Last September, right as the COVID-19 carousel — regarding whether or not the Pac-12 Conference would play a 2020 season — had stopped spinning, redshirt sophomore tailback Deion Smith's year was prematurely shelved.

The Pac-12 announced it would play a condensed 2020 season on Sept. 24 but unfortunately for Smith, he would have little time to celebrate before tearing his ACL four days later.

From there began the grueling rehabilitation process, one Smith underwent leading into CU's spring ball, in which he was a limited participant.

Rehabbing from an injury as significant as an ACL tear can be described as a lonely affair, something Smith seemed to resonate with when reflecting on his own journey.

“I struggled with just finding a medium," he said. "Of course, you feel super far from the team. I’m not here practicing with guys every day, I’m not here in the locker room with them for hours — I come in, do my treatment and rehab and by the time that happens, practice is over. So, I was missing a lot."

Smith was able to rejoin the Buffs for spring ball but did not participate in any scrimmages or contact sequences, instead focusing on individual drills with position coach Darian Hagan.

To Hagan's credit, he laid out a regimen for Smith that helped him match physically recovering from his injury with the mental part of the equation.

"I feel like I got most of my confidence back in spring ball when I was doing individual drills with coach Hagan," Smith said. "Coach Hagan would make drills specifically for me to make me feel better and make me feel comfortable cutting off of my foot and planting off of it."

"A lot of the spring individual drills were catered to getting me feeling comfortable. Now it’s more of stacking good days or practice, building confidence and getting back into the rhythm of playing football again.”

Smith is far from the only player within Colorado's tailbacks room to have dealt with injuries.

Junior Alex Fontenot missed the entirety of the 2020 season as well while sophomore Jarek Broussard has battled back from two ACL injuries himself.

Seeing Broussard bounce back to win Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year honors after his own struggles with injuries was something Smith took note of during his own recovery.

"Honestly, last season, what really made me feel better was seeing my roommate, Jarek, go out there and have success," Smith said. "That really motivated me because he went through the same thing I went through."

"We’ve been together since I first got here, so I feel like that was more of a motivating factor — if he can do this, I definitely can. I just had to stay positive.”

Broussard is expected to lead CU's running backs and build off his stellar 2020 season but almost certainly his carries will be trimmed down from the nearly 26 per game he had last fall.

Who will be taking those handoffs behind Broussard is the question currently facing Hagan, Karl Dorrell and Darrin Chiaverini.

With Fontenot and Smith healthy again, plus freshmen Ashaad Clayton and Jayle Stacks in addition to sophomore Joe Davis, there certainly are a lot of options.

"There's enough guys to where they can have a role — they come in, they're fresh and they provide a spark," Hagan said. "I really think we have a room that's really, really talented and given the dynamics of the room, everybody can have a role."

The crowded nature of CU's tailbacks room has created a highly competitive environment, one that Smith enjoys being a part of.

“Our groups looks good," he said. "We’re a close-knit, tight group and I feel like we’re family. Every time we get on the field, hit the practice field — no matter what field we come to, I feel like the guy in front pushes the guy behind. It motivates us, like, ‘OK, he just came in and made some plays, (now) I’ve got to go in and make some plays out of my reps.’ We all push each other and make each other better."

"I like the room that I’m in. I like the competition because I feel like at the end of the day, it makes me feel better.”

Smith said that his knee isn' giving him any problems and that he trusts it when it comes time to make a cut or plant it firmly on a run.

That said, he stopped short of describing himself as being 100% back to where he was pre-injury.

Most of that has to do with continuing to get back in the swing of things at practice but make no mistake, by the time of Colorado's season opener on Sept. 3, Smith plans to have all thoughts of his ACL tear in the rearview mirror as well as being a guy that coaches want to give the football to.

“I feel that drives me even more because I’m behind," he said. "Realistically, I’m behind and I have to catch up. Every day, I have to come in, focus on the little details and all the small things and do everything I can, every time I come out here, just so I can close that gap a little more, little more, little more.”