Jarek Broussard earned a huge opportunity in Week 1 with a strong camp

BOULDER – The Colorado backfield isn’t as congested as it was a week ago, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing.

CU announced Monday that starting runnning back Alex Fontenot – the Pac-12’s second-leading returning rusher – will miss the first game of the season with an undisclosed injury. Fontenot sustained the injury late last week and head coach Karl Dorrell said he hoped to get Fontenot back this season, though he didn’t have a timeline for reporters.

With Fontenot out, sophomore Jarek Broussard is listed as the Buffs’ starter. Broussard, a 5-foot-9 jitterbug, has never taken a snap for Colorado, primarily due to a pair of torn ACLs. He was the favorite to be the Buffs’ receiving back last season prior to the second injury, in camp.

“Going through the knee injury again, it was kind of easy considering it was my second time,” Broussard told reporters Wednesday. “I kind of knew I was going to have to put in all of the work.”

At this point, about 14 months into his recovery, Broussard feels as good as new.

“If you play scared, you might end up getting hurt,” Broussard said. “Whenever I step on a field it’s just, like, normal; I never had no knee injuries.”

Chiaverini, the Buffs’ offensive coordinator and receivers coach, recruited Broussard out of Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Texas in 2018. Running backs coach Darian Hagan was involved as well.

Darrin Chiaverini agrees with Broussard’s assessment that he seems to be back to normal.

“When I watched Broussard live in high school, I thought he was one of the best zone runners I’ve seen at the high school level,” Chiaverini said. “Obviously he’s had a couple injuries since he’s been in Boulder, but he’s healthy now and I always tell him all the time he looks like the old J-Brou.”

The old J-Brou would be a nice addition to this CU offense, especially with Fontenot sidelined for at least the first week of the season.

“He’s smooth,” Chiaverini said of Broussard. “He’s really tough in protections. He’s got good ball skills. I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people when they see J-Brou running the ball. He’s a really, really good running back.”

Broussard has been the brightest star of camp, with rave reviews coming from every direction. Hagan went so far as to call Broussard the Buffs’ best home-run threat since Rodney Stewart, who graduated in 2011. Stewart is Colorado’s second-leading all-time rusher.

But Broussard won’t have the backfield to himself and sophomore Jaren Mangham is the likely thunder to Broussard’s lightning early in the season.

“That’s really good because they can’t really gameplan one guy,” Broussard said. “It’s two guys, one’s bigger and one’s smaller.”

At some point, true freshman Ashaad Clayton is likely to become a significant part of the mix. Clayton was banged up throughout camp and didn’t get as many reps as the team may have liked, but he’s wildly talented.

“He’s getting back to full speed and he’s got a next level gear,” Chiaverini said of Clayton. “He’s got some special things going on.”

There’s no guaruntee that Broussard will hold onto the lead role past this weekend, but his work in camp was enough to earn the first snaps of the season.

“My biggest mindset was just being consistent,” Broussard said. “Everything else just kind of worked itself out after that.”

If he keeps that mindset, Broussard could come up huge for Colorado in 2020.