Preparation for an upcoming season is hard enough. Getting ready while recovering from a significant injury is even more difficult.

For the second time in as many years, that’s exactly what SMU wide receiver Kyle Guinyard is facing.

.

Guinyard’s senior season at Ennis High School was cut short when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee. He worked diligently to get back into shape, and became a valued member of the Mustangs’ scout team in 2010.

Then, in mid-November — “just when I was getting my speed back,” Guinyard said — he tore the ACL in his right knee.

“We were doing a kickoff coverage drill,” he said. “I was breaking down to try to make a tackle, and I could see it was going to be a reverse. I planted my foot to change direction, and the knee just shifted and I felt something pop.”

Guinyard said he knew right away what had happened. His season was over, and he faced another offseason of rehab.

The true freshman is working hard. He walks with no apparent limp, and said his knee feels good. He said doctors have told him it will be another month and a half before he is cleared to run straight ahead, and three months before he is cleared to jump and cut and take part in football drills.

Kyle Guinyard tore his left ACL as a senior at Ennis High School (photo by Ennis High School).

Guinyard said that the rehab process after his first injury had him worried that he might never regain his full speed. The fact that he did regain his full speed shortly before getting hurt this time was encouraging, he said, because it reaffirmed the while the rehabilitation process can be long and arduous, it does work.

“I think it helps that I went through this before,” he said. “I know what to expect now. I know it’s a lot of work, and takes a long time, but I think I can get all the way back to being as fast as I used to be.”

Before his first knee injury, Guinyard said he regularly ran a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash. While he remains confident that he can regain that speed, he does wonder whether his recovery this time will be as complete as it was after his first injury.

“I think about ‘what if I can’t jump as high, or what if I can’t run as fast?’” Guinyard said. “But I’ve done it before. I know that when the time comes, I have to put in the work and I’ll be OK.”

Guinyard admitted that watching his teammates play for the Conference USA title and in a bowl game was frustrating, even though he was redshirting the 2010 season.

“In high school, all I wanted was to win a (state championship) ring,” he said. “I got hurt, and we didn’t win it. So it didn’t work out in high school, and I just focused on college. I’ll still get (an Armed Forces Bowl ring), I think, but I didn’t play.

“But we’ll get to more bowl games. I’ll be back for those — I’ve just got some more work to do.”