Ricky Can Still Do This Number

Does this sound like a familiar refrain from the Ricky Williams saga?

“He’s left the door open, but he hasn’t given us any indication of whether he’s coming back or not.”

That was said not by Coach Nick Saban, whose Miami Dolphins will have Williams at the ready for today’s game at Tampa Bay, but by Marc Halpern, director of the California College of Ayurveda, where the free-spirited running back spent much of his unexpected hiatus from football.

It seems that Williams, who does not always finish what he starts, has completed one-third of his studies and still has about a year to go. Whether he’ll ever return is anyone’s guess.

“We’re in loose contact with Ricky,” said Halpern, whose school is in Grass Valley, near San Diego, and teaches holistic healing. “We’re not out of contact, but we’re not following his every move and he’s not checking in with us on a regular basis before he goes left or right.”

The Dolphins, however, are very interested in which direction Williams runs, whether it be left, right or straight ahead. They’re 2-2 and are facing the 4-1 Buccaneers, who have previously done a masterful job of shutting him down. In two games against Tampa Bay, Williams has averaged 33.5 yards rushing.

Today, he comes in cold. He returned to practice this week after serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s drug policy. Although he played during the exhibition season, he was precluded even from attending meetings when the regular season began.

During the down time, he worked out at the Dolphin facility with a personal trainer, running through the same drills as his teammates, except on an otherwise empty field.

“I think the work that he’s done while he’s been suspended has also earned him respect,” Saban said.

The Dolphins are coming off a pathetic 20-14 loss to Buffalo in which they racked up a franchise-record 18 penalties. Williams is expected to split time with rookie Ronnie Brown, last spring’s No. 2 pick who has gained 229 yards in the last two games. The two backs also could be on the field together.

“We got a little taste of Ricky in the preseason, so we know what he brings to the table,” said Tampa Bay defensive lineman Chris Hovan, whose team lost that exhibition game, 17-14. The Buccaneer defense ranks first against the rush, giving up an average of 61.6 yards.

Williams told the Dolphins he didn’t intend to speak to reporters until after the game. Meanwhile, Saban did what he could to temper high expectations for the player who led the league in rushing in his last two seasons.

“We don’t have an expectation for him,” the coach said. “We’re just going to take it from where it is and build for 12 games.”

Williams reported to training camp at 213 pounds, 12 pounds lighter than he was in 2003 during his last full season of football, but Saban said Williams had added “a little” weight and seemed to be just fine.

Shortly before Dolphin training camp in 2004, Williams abruptly walked away from football. He later said that one of the reasons for his leaving was that he knew the league was going to suspend him for using marijuana. He decided to rejoin the team this year in part because an arbitrator ruled he owed the Dolphins $8.6 million for breach of contract.

Now, it’s his former school that’s up in the air about whether he’ll return.

Halpern, who runs the college that’s so small it’s in a strip mall, said Williams’ relationship with the school was just like that of any other student on a leave of absence.

“I don’t look at him the way a football coach would look at him,” Halpern said. “I don’t see a football player when I see Ricky, I see a person.”

So, what will Halpern be doing today?

“I’ll probably check in on the game,” he said.

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Miami rush

Ricky Williams returns to the Miami Dolphins today against Tampa Bay. Rookie Ronnie Brown has started the first four games of the 2005 season and carried the ball 74 times for 321 yards (4.6 avg.). A look at the Dolphins’ average yards rushing per game over the past five seasons:

*--* YEAR YPG NFL RANK * 2001 104 23rd * 2002* 156.4 2nd * 2003* 113.6 17th * 2004 83.7 31st * 2005 118.5 13th

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* -- with Ricky Williams Source: STATS LLC