Blake Corum was worried he made a mistake, going to Michigan. Four years later, he'd do it all again. Corum put the finishing touches on an all-time career Monday night by making good on his vow to win a national championship.
"He’s one of the most special players, period, it doesn’t matter position, that I’ve ever been around," offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore said after the Wolverines ran over Washington to cap their perfect season. "On the field, off the field, he’s a legend in Michigan football history."
With the game still hanging in the balance Monday night, Corum sealed it with two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Of course he did. He leaves Michigan with the single-season and all-time records for rushing touchdowns, stamps on his statement that "playmakers have to make plays." He made so many of them over his career it's hard to know where to start. How 'bout at the beginning?
Corum arrived at Michigan with the program slipping under Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverines were coming off a disappointing 9-4 season and Harbaugh's seat was warming. It was scalding by the end of Corum's first season, a disastrous 2-4 campaign after which Harbaugh had his salary sliced in half. The program had lost touch with its roots, Harbaugh with his identity as a coach. It took a group of rugged players like Corum to turn the Wolverines back into winners.
Harbaugh made a couple smart hires to breathe life into his staff, including Michigan legend Mike Hart as running backs coach. He re-centered the offense on his proven ground-and-pound approach, and the program on physicality. The players came together to hold each other accountable. A roster turned into a team, which turned 2-4 into 12-2, then 13-1 and now 15-0.
"It’s been an awesome journey," Corum said. "Coming in my freshman year, during COVID, we went 2-4. I’m like, Oh boy, what did I get myself into? And then we fixed the problem, we changed the culture, and after that, man, we just started rolling. And who would’ve thought -- but us -- that we would be sitting here right now tonight, national champs, which no one can ever take away from us."
Like Corum plowing through tacklers, the Wolverines broke down barriers one at a time. They took down Ohio State in 2021, but lost to Michigan State and came up short in the playoff. They had the perfect regular season in 2022, but fell flat on their face in another semifinal loss with Corum sidelined by a knee injury that had derailed his Heisman-caliber campaign. That offseason, Corum decided the NFL could wait. Many of his veteran teammates followed suit, like star offensive linemen Trevor Keegan and Zak Zinter and defensive stalwarts Kris Jenkins, Junior Colson and Mikey Sainristil.
At a Michigan basketball game at Crisler Center last winter, Corum grabbed a mic and told the crowd he was coming back to win a national championship. He dropped the mic by winning Offensive MVP Monday night, rushing for 134 yards and the 57th and 58th touchdowns of his career. As he stood on stage next to the national trophy and with maize-and-blue confetti raining down around him, Corum had one more thing to say:
"When we decided to come back -- it was a lot of us -- we said we had unfinished business. So I’ll leave y’all with this: business is finished!"