Blake Corum put on extra pounds, to handle extra carries. He got one after another Saturday against Maryland and tipped the scales in Michigan's 34-27 win.
"30 carries, we knew very well that he could handle that," said Jim Harbaugh.
Pound for pound, Corum has always been one of Michigan's strongest players. Ahead of his junior season, he decided to get stronger. The result is an ox on wheels, 210 lbs. of quick-twitch muscle. After carrying Michigan like a pack mule on Saturday, Corum had eclipsed his weight in yards: 243. The seventh most in program history, on a day No. 4 Michigan needed them.
When the Wolverines were in trouble Saturday, Corum bailed them out. They were looking at a halftime deficit with time ticking down in the second quarter when Corum exploded through a hole on fourth down and raced 33 yards to the house for a 17-13 lead at the break.
And they were in danger of giving the ball back to Maryland and QB Taulia Tagovailoa in a one-score game late in the fourth when Corum gained the edge on third down and outran the Terps defense 47 yards to the end zone to end the threat of an upset.
When the 5'8 Corum arrived at Michigan as a four-star recruit in 2020, there were concerns -- on the outside -- about his durability. One scouting report questioned whether he was "physically maxed out" and whether he had the "size to touch the ball 15-plus times a game." Corum hit that threshold several times last year in a backfield led by Hassan Haskins before an ankle injury slowed him down the stretch. He doubled it on Saturday, after doubling-down in the weight room this summer.
"With my mindset, I feel like I was always able to carry the ball that many times, but 100 percent, I prepared in the offseason for a reason," Corum said. "But if you really want to talk about how many yards I put up, the O-line killed it today. I say this every time and I really mean it because I feel like we have the best O-Line in the country, they make my job easy."
"But yeah," he added with a smile, "the 11 pounds I put on definitely helped."
At the risk of raising a premature question, should Corum be on Heisman watch? Is he already? It's been seven years since a running back won the award — Derrick Henry in 2015 — and five since one was even nominated. More than ever, college football is dominated by those who throw the football and those who catch it.
But Corum is running it at a ridiculous rate this season, albeit against mostly flimsy competition. He's rushed for 478 yards — and 7.5 yards per carry — and nine touchdowns through four games. For the sake of comparison, Henry had 422 yards and eight touchdowns through four games in 2015.
Corum has enjoyed a smooth path behind Michigan's O-line. The road ahead will get harder, and the Terps were a speed bump themselves. A handful of Corum's runs went nowhere. ("They were stout up front," he said. "It wasn't like we were playing some scrub team.") Iowa and its ever-strong run defense is next, with Penn State and Michigan State looming. As the hits come harder, the yards will come at a higher cost. But Corum is beefed up and built for this, Michigan's Big Ten bull.
"He's trained. This isn't something that he just goes out and does," Harbaugh said. "It's a 7-days-a-week thing for him, year round, to train himself to be in this position and do what he does."
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