Matt Corral just wrapped up a successful career as the Ole Miss quarterback, but it was not always a highlight-reel of touchdowns. Corral battled depression and injuries, most notably the sprained ankle in the Sugar Bowl which temporarily put his NFL Draft stock in jeopardy.

Corral opened up about all those issues in a wide-ranging interview with Yahoo Sports’ Eric Edholm.

Corral remembers a day more than 2 years ago when he was hit by depression.

“I remember, it was August 18,” Corral told Yahoo Sports. “I was in a depression my sophomore year of college. And I just didn’t understand why. I was still training, and it just felt like I was just going through the motions. It just felt like I was being stagnant. There was no purpose as to what I was doing.”

Things turned around for him when he recognized that things were not right.

“I just remember crying on the couch before my flight going home and just wondering why the heck I’m feeling like this,” Corral said. “And I had that mindset of not taking no as an answer. That’s when my whole work ethic changed.”

The coaching change when Lane Kiffin and Jeff Lebby arrived was part of the catalyst for Corral.

“I was just in the middle of trying to change my mindset to see how far I could take it,” Corral said of Kiffin and Lebby’s arrival in December 2019. “And it changed me as a person completely. .. I knew that I wasn’t getting out (of his experience) what I wanted, and I knew that it was because of me, no one else could change that (and) that no one else can change the outcome but me.”

About the decision to play in the Sugar Bowl, Corral said it would have been selfish if he opted out. And he knew he had to be there for his teammates. After the sprained ankle, and negative X-rays, Corral stuck by his decision to play, and doesn’t have any regrets.

“Absolutely not, I don’t have any regrets,” Corral said. “I put my heart and soul into this team.”

“Just looking into my coaches’ eyes as I am crutching out there, and then my teammates all looking at me when I’m just walking back out there, and just seeing the look in their faces and looking in their eyes, it was a different feeling that I haven’t felt before,” Corral said. “And it hurt. It hurt deep, but just you know, and I had no time to just complain about it.”