Michigan LB Junior Colson on playing through injury: 'I broke my hand, I finished the job'
LOS ANGELES — Michigan Wolverines football junior linebacker Junior Colson was named the team’s toughest player at its awards banquet last week, and it’s hard to argue with that one.
Colson, who’s played with a cast on each hand in recent games, revealed Thursday ahead of the Rose Bowl that he broke the fourth metacarpal in his hand during the Wolverines’ 41-13 win over Purdue in Nov. 4. He didn’t come out of the game and still ranks second on the defense in snaps.
“I broke my hand, I finished the job,” Colson said of the first half of the Purdue game. “I felt it when it broke. It was early in the drive. I told [graduate linebacker] Mike B[arrett], ‘I think my hand is broken.'”
Here’s how the rest of the conversation went, per Colson:
Barrett: “What do you mean?”
Colson: “I feel like my hand’s broken, bro.”
Barrett: “You sure? You want to go out?”
Colson: “No, let’s finish this drive.”
“We finished that drive,” Colson continued. “I went and told my coach, my hand’s broken. He was, like, ‘huh?’ ‘My hand’s broken.’ And then we call [head trainer] Phil [Johnson] over and all that stuff. He filled out my hand and he said we have to go get X-rays on it.”
Colson said he came back out for the second half with a cast on, before seeing the doctor the next day.
Junior Colson on playing with a club on
Colson hasn’t seen a drop-off in production since suffering his hand injuries. In fact, some of his best games have come in the last three, with a combined 27 tackles in victories over Maryland (8), Ohio State (11) and Iowa (8).
“It’s weird, especially the first couple of games,” the Michigan standout said of playing with a club. “It’s weird tackling. The club goes all the way around here. You can’t wrap around people. It’s weird.
“Every type of hit you felt your hand move a little bit. ‘I hope a bone’s not broken now.’
“Just playing in it, mostly try not to focus on it too much. The more you focus on your hand the more it affects your play. I just had to go out there and, especially during practice, just change the way I tackle and change the way I hit people in certain ways, which has been good for me.
“Being able to learn to tackle different ways, being able to learn, especially in season certain things, I think it’s been huge for me for my growth as a player.”
Colson also adjusted to playing at an increased weight this season, up 12 pounds to 247 as listed on the U-M roster. However, he naturally shedded some of it during the season.
“It was like two-week span, just experimenting,” the Michigan linebacker said. “Test it out, especially early on. I’ll test out 250. I’ll test out during camp. Test out 250, test out 245. Certain games, okay, [with] my speed, I might need to be bigger, a lot of games I’ll play at close 250, 247. Right now I’m at 235. It just changes because I’m able to fluctuate my weight so well and keep everything the same, same strength, same speed. So as soon as just gotta test it out throughout the weeks and see which one you best fit at.”
