Lee Evans will be back on the football field before the Big Ten season starts, according to the star receiver, and there won’t be any drop-off in his game either.

Two weeks ago, Evans told Wisconsin football coach Barry Alvarez he would play the way people remembered him playing. Alvarez repeated the words July 10 at Evans’ first public appearance since tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament.

“It’s not going to be three-quarters speed Lee Evans,” Alvarez said.

“It’s going to be Lee Evans.”

Evans spoke about the rehabilitation of his knee, which was injured during a reception in the Badgers April 20 spring exhibition, as well as his plans for recovery. Evans can jog and run routes, and he said he spends about six hours a day in the pool and weight room recovering strength and working on flexibility.

If Evans meets his goal — Wisconsin opens up its conference schedule against Penn State Oct. 5 ? it will be just over four months since his surgery, an exceptionally speedy return from an ACL injury. Doctors typically predict up to 6-8 months to recondition such a debilitating tear.

UW linebacker Broderick Williams came back from ACL surgery after four and a half months last season, but he was a non-factor on the field and said this spring he did not fully recover until after the year. Evans is confident he can expedite his rehab safely.

“I won’t rush it, if I feel I can be ready (earlier),” Evans said. “But if I’m not then I’ll wait. My plan is to be back by the Big Ten season.”

Should Evans not return earlier, he will miss five games of his senior year, including important matchups against Fresno State, UNLV and Arizona. Evans is the biggest impact player on Wisconsin’s powerful offense, which returns eight starters. He said his absence has let some younger players, like wideouts Jonathan Orr and Travann Hayes, get more reps.

“We’ve got some different things going in to try to expose some of the other people on offense,” Evans said. “I know how good we can be. It’s just a matter of me getting back and being part of the puzzle.”

Prior to his injury, the Big Ten single-season record-holder for yardage was considered a Heisman trophy candidate. Evans caught 75 passes for 1,545 yards as a junior and was the runner up for the Biletnikoff award for the nation’s best receiver.

According to the NFL’s scouting-day reports, Evans was the highest-rated returning player in college football. In January, he opted to return for his senior season at Wisconsin rather than enter the professional draft. Evans’ injury came on draft day.

Evans spoke with former teammates Jamar Fletcher and Chris Chambers, both are with the Miami Dolphins of the NFL, before making his draft decision. After his injury, he said he got a call from Oakland Raiders receiver and future Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, who underwent knee surgery in 1998.

“He gave me a call and he had heard about the situation, he gave me a little bit of advice and we sat down and had a nice little conversation,” Evans said.

“To actually talk to the person you idolized when you were little and grew up watching and idolize now? it was great.”

Evans had to wait a month for his torn medial collateral ligament to heal before undergoing ACL surgery. Dr. K. Donald Shelbourne reconstructed Evans’ knee by taking a piece of the right patella (kneecap) ligament and replacing it in the damaged left knee.

He said restoring flexibility is the most important step in his recovery right now.