Former Clemson and current Green Bay Packers wide receiver Amari Rodgers knows a thing or two about recovering quickly from an ACL injury.
That’s why former Clemson running back Chez Mellusi reached out to Rodgers, Mellusi’s former teammate at Clemson, for advice on recovering from his own torn ACL.
Mellusi, who transferred to Wisconsin last spring ahead of the 2021 season, suffered the season-ending ACL injury in Wisconsin’s win at Rutgers on Nov. 6.
Mellusi is sidelined during the Badgers’ spring practice, which started last week, but hopes to be ready to play when Wisconsin’s season opener against Illinois State rolls around on Sept. 3.
As he tries to make that happen, Mellusi sought advice from Rodgers, who tore his ACL in March 2019 but returned to action 166 days later in the second week of the season vs. Texas A&M on Sept. 7, 2019.
“I kind of wanted to know what he did, what his regimen was,” Mellusi said Monday, via the Associated Press. “He told me the things he did. I was really interested in learning from him about that.”
Mellusi, who played for Clemson from 2019-20, had 815 yards rushing and five touchdowns in nine games last season prior to the season-ending injury.
Rodgers, after returning to action in 2019, was named honorable mention All-ACC at both wide receiver and all-purpose slots after catching 30 passes for 426 yards and four touchdowns while also rushing twice for 50 yards and a touchdown and contributing 18 punt returns for 151 yards (8.4 avg.).
That year, Rodgers won the Brandon Streeter Award, named after the former Clemson quarterback and current quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator, which is presented to the Clemson student-athlete across all sports who overcomes injury to excel on the field.
–Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
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