Buffs' Moretti Has Never Stopped Working On Comeback Trail
March 20, 2018 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — When the Colorado Buffaloes began spring ball, it had been roughly 19 months — two full football seasons — since Buffs redshirt freshman Jacob Moretti had put on pads.
For a young man who has been playing the game for almost as long as he can remember, it was an eternity.
But last week, after multiple surgeries in the wake of a horrific knee injury, after countless hours in the weight room and more time than he'd care to remember watching his teammates practice, Moretti put on the pads, pulled his helmet over his head and felt the familiar "thud" of a full-contact drill.
It was a moment he won't forget.
"It kind of felt like a dream," Moretti said. "It's been a while waiting for it to happen … it felt pretty good, to be honest. Just getting back out there and practicing on Folsom — that was cool."
No doubt.
Moretti, a highly recruited offensive lineman at Pomona High School in Arvada, suffered his knee injury early in fall camp of his senior year. He immediately underwent surgery and missed the 2016 season.
But Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre and his staff never quit recruiting Moretti, and their efforts paid off. Moretti chose Colorado, then enrolled at CU in the spring of 2017, aiming to speed up his rehabilitation as much as possible while also getting into the weight room.
His reasoning was simple: if he couldn't practice, he could still lift weights, be around the program and soak up as much as possible in that regard.
It was a difficult process, to say the least. There were setbacks along the way that required more surgery. He missed the entire 2017 season. There were days when progress was hard to measure, days when it didn't seem as if he was making headway — days when the idea of putting the pads on once again seemed like a distant dream.
But Moretti never wavered, never thought about calling it a career. He had decided early on that he would set the terms for his football career.
"It was tough for me having my senior year taken away from me," Moretti said. "But I didn't want that to be the way football ended for me. That was my motivation. The weight room was a getaway for me at the same time, which was nice. I was able to put work in toward my goal and it was a place to clear my mind and forget about everything going on."
Moretti's progress in the weight room was outstanding. He worked on a daily basis with director of strength and conditioning Drew Wilson and his staff, not only regaining the strength that he lost after surgery, but adding more muscle and bulk to his frame.
"I told Jake when he got here that we would have zero expectations," Wilson said. "I always keep it that way. It's not that you don't want him to play, but this is new territory for him, new territory for me in terms of dealing with an athlete with his injury. So we started from scratch and went from there."
Moretti never missed a workout. He attended film sessions, listened to coaches, watched practices — when he wasn't in the weight room — and stayed connected in every way possible.
"It was very difficult, but at the same time I was very lucky," Moretti said. "I was still able to graduate early and come to CU. I wasn't able to practice and play, but I was still in the team environment. I was still with the team every day, still with the coaches, still learning — and in that way, I was still part of the game. I was very fortunate in that way."
Meanwhile, Wilson and his staff pushed while Moretti's work ethic — his drive to get better in whatever way possible — never faltered.
"Our plan was to take what we had and keep working, keep pushing," Wilson said. "We knew there were going to be pitfalls once in a while. We knew it wasn't always going to be, 'Go, go, go, nothing bad ever happens.' But when they hit, we deal with them and then we move on. Take each day as it comes, and Jake understood that. He just kept pushing."
Moretti said he couldn't have done it without the CU strength coaches.
"I'm very lucky to have the strength staff we have," he said. "They've done an awesome job with me. They've been huge in my recovery."
Along the way, there were lessons to be learned. As Wilson said, there were pitfalls, unexpected setbacks. But through it all, Moretti said he made himself learn from those moments.
"At the end of the day, it stunk — there's no other way to put it," Moretti said. "But you have to pick up that silver lining, and to me, it was a growing experience. You have to find those. While I was miserable, there were a lot of things I learned from it. … Maybe more than anything, it taught me how much I really do appreciate the game of football."
Moretti started the spring participating in some individual workouts. CU's trainers closely monitored his progress and he gradually increased his workload.
Finally, last week, he engaged in some full-speed contact. He participated in a handful of plays one day and a few more the next. When he won a one-on-one drill, the entire team cheered his progress.
Then, in Saturday's scrimmage, he played about 20 snaps at left tackle with the No. 1 offense, again bringing a smile to everyone around.
"It's exciting to see it, not only as a coach, but I'm really more excited just for the kid, for all he's been through," MacIntyre said. "His dad came to practice the other day, his high school coach — you could just see the glow in their eyes that he's having a chance to play. It's exciting."
By no means is Moretti's road to recovery complete. The process — "It's been baby steps, the entire thing" — is still ongoing.
But now, at least, there is light at the end of the rehab tunnel. He has stepped back on the field with positive results.
"A lot of kids would have retired," Wilson said. "They would have hung it up and said, 'This is too much.' It's been a long road. But that's not who that kid is. When he put those pads on and finally hit somebody, you feel good for him. You get excited for him. You're living a little through him because all of us were working with him. I think everybody was happy for him."
Now, Moretti said, the plan from this point on is the same as it has been since he arrived — keep pushing and hopefully see the field next fall.
And remember to take each day at a time.
"Obviously I still have a lot of work to do," Moretti said. "But I would love to see Folsom Field again. In terms of practicing, I plan on being out there. I know there are no guarantees — that's what all of this has taught me — but I'm going to keep working as hard as I can to get as far as I can. That's been the plan all along."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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