On Sunday night, top-ranked Michigan linebacker Junior Colson was named the Lott influence Trophy winner as the college football player who has the most influence on and off the field.
At the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, Colson, who was born in Haiti, received the 20th annual award from Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott.
Colson led the Wolverines with 71 tackles, 26 more than the next closest player, along with two tackles for loss and four quarterback hurries.
He joins Jabrill Peppers in 2016 and Aidan Hutchinson in 2021 as Michigan players who have won. IMPACT stands for integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity.
The other finalists were Jonah Elliss of Utah, Laiatu Latu of UCLA and Dallas Turner of fifth-ranked Alabama.
He led the nation’s best defense to an undefeated regular season and the top seed in the CFP.
Colson and Turner will see each other again when their teams meet in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day in a CFP semifinal.
Michigan will receive $25,000 for its general scholarship fund. The other three schools will receive $5,000 each.
Thor Griffth to transfer from Harvard to Louisville
Harvard defensive tackle Thor Griffith is transferring to Louisville, the former All-Ivy league player announced Sunday.
Griffith spent four years at Harvard and became a highly-sought-after prospect once he entered the transfer portal on Nov. 24. He will graduate with a degree in economics from Harvard and will have one year of eligibility remaining to try to accomplish his goal of reaching the NFL.
“For me this is purely a football decision. I’m going to get the Harvard degree,” Griffith told ESPN. “It would be nice to get an MBA, but I already have the academic piece.”
Griffith is from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school. He saw interest from Cornell and Harvard and never got the chance to go through a full recruiting process with teams like Louisville and UCLA offering him as they did during his transfer process.
“It’s pretty fun to experience this firsthand,” Griffith said. “It kind of like junior and senior year condensed in two weeks. It was pretty stressful trying to figure out where I’m going to go and where I fit best.”
Griffith adds to the transfer class for Louisville that also includes former Texas Tech quarterback Tyler Shough, who is replacing outgoing starter Jack Plummer