Jarek Broussard, along with Kentucky's Kenneth Horsey and Coastal Carolina's Silas Kelly, have been named the three annual recipients of the Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Year Award.

For Broussard, it's a nice addition to the impressive list of seasonal accolades he has already racked up, including Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-Pac-12 honors.

After first suffering an ACL tear to his left knee coming out of high school, Broussard redshirted in the fall of 2018 , his freshman season at Colorado, while he continued to rehab.

The following August, he suffered his second ACL tear — to the same knee — and was thus sidelined for the entirety of the 2019 season, as well.

While it's true to say that six or so months ago, much was uncertain with the Buffaloes: how their first-year, late-in-the-game hire at head coach Karl Dorrell would do as well as who, out of the thin depth chart, would start at quarterback.

The way Dorrell put it, back in March, he and his offensive assistants, when it came to Broussard, were primarily focused on whether or not he'd even be able to play this fall and if so, how he could factor in as a depth piece for the tailbacks room.

“I remember back in March, we weren’t sure if he’d be ready by the fall; he wasn’t ready to participate in spring practices had we been able to have them,” Dorrell said. “He was one of those guys that was just on the peripheral of our thoughts, and it was, 'We'll see if he's ready for camp, where he would be in our depth chart, things like that.'

“So for that scenario to happen back in March and how we ended camp, he was our best player in that position. He's come a long way, from where we weren't sure if he was going to be healthy enough to play to becoming the conference’s player of the year, a first-team All-Pac-12 performer and now one of the three comeback players of the year. A truly great story of perseverance.”

But of course, a fall camp injury to expected starter Alex Fontenot changed everything and Broussard wound up being the most impressive performer out of the entire group leading up to the Nov. 7 season-opener against UCLA.

In fact, that might be putting it lightly. From both player and coach testimony, Broussard was running circles around CU's defense in practice and scrimmage situations.

Of course, it took quite the dedicated approach to rehabilitation to make that happen, something Broussard's position coach Darian Hagan aimed to help with as much as possible.

“Just watching him with the ball in his hands — we had nobody on our defense who could tackle him,” Hagan said. “I knew that he had that special trait that you want as a running back. Then, unfortunately, he gets hurt again. I sat down with him and told him he needed to be all-in with his rehabilitation, and that he needed to make his injured leg bigger and stronger than his healthy one. He took it to heart and everyone can see the results.”

When the dust settled after Colorado's 55-23 loss in the Alamo Bowl at the hands of Texas, Broussard had rushed for 895 yards through six total games on the year.

Today, Broussard is celebrating his award along with his fellow players and coaches around him that helped make it happen.

“First and foremost, this is a team award,” Broussard said. “I really need to recognize and thank the support I received from my coaches and teammates, especially my offensive line, and all the people in sports medicine who were with me throughout."

"They all believed in me. Even making a finalist for this prestigious award showed that all the hard work coming back from two knee surgeries was worth it, and winning it is truly special.”