For SMU cornerback J.R. Richardson, the 2012 season was “miserable.”

Yes, the Mustangs made their fourth consecutive bowl game and have won three, including both since he arrived on campus in 2011. Richardson was part of the team both times, but was more of an outsider looking in in 2012, his season having ended during preseason workouts when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee.

J.R. Richardson said he plans to compete for a starting cornerback spot upon his return from knee surgery (photo by Travis Johnston).

“I jumped up (during a drill) and came down, kind of leaning to the left side,” Richardson remembered. “It kind of came out and then went back in. I knew right away (that the injury was serious).”

So after spending his true freshman season as the Ponies’ top kickoff returner and backup cornerback, Richardson showed up to the team’s preseason workouts in August expecting to start across from veteran Kenneth Acker, only to have his season end before it started. He watched his team play without him, offering advice and discussing assignments with his replacement in the starting lineup, junior Chris Parks.

Despite his injury, Richardson was doing his best to act like a team player … and hated it.

“(Parks) did a good job, but I’m a competitive guy. Of course I wanted to play,” Richardson said. “To watch someone else playing the position I wanted so bad … it got me mad.”

Before he could take out his aggression, Richardson had to work his way back to full health. Shortly after his injury, he had reconstructive surgery to repair the torn ligament. A couple of months on crutches were followed by increased rehabilitation work, a process that continues as students have returned for the spring semester.

Richardson, however, didn’t have to return to campus to continue his rehab … because he never left.

“I never went home for the holiday after the bowl game,” the native of Baton Rouge, La., said. “I’m not planning to ride the bench. Doing that this year … that was miserable.”

His family, Richardson said, didn’t begrudge his decision to remain in Dallas to continue treatment on his knee.

“They know what I’m trying to do,” he said. “They know I’m not here to watch. If I’m going to compete for that job, I’ve got to get my knee healthy.”

Richardson said he knows Parks won’t relinquish the starting job without a fight.

“Like I said, he did a good job this year,” Richardson said. “But he knows how competitive I am. I’m not saying I’m going to come back and take the starting job, but he knows I’m going to compete for it.”

The competition can not begin quite yet. Richardson said he is pretty much pain-free in his knee, but is not yet ready to return to the playing field.

“I’m running, but I can’t really cut yet,” he said, “and I hope to start jumping (this) week.

“I should be ready for spring ball.”

Part of Richardson’s personal funk came when he allowed himself to think what might have been for the Mustangs in 2012 if they had remained healthier. The fourth bowl in four years fulfilled a team goal, but there were those inside and outside the program who had hopes of a better regular-season record than the 6-6 mark the Ponies had before obliterating Fresno State in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

The team’s record, Richardson said, would have been better if the secondary had not been decimated by injuries. In addition to Richardson going down for the year before the season started, safeties Ryan Smith and Brett Haness had their senior seasons cut short because of a torn Achilles tendon and concussion, respectively, and freshman cornerback Horace Richardson was lost for the year with a knee injury of his own after playing in just one game.

“‘Smitty’ and Brett were important to what we do, and Horace is going to be really good,” J.R. Richardson said. “Every team loses people (to injuries), but it just seemed like we had guys in the secondary going out all the time. It’s hard to play defense when you have new guys in there every week. The guys who played did a good job, but you have to know the other guys back there with you. That takes time.

“We could have had a crazy-good year with our pass defense if we’d stayed healthy. I think I would have had a hell of a year — I’m just cocky like that and always believe that. ‘Smitty’ was having a hell of a year before he got hurt, too. He’s a fifth-year senior. He’d seen everything. Nothing surprised him, and he was making a lot of plays before he got hurt (Smith had 18 tackles and a pair of interceptions before he went down for the year in the fourth game of the season).”

Richardson said his rehab is going well — “I’m about a month ahead of schedule,” he said — and the admitted football junkie has found inspiration in another player who worked his way back in 2012 from a torn ACL of his own.

“I’m not Adrian Peterson, by far,” he said of the Minnesota Vikings’ star who came back from knee surgery to lead the NFL in rushing, falling just short of SMU alum Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. “But I believe I can come back like he did. If he can do it, why not?”

Richardson said he will be smart throughout his rehab, and will push the limits of strength and agility and pain tolerance in his repaired knee, but he won’t force the issue to the point of foolishness.

“I’ll practice with a brace in the spring,” he said. “But I don’t want to play with one. I’m not going to give another team an idea about my weakness.

“But it shouldn’t be a weakness, anyway. They say when you have an injury like mine, it’s stronger when you come back than it was before the injury. That’s what I’m planning on.”