TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The college football world was well aware that Michigan football running back Donovan Edwards was slowed by injury, but they literally only knew half of it.
All of the discussion late in the season, especially after Blake Corum was sidelined following a Week 12 knee injury against Illinois, was about Edwards’ hand. He took the field in a cast against Ohio State and carried the ball in his left hand rather than right. It turns out he had a much more significant injury he was playing through.
At the Wolverines Weekend event at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa on Saturday, Edwards shared how his hand was surgically repaired this offseason, but he revealed he suffered a knee injury in Week 2 against Hawaii. It was an injury he already had to some degree, but he aggravated it significantly.
“I had two screws in my hand, broke my thumb against Nebraska,” Edwards said. “What y’all don’t know I played with a torn patella the whole season. So I got that fixed up, had surgery in February. Just been in rehab and I’m up to par now, running, cutting and doing all that good stuff. So that recovery wasn’t gonna take long — just about four months to get full speed and three months for me to feel good.
“So you know, just like trusting myself now, trusting myself cutting, getting to my top speed, breaking down — all that good stuff again, which isn’t gonna be hard for me.”
Now that Edwards believes he’s in his best shape ever, he’s ready to show what he can really do. He notes the discovery of his torn patella was, in a way, a blessing in disguise, because he had long been playing with that right side of his lower body not being quite as strong as his left.
This season, however, both sides are operating at max capacity. He shared more about the injury discovery as well as what he’s done to get back into shape.
“I’ve always been left-side dominant,” Edwards explained. “I’ve never really thought or focused on strengthening my right side because it’s OK, tendinitis, just a little achy. I found out against Hawaii, I had made that catch right at the goal line, pinned my knee back, just didn’t feel right. Found out it was partially torn.
“After that, just continued to work around it, strengthen the thigh muscle, the patella itself. (It was like) that for a couple years, it’s always been like that.”
Does that mean that when he was busting out the two long touchdown runs against Ohio State as well as in the next two games that he was actually not anywhere close to his top-speed?
Well, as Edwards tells it, we haven’t yet seen him perform to his full potential. But he wasn’t going to let anything hamper his ability to see the field in big games.
“Against Ohio State and everybody else, you know?” Edwards said. “But I wasn’t going to allow that to stop me. My leg would have been cut off to not play, you feel me? Same thing with the broken hand — put a cast on it, I was just carrying it my non-dominant hand. You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to come up successful and win the game.”
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