Skip to main content
michigan logo

Michigan football: Junior Colson on improved poise, 'Mahomes throws' from J.J. McCarthy, more

Anthony Broomeby:Anthony Broome•08/12/22•

anthonytbroome

Michigan linebacker Junior Colson
Michigan linebacker Junior Colson was a freshman All-American in 2021. (Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Michigan football’s defense has plenty of gaps for starpower to emerge in the 2022 defense. Sophomore linebacker Junior Colson projects to be a major part of that after a freshman All-American season in 2021.

Colson was Josh Ross’ protege last season. Now, he is the de facto leader of a linebacker room that is still a work in progress. The good news is that his best football is seemingly ahead of him.

“A lot more confident, a lot more poised in the defense,” Colson said on Friday. “I’m just understanding it more, memorizing it some more. I’m understanding concepts — like different coverages, what the O-line’s doing, guys behind me. It’s making the defense lot easier and a lot more fun.”

Getting after the quarterback

Michigan’s defense will schematically be similar, but likely changes a bit due to personnel. The unit as a whole will share the burden of replacing a historic pass rush from Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo. That probably means Colson rushes the passer more.

“I’m getting more opportunities to rush the quarterback. That’s a part of my game,” Colson said. “I love rushing, I love getting back there. I just gotta keep bringing it. You’ll see me this year.

“We’ve had some great pass rushers thus far in camp. We’ve just gotta keep building — especially at the linebacker position. We’re just gonna keep bringing it. We didn’t bring a lot last year so this year,  so this year we’ve gotta bring a lot of pressure.”

Improvement is critical this season. Colson’s ascent could raise the ceiling of Michigan’s defense. And he wants that burden. Colson, who weighed in at 6-2, 228 ahead of Michigan’s fall camp feels like his increased aptitude is helping him play faster on the field.

“You can always improve, you can always improve,” Colson said. “So I want to improve every point of my game. In all aspects, I want to go from good to elite. I just want to be the best.”

Colson weighs in on a Michigan quarterback

Colson was part of a talented 2021 Michigan recruiting class that included quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who is competing for the starting job with the incumbent Cade McNamara.

What McCarthy brings to Michigan’s battle revolves around special arm talent and dual-threat ability. Colson is seeing him flash that skillset during the first two weeks of fall camp in Ann Arbor.

“He’s still doing those Patrick Mahomes throws, it’s awesome,” Colson said. “It’s awesome to see. Right now, he’s having a lot of fun with it. So he’s been comfortable. He’s making a lot of smart reads right now, so that’s the big thing that’s changed. Take the checkdown as well as the deep ball. So I think he’s got a lot of maturity right now.”

You may also like