On Tuesday, redshirt sophomore tailback Jarek Broussard was named the 2020 Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. Broussard, behind an 813-yard, 6.3-yards per carry campaign over just five games, also earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors.

With a stellar 2020 season and a growing list of seasonal accolades that very likely will continue to grow now under his belt, Broussard gains more in common with his position coach, Darian Hagan.

Hagan, of course, is a Buffs legend who requires no introduction.

Quarterback of the I-Bone Colorado offense from 1989-1991, Hagan led the Buffs to three straight Big Eight Conference titles during that time, as well as back-to-back appearances in the Orange Bowl for the 1989 and 1990 seasons.

Hagan in 1989 rushed for 1,132 yards, threw for 1,002 and scored 21 total touchdowns (17 rushing, four passing). For his efforts, he was named that year's Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year.

By the time Hagan had wrapped his career at Colorado, he held countless program records and had been recognized twice as an all-Big Eight offensive performer.

Hagan also knows a thing or two about bouncing back from significant injury, something Broussard has become well-familiarized with.

Heading into this season, Broussard as a redshirt sophomore had missed the entirety of the 2018 and 2019 campaigns after signing with CU's Class of 2018 due to two ACL tears, both to the same knee.

Thus, for Broussard to have rehabilitated himself twice over from a brutal knee injury, only to step up for CU in the condensed 2020 season and put up the stats he did — that in and of itself earned him kudos from Hagan.

“To say how proud I am of Jarek, how far he’s come — the kid’s been through a lot, (with) two consecutive knee injuries, and for him to fight, with the desire and the heart, I’m just so proud of him and his perseverance," Hagan said. "I’m just so proud of him, I’m happy and he’s deserving.”

Hagan himself suffered a torn knee ligament in the middle of Colorado's eventual Orange Bowl win over Notre Dame on New Year's Day, 1991.

Reports at the time, as Hagan prepared for surgery, questioned whether he'd be able to play football again and if he did, if he'd be ready for the that year's upcoming fall opener vs. Wyoming.

While Hagan, an option quarterback, and Broussard, a true tailback, played different positions in very different offenses, the brutality the injuries they sustained plus the long recovery process that comes with it is one thing that hasn't changed over the decades.

In Hagan's case, he suffered his injury at the pinnacle of his collegiate career and had to wonder shortly after surgery what role he'd be able to play for Colorado in 1991, with the Buffs experiencing the most success in program history.

The Buffaloes as a team won their third straight Big Eight title with Hagan back and healthy in 1991, but fell short of performing at a national championship caliber level.

Hagan, for his part, passed for 1,128 yards and 12 touchdowns while rushing for 563 yards and three more scores as the Buffs went 8-3-1 and lost to Alabama in that year's Blockbuster Bowl.

Overall, Hagan bounced back nicely, finishing his CU career with a 28-5-2 record as starting quarterback.

For Broussard, a former three-star recruit coming out of high school, his post-surgery thoughts following two repairs to the same knee must have been heavily preoccupied with the question of whether he'd ever see a collegiate down.

Having been down the road that stems from a ligament tear and ensuing recovery, Hagan was able to offer Broussard some advice when the latter was about to begin his own rehabilitation.

“Well, I just told him he needed to be all in," Hagan said. "He needed to listen to the trainers, go above and beyond what they told him in order to get back to where he was previously. And that’s what he did. He went all in."

The way Hagan put it, even after his first tear and surgery, Broussard had a particularly nasty road to recovery.

By the time he tore his ACL again preceding the 2019 season, it ensured he'd have to go into overdrive, once able to, in order to strengthen his repeatedly-injured leg.

"Before he hurt his knee a second time, the knee that he hurt again, he had atrophied it really bad and it was smaller than the healthy leg," Hagan said. "Once I told him he needed to go above and beyond and make sure that the injured leg was the same size if not bigger than the healthy leg, then you’re cooking with gas and that’s what he did. The results are proof.”

Broussard, ever the gentleman, deflected praise when asked to react to winning the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year award.

“It’s really dope for me because it’s finally cool to see all the hard work pan out but I really want to (credit) my offensive linemen because they really paved the way to help me get the opportunity," Broussard said on Tuesday.

Hagan, with 30 years of posterity to reflect on his CU days, doubtless is one of the most dynamic players to come through Boulder — a true Colorado football Mount Rushmore figure.

Broussard, as he progresses through his college career, now has one stellar statistical year and a likely soon-to-be boat load of accolades to go with it.

Hagan's legacy is entrenched and singular, while Broussard's is in the making and incomplete.

But with both players having risen above career-jeopardizing injuries, there is something within them that is cut from the same cloth.