It takes a village to repair a knee.

Here’s a great story from Mark Schlabach about Nick Chubb’s recovery process.

Part of what’s amazing is all the different things that went into bringing him back.  And part, of course, is Nick Chubb.  When the two collide, here’s what you get:

Courson also used an experimental training method to help rebuild the muscles in Chubb’s left leg. For the first time, Courson used Kaatsu blood-flow restriction training to help a Georgia player recover from injuries. Japanese doctor Yoshiaki Sato invented Kaatsu training in 1966, but it wasn’t widely used in the U.S. until recently. U.S. skier Bode Miller used Kaatsu training to help him recover from a bad leg injury.

A thin, pressurized ban was wrapped around Chubb’s left leg to restrict the amount of blood flowing back to his heart. As a result, his injured leg was engorged with blood, filling his capillaries and muscle fibers while he worked out.

When Courson initially explained how Kaatsu training worked, he told Chubb that Georgia’s trainers were going to push him until he reached muscle failure.

“Do you know what that means?” Courson asked him.

“No,” Chubb said.

“He had never experienced muscle failure,” Courson said. “Our biggest issue was slowing him down. Some people do rehab; he attacked rehab. I told him early on, ‘Don’t come in here and just do your time. Get everything out of it you possibly can.’ He worked so hard.”  [Emphasis added.]

I doubt Courson really had to do much urging there.

You gotta love Kirby’s immediate reaction to seeing Chubb being Chubb.

When Courson sent Smart a three-second video of Chubb running a cones course, in which he was cutting and sprinting between the cones, Smart replied: “Should he be doing that?”

“I didn’t know,” Smart said.

Who would?  Hell, we watched Chubb’s work ethic for a couple of seasons and still doubted he’d make it back as quickly as he did.  But in the end,

Georgia’s coaches certainly weren’t worried about his overall strength. According to Courson, Chubb is still one of Georgia’s strongest players. He squatted more than 600 pounds (strength coaches wouldn’t let him lift additional weight) and he also had the longest broad jump and heaviest power clean lift of any UGA player.

“Nick takes his body so seriously that he was never going to be out of shape,” Smart said. “I think the guy was so aggressive in rehab that he came back stronger. He put on weight and he’s heavier. He seems just as fast.”

There’s only one thing left for Chubb’s villagers to do.

Chubb didn’t have as much success running behind Georgia’s revamped offensive line in his next two games. In a 26-24 victory over FCS foe Nicholls on Sept. 10, he ran 20 times for 80 yards with one touchdown. In last week’s 28-27 win at Missouri in the SEC opener, he ran 19 times for 63 yards.

On Saturday, Chubb hopes to write the next chapter of his remarkable comeback story at Ole Miss.

“It’s unreal,” Smart said. “The guy is not normal. His heart beats to a different drum than everybody else. People like him eat challenges. He needs it, wants it and desires it. If you put something in front of him, he’s going to handle it.”

Let’s get to blocking, o-line.