Junior Colson more comfortable, playing faster as he enters his second season with Michigan football
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — With all of the talk of Michigan football having a ‘no-star defense,’ there are certainly a few candidates to emerge as veritable stars in 2022.
While all eyes are on Mazi Smith, who landed as the No. 1 ‘freak’ on The Athletic’s ‘freaks’ list, another player is poised to break out. Junior Colson enters his sophomore year after posting an excellent first campaign. He was a freshman All-American and was fourth on the team with 61 tackles — relatively unheard of for a first-year linebacker.
Now that he’s entering his second season, Colson feels much more comfortable this fall camp, having a lot more to offer given that he’s become more acclimated to the defense.
“A lot more confident, a lot more poised in the defense,” Colson said. “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.”
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We asked if that will allow him to play faster this season, and he simply responded: ‘Yes sir. It allows me be all over the field this year.’ Considering he ran a 4.6 40-yard dash in high school, even at 6-foot-3, 228-pounds, we haven’t yet seen Colson play up to his top football speed.
He’ll have ample opportunities in 2022. With Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo gone, the Wolverines intend to deploy a by-committee pass rush this year. That means Colson, like safety Dax Hill did a year ago, will get to showcase that element of his game.
“Yes, 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.”
But Colson also wants to become a player who is feared in coverage.
His teammates have said during fall camp that he excels in doing so, taking away the mismatch that a running back or tight end might have on a linebacker. Being adept is one thing — Colson wants more.
The next step for him to add turnovers to the equation, something he’s been working on and feels that, should he accomplish his goals, he can truly be one of the best linebackers in the game.
“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 so — I just want to be the best.”
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