed my body — it will help me at receiver. At quarterback, it’s not like I took plays off, but you don’t have to sprint on every play. You hand the ball off some, you have quick passes that get the ball out of your hands.

“But at receiver, you don’t get that — you’re running on every play. So I was working our harder than ever. I was getting more toned. I feel like more of an athlete now.”

His injury notwithstanding, Willis said he has no doubts he’ll be ready to play this fall … starting with the season opener.

“I’ll be ready for two-a-days — that’s for sure,” he said. “The guys (on the team) know I’m working hard to get back. I’m working out from 10-3 every day, and then going out and catching balls. The team knows I’m behind ’em, and that I’m going to do everything I can to help.

“I can’t wait to be back out there, and I can’t wait for the season. I don’t have the time or the patience or the desire to wait. I’m ready to get on it — I’m ready to win.”