The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2023 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 7 "It definitely gets trained in our mind to stay focused, stay locked in and not let the little things slip by," he said. Herbert knows, when Michigan has won 25 of its last 28 games and is looking to take a leap to national championship caliber, the margins are so small. Any- thing that can give the Wolverines an edge is viewed as worth it. "We're locked in, but at the same time there's a lot of juice and a lot of fun be- ing had," Herbert — who head coach Jim Harbaugh calls U-M's "secret weapon" — explained. "It's not where everybody's so uptight. No, it's just, we take pride in the details and the consistency, because the better you get, the harder it is to get better. To sustain that, and not only to sustain that but improve upon it, it's a challenge. It's one that we welcome, but it's one that you better lock into the finer points. We're just always looking for new ways to bring attention to those finer points." It's a player-led assignment, too. There's a "laundry list" of Wolverines di- recting the effort, which is just how Her- bert likes it. "We all know coming in that we've got to work even harder this offseason, grind even more — longer hours — to be where we want to be," sophomore tight end Colston Loveland said. It's to the point where the coaches have had to hold players back from doing more instead of talking them into things. That mentality — set in part by former U-M defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who asked Herbert in 2021 to "wring me out" every day — has trickled down to the younger players, and it's an ongoing cycle. "Slowing a guy down and helping him find that sweet spot, rather than the non- motivated guy with no drive or desire, I have no issue with that," Herbert said with a smile. "Seeing our players, our staff, our coaches, it seems like there's even more cultural momentum [than the last two years]," Harbaugh remarked. "It's been fun to be around." Once the offseason wraps up, the only thing left is for Michigan to translate it all to the football field, where the losses to TCU and Georgia the past two seasons are motivators. "In those moments, we can't fold," se- nior edge rusher Jaylen Harrell explained. "In games like those, that's when we've gotta come together the most." ❑ MICHIGAN FOOTBALL Donovan Edwards Played With Undisclosed Injury In 2022 Junior running back Donovan Edwards played down the stretch with a hand injury that hampered his ability to catch and secure the ball. But the team needed him, and he never had any plans of sitting out after Blake Corum's knee injury cut his season short. But what was unknown is that Edwards played almost the entire season with a knee injury of his own. During the Wolverine Weekend event at Grand Traverse Resort on June 10, he revealed that he played on a partially torn patella tendon throughout the 2022 campaign. He suffered the injury in the game against Hawai'i in Week 2 but waited until the season ended to have surgery. The operation caused him to miss four months in the spring, but he is back to his healthy self and looking forward to the 2023 campaign. Edwards explained the ailments he had last season: "I had two screws put in my hand after I broke my thumb against Nebraska. What you guys did not know is that I played on torn patella the whole season. I had surgery in February. I've been rehabbing, and I'm up to par now running, cutting, doing all that good stuff. "That recovery wasn't going to take long. Four months to get to full speed and three months for me to feel good. I'm starting to trust myself now with cutting and getting to my top speed." Between the knee and hand injury, Edwards pushed through to make plays on the field for Michigan. It was never an option to do anything else. "I wasn't going to allow that to stop me. My leg would've had to have been cut off for me to not play," he said. "Same thing with the broken hand. They just put a cast on it, and I was just carrying the ball in my non-dominant hand. You just have to do what you need to do to come up successful and win the game." Edwards revealed that his surgery was done in the Metro Detroit area and that he has had no setbacks in his recovery. The Michigan back said now that both sides of his body are strengthened and good to go, he expects big things. "I always thought it was tendinitis, and it was just a little achy," he said. "I found out against Hawai'i. I had made a catch near the goal line, put my knee back and it just didn't feel right. I found out it was partially torn. "After that, I just continued to work around it and strengthen the thigh muscle. Now that I have strength in both of my legs, it's about to get dangerous." It will be exciting to see what a healthy Edwards can do in 2023, considering that despite his injuries he racked up 520 yards rushing (173.3 average) and 3 touchdowns in the final three games of last season. — Anthony Broome In addition to wearing a cast against Ohio State and Purdue to protect a broken thumb, Edwards revealed in June that he played the entire season on a partially torn patella tendon. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER