ANN ARBOR -- As practice continues and preparation begins for its Jan. 1 bowl game, Michigan has also been focused on healing.

The Wolverines limped to the finish line in 2017 with battered and bruised bodies across the board. Injuries that kept some players out, while limiting others.

Junior running back Karan Higdon was one of them, dealing with an injured ankle that left him between "65 and 70 percent" against Ohio State, he said Thursday.

But that wasn't his only admission ahead of Michigan's Outback Bowl game against South Carolina.

He was a big fan of the Gamecocks.

"I just loved them," Higdon told a group of reporters inside Michigan's Schembechler Hall. "I had a close friend that went there. Then I had some kids in my local area that went there.

"We watched South Carolina a lot. I grew to like them."

So much so, Higdon, from Sarasota, Florida, took not one but two visits to their campus. He never did get an offer -- but he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Ace Sanders, who starred at nearby Manatee High School and whose cousin grew close with Higdon, and running back Marcus Lattimore.

"I wanted that offer pretty bad," Higdon said. "Pretty bad. Didn't get it."

There was an attraction to then-head coach Steve Spurrier too, who had connections to Higdon's high school coach and ran the kind of system he wanted to play in.

"I would have went," Higdon said. "My mom was (a fan). I would have went. I would have went."

In fact, Higdon's fandom of South Carolina stretched into 2013, when Michigan played the Gamecocks in the Outback Bowl. The game is perhaps best remembered for the hit USC linebacker Jadeveon Clowney laid on Wolverines running back Vincent Smith.

The impact was so great, Smith, who now works in Michigan's academic center, had his helmet knocked off.

"I was (cheering)," Higdon said, laughing. "I was. But now Vincent and I are cool, so I'm like, 'Dang.'

"I was. I was. That was the year I had just visited there."

Of course, things have drastically changed since then. Higdon de-committed from Iowa in 2015 to attend Michigan, where he's slowly risen up the depth chart at running back. In 12 games this season, he has rushed for a team-high 929 yards and 11 touchdowns, positioning himself as the No. 1 back heading into 2018.

But right now, Higdon says he's healthy and ready to beat his favorite team growing up.

"You get to go back home and play where you grew up," Higdon said. "Play in front of your family and friends, coaches that may not get a chance to come out to the Big House. It's very big for me personally."