Nine months ago, Zac Etheridge’s neck was stabilized by an awkward halo contraption, the aftermath of his scary neck injury sustained Oct. 31 against Ole Miss.

The only thing around Etheridge’s neck today when he spoke with reporters was a beaded necklace with a hanging cross.

To say Etheridge, who was cleared today by doctors to resume his football career, has come a long way, would be a gross understatement.

Etheridge spoke for a solid 10 minutes, his spirits obviously buoyed by the positive news. Here are the highlights.

(Think you’d get good news?)
I actually did. I’ve been looking forward, counting down the days, because I felt very, very good about what the doctor was going to say today and obviously it turned out great.

(Any real suspense. Know you’re going to get cleared?)
Actually, I didn’t. He was looking at the x-rays the last time I went. He was a little nervous at first, but this time he really didn’t have no nervousness in what he saw today.

(Could you have ever imagined ...)
The day it happened, there was a lot more on my mind than just thinking about football then. But it’s been a great journey, just going out there, laying on your back a couple days in the hospital, you seem to think about a lot of things, and that was one thing I found myself doing is thinking about a whole lot of things.

(Ready for contact right away or slow process)
Whatever the medical staff’s got planned, it’s a slow process. You can’t just go out there and start hitting everybody, which I would love to do. But they’ve got a plan that I’ve got to follow by and get myself ready for the season.

(Change outlook on football)
It’s changed a lot. You know, you always hear the coaches tell you, ‘Go hard. You never know when your last play will be.‘ And at that moment, just knowing that that could have been my last play of ever playing football again. But just getting the opportunity to go out there and go at it again, it’s just a tremendous opportunity that god has blessed me with. And I’m just looking forward to my teammates, they can feed off my energy every day in practice.

(Think about life without football?)
All the time. I thought about it. My family, coaches, we all talked about it. That’s something that they talked to me about, saying football wasn’t everything and you could move on. But with the passion I have for it, it’s hard for me to say no to the game. But what I found myself thinking about a lot is just being a coach. I told myself that I can coach and teach younger people how to play the game.

(Special for you and Aairon Savage to be making comebacks at the same time?)
It’s very special. Me and Aairon, we hang out every day, we do a lot of things together, just feeding off each other. He’s been through the process before I did and he helped me get through it a lot just motivating me all day. All last week he said I know you’re going to get the clearance. He just kept me positive about it because I stayed up late at night thinking about it some days but he’s been one that’s been there the last couple weeks keeping me positive about it.

(You’re at a higher risk?)
Anyone that breaks something and the type of injury I had, he said a 2 percent higher risk than anyone else. For him to say 2 percent, I feel like I can take that chance and leave it in God’s hands to keep me healthy and protected.