The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/589596
rest of the way, 21-7. The 42-28 loss stripped away Michigan's dreams of an upset in Hades' Hallway, ended the Wolverines' bowl hopes and proved Brady Hoke's last game as head coach. For one Wolverine, an additional gut punch followed. The anterior cruciate ligament in Johnson's left knee had betrayed him. Again. He'd been through identical dizzy- ing news much earlier in his career, been through the long road back, the doubts and the pain. Now, he almost couldn't believe it. "I find out it's torn," he recalled. "They tell you and you're like, 'What? Dude, come on.' "It was about 8 o'clock in the morning, and I remember I went on a drive for about an hour. I was in my feelings for one hour. That's all. That's it. One hour of pity. I was like, 'You know what? This sucks.' I was enveloped in my sorrows for one hour." That's when the songs washed over him. Music to fit his mood. The End Of The Road. "I just went on the highway," he re- called. "I was listening to slow jams. No tears. A lot of blank stares …" The irrepressible product of Ann Arbor's own Pioneer High couldn't stay in a daze long, though. It's not him. He's often told he's overly op- timistic, and seemed wholly unfazed when recruiting stargazers shrugged at the news of him coming across the street to play big-boy ball in The Big House. In this moment, an upbeat nature