Injury ‘brought that spark back’ for former U-M football star Zinter
INDIANAPOLIS — Sometimes in life, it’s hard to know what you have until it’s gone. Zak Zinter can attest to that firsthand. A Michigan football captain and star, his senior season was playing out like a dream until one day, it wasn’t. The fifth-year guard went to block on a run play against rival Ohio State when an opposing lineman fell on his left leg. Just like that, his collegiate career was over.
Ninety-eight days after he was carted off the Michigan Stadium field on his senior day, Zinter fielded questions at the NFL combine downtown Indy, a few blocks north of Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of the first of U-M’s three postseason games he missed as the team put the finishing touches on its national championship run.
While Zinter still wishes that life-changing moment never happened, he acknowledged on Saturday it did benefit him in some ways.
“I know that 100% and think it made me, like, fall in love with the game again,” Zinter said, discussing the moment that became the conclusion he never wanted to his All-American season. “I’ve been playing forever, so just that feeling I got not being able to play just showed me how much I loved it, how much I do love playing this game.
“It brought that spark back, I wanted to get back out there, it was pushing me to rehab this leg, get it back in fighting shape.”
The leg is in near-fighting shape, but not quite back. Zinter called it the “best, worstcase scenario” given that he had a clean break of his tibia and fibula but suffered no damage in any of the ligaments in his ankle or knee.
That’s put his rehab a bit ahead of schedule, he said, before he added he’s moving around well and has been cleared for “pretty much everything.” At this point in the recovery, he’s again trying to add strength to “build it back up.”
“I’ll be ready to roll in a month,” he said. The two-time All-Big Ten right guard did not participate in any physical drills over the weekend, but said he was hoping to put up around 25 reps on the bench press and “move around in front of everybody” at U-M’s pro day later this month in the comforts of its home headquarters, Schembechler Hall.
Asked why he was the best right guard in this draft, Zinter alluded to the idea that he was higher on mock drafts prior to the injury, which he said has “put a lot of the doubt in some medias head.”
In his mind nothing has changed other than missing a few months, calling it a “misconception” that it will affect him long-term.
“I’ve had a hell of a career, had a hell of a last season,” he said. “It was just bone, they put a rod in there, just letting it heal up. So it’s going to be stronger than it was before, that’s not a
huge concern for me and I think my game speaks for itself.”
His career accolades do as well.
He was a unanimous All-American lineman, two-time Joe Moore award winner, three-time academic All-Big Ten honoree, and three-time All-Big Ten selection who played in 45 games with 42 career starts.
He was named a William V. Campbell Trophy finalist — given annually to the college football player with the best combination of academics, community service, and on-field performance — and a Lombardi Award semifinalist.
For those who played alongside him, like former Michigan offensive lineman Karsen Barnhart, the hope is to get to do so again in the NFL.
“He’s one hell of a leader, somebody everybody should look up to and want to chase,” Barnhart said. “His athleticism, the way he is as a person, his character, the way he carries himself, he’s something else. I love Zinter to
death. He was a great part of our culture and what we did last year.”
Of Zinter’s 42 starts in college, 41 came at right guard, however, the 6-foot-6, 332-pound Massachusetts native insists he isn’t limited to just one position. He played both center and guard in the summer and fall camp of 2021 when Andrew Vastardis “had some back problems.”
The past two years, U-M has gone to the portal for centers Olusegun Oluwatimi and Drake Nugent, so there’s been no reason to move him.
“(Center) is something I’ve worked on in practice for sure,” he said. “A few spring games at center as well.”
Michigan, the most well-represented team at the event with a combined-record 18 players, had more players from last year’s offensive line (six) than starting spots available (five) at the combine. Zinter and Barnhart were joined by Nugent, Trevor Keegan, Trente Jones and LaDarius Henderson, a group that drew rave reviews all weekend long.
“I was talking to an offensive line coach this morning who’s met with just about everyone who’s come through here this year,” NFL draft expert Daniel Jeremiah said to U-M head coach Sherrone Moore during an interview on Friday. “He said the Michigan guys are like two years ahead of everybody in terms of their knowledge, their understanding, their maturity.”
Zinter, a mainstay for years until that late November day, is at the top of the list. It’s funny, he said, he didn’t actually get to see the end of the Ohio State game while getting loaded into the ambulance, then straight into the hospital for surgery.
Of course, it was top of mind. His parents were near him the whole way as he asked for updates over the next hour. So they did, letting him know when Michigan scored and when Ohio State turned it over to end the game. It wasn’t until later, when he watched it himself, that he realized what they were doing.
“They made it seem a lot less stressful ending to the game than it really was,” he smiled.