After rushing for 813 yards in just five regular season games last fall, a performance that earned him Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year honors, suffice to say that Buffs sophomore tailback Jarek Broussard more than proved himself healed following his recovery from the second ACL tear of his football career.

Even so, Karl Dorrell and Darian Hagan would joke with him frequently for getting tracked down short of the endzone on a few long breakaway runs he had during the 2020 campaign, a result, they ribbed him, from the brace holding him back.

Eventually, Broussard was going to take the brace off, but per Dorrell, he did so almost immediately after Colorado's loss in the Alamo Bowl.

Through the Buffs' winter workouts until now, two days into CU's 15 spring practices, Broussard has been without the knee brace.

“Ever since we started offseason (workouts) he hasn’t worn it," Dorrell said. "He’s got rid of the Linus blanket and I haven’t seen it since the season. He’s been training this whole offseason without it. He looks fabulous, he looks faster — which is what we all anticipated he would be without a brace — he looks good. He shed it after the Texas game and I haven’t seen it since.”

One torn ACL is grueling enough in terms of the injury and recovery that follows but suffering multiple ACL injuries adds a new dimension to it all.

That's the reality Broussard faced, as he tore his ACL for the first time during his senior year at Bishop Lynch High School in the Dallas/Ft. Worth suburbs, and again in September of 2019, ending his redshirt freshman year at CU after a promising performance during that spring.

At any rate, the damage Broussard did to opposing defenses in 2020 more than confirmed he had physically recovered from his second ACL tear.

Now, shedding the protective knee brace affirms he's taken a new step in the mental part of recovering from the injury.

At least, that's the perception from the outside looking in: when the leg brace comes off, it seems indicative of the injury being more and more in the rearview mirror.

For Broussard, he felt confident running with it on and even more so now that he's getting a feel for his abilities without it.

“The confidence is already there — I was never really worried about the brace, but just going throughout the winter workout period, I did it all without my brace on," he said. "I feel like my cuts are pretty fluid, I feel faster, so the confidence I feel like is going to get better.”

As last season ended and winter workouts began, Broussard took time to dissect what he did on the gridiron through Colorado's six-game season.

Now, he can compare how a few days of organized practices have gone for him without the brace on.

“Looking at film from last year, I noticed the brace restricted me in a lot of things," he said. "This spring, I’m going without the brace to how to see how different (it is). I feel a lot better, I feel a lot faster, so right now, it’s going good.”