Adversity Catches Up To Black Torn Calf Muscle Keeps WSU’s Top Runner On Sidelines

Michael Black has been through a lot, but nothing in his troubled and well-chronicled past prepared him for the flood of emotions he experienced during and after Thursday’s 21-16 Rose Bowl loss to Michigan.

As Washington State’s featured running back, Black was supposed to be a factor. During the regular season, the 5-foot-11, 208-pound senior ran for 1,157 yards and 12 touchdowns.

On this day, he was back in familiar surroundings, playing in front of friends who had watched him star at West Los Angeles College after spending nearly two of his impressionable teenage years in jail for armed robbery.

He had turned his life around. He had worked hard. He had prepared. He has even allowed himself to dream.

This, Michael Black felt, was supposed to be his day. And he deserved it. But less than 10 minutes into the game, Black tore a muscle in his right calf and spent all but 30 seconds of the next three hours on the WSU sidelines watching his teammates struggle to run the ball.

Afterward he was disappointed, angry and at one point near tears as he searched for a reason in his latest bout with adversity.

“It’s not fair,” he said. “I’ve been through so much in life and I went through the whole season with not one injury. The whole two weeks of practicing drills for one of the most important Cougar games and then not being able to get the chance to play on account of an injury like this - it’s a hurtin’ thing.”

Not only for Black, who gained 24 yards on six carries before the injury, but for his teammates as well.

With Black on the sidelines, the running back duties slipped onto the shoulders of DeJuan Gilmore and Jason Clayton, who had combined for 43 carries and 393 yards. Against the Wolverines, they managed a mere 23 yards on 10 carries.

Black tore his calf muscle on WSU’s first-quarter scoring drive while swinging out into the flat on a pass play on which he was not involved. “I just was running along looking back and it ripped,” he explained. Black returned for one play early in the fourth quarter. He carried for no gain and then took himself out when the calf began to swell again.

“I wanted to be out there so bad,” Black said. “I know I would have been good, I just know it.

“I would have rather had my ribs broke or my arm broke or something. At least I would have been able to run. But if you can’t run, you can’t play, and that’s what makes me so mad.

“Sometimes I question why, when things start going right for me, they keep on going wrong. I just don’t know.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo