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Thursday, June 4, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

Amidst crisis, ‘M’ adjusts its recruiting

As the Michigan football team 
adjusted to a new norm in early 
March, coach Jim Harbaugh and 
director of recruiting Matt Dudek 
found themselves working on a new 
playbook.
With the Wolverines’ spring 
practice slate wiped out due to the 
COVID-19 
pandemic, 
Harbaugh 
and Dudek turned their attention 
toward preventing Michigan from 
missing a beat on the recruiting trail. 
According to running backs coach 
and special teams coordinator Jay 
Harbaugh, that gameplan boiled 
down to four questions:
How long will this last? How is it 
going to impact recruiting? How are 
we going to separate ourselves, be 
different and do a great job? What’s 
the day-to-day plan?
So far, the playbook is paying 
dividends. Michigan has secured 
commitments from a trio of four-
star prospects — linebackers Junior 

Colson and Jaydon Hood and 
defensive lineman Kechaun Bennett 
— in the last week alone, propelling 
its 2021 recruiting class to a No. 5 
national ranking, per 247Sports.
“All of it goes back to the 
beginning of this whole deal,” Jay 
said in a teleconference Friday. “It all 
started with that and (Harbaugh and 
Dudek) presented an awesome vision 
and we all bought into it and really 
stuck to it day in and day out. All 
these coaches do such an awesome 
job connecting with players, with 
high school coaches, finding ways to 
keep things interesting.
“I think as time goes on, some of 
these players, they’re getting a little 
bit bored of being recruited the same 
way. They can’t go on campus (and) 
there are certain things they’re just 
not able to do, so the staffs that have 
been able to keep things engaging 
are feeling the benefits there.”
Even without a chance to host 
prospects in person, the Wolverines 
continue to round out their 2021 
recruiting 
class. 
Michigan 
has 
received 14 pledges during the 

NCAA’s 
extended 
dead 
period, 
surpassing other Big Ten programs 
Penn State, Minnesota and Iowa in 
the national team rankings.
The pandemic has challenged the 
Wolverines, like every other team, 
to think outside the box. And in a 
time like this, the more creative a 
program is, the more successful its 
recruiting is. 
“You’re finding all creative ways 
(to recruit),” offensive coordinator 
Josh Gattis said in a teleconference 
on May 14. “Whether it’s virtual 
visits, whether it’s virtual meetings, 
FaceTimes, you’ve got to be as 
creative as possible to be able to 
showcase 
your 
university 
and 
program in these times when they 
currently can’t come visit.”
Added Jay: “(Recruits) are able 
to do the virtual tours, they’re able 
to see things on Google Maps and 
streetview. They’re able to reach 
out to players and talk about things, 
‘Hey, what’s it like day to day?’ … You 
have to gather all the information 
you can, talk to all the people you 
need to from each school — the 

players, the staffs — you go on the 
virtual tour, you do virtual visits and 
all that stuff and you make the best 
decision you can.”
With visits currently paused 
through the end of July, Michigan 
stands to benefit from previously 
hosting a handful of top targets. But 
for the prospects yet to step foot on 
campus, especially those who would 
need a long-distance trip to make 
it to Ann Arbor, the pandemic has 

created additional obstacles.
In those cases, the Wolverines’ 
staff has leaned on its new recruiting 
playbook. And with recruiting still in 
a state of flux, Michigan’s answers to 
those four questions have made all 
the difference.
“These recruits, they’re going 
through this whole thing (and) like 
everyone else, they’re having to 
adapt,” Jay said. “I think that’s kind 
of the way recruiting is right now.”

COURTESY MICHIGAN ATHLETICS 
Recruiting coordinator Matt Dudek is innovating recruiting. 

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

Freshman Corum adds to loaded running backs room

In 
his 
first 
semester 
at 
Michigan, Blake Corum had a 4.0 
GPA and ran a high 4.4 40-yard 
dash in the Wolverines’ spring 
tests.
With 
stats 
like 
that, 
it’s 
no surprise the hype is only 
building 
for 
the 
four-star 
freshman running back. Corum 
joins Michigan’s most crowded 
running backs room in years 
— and though the Wolverines 
return four backs with significant 
playing experience, it’s clear the 
coaches also prioritize getting 
Corum on the field.
“Blake 
Corum 
is 
as 
fast 
as 
advertised,” 
offensive 
coordinator Josh Gattis said in 
a teleconference May 14. “… Just 
an exciting kid, just a tough, 
physical kid. I’ve known Blake 
since his ninth-grade year in high 
school. Just excited about that 
kid and his maturity, leadership 
he already brings. He brings a 
toughness, mentality. He’s got 
a great skillset, he’s a physical 
runner. People look at him as an 

undersized guy because of his 
height, but the heart, the strength 
and the speed that he brings, he 
packs a punch. So we’re really 
excited about him from that 
standpoint.”
As an early enrollee, Corum 
was one of the players hurt most 
by the lack of spring practice, 
robbing him of a chance to grow 
acclimated to the competitiveness 
of college football. If he hopes to 
see the field in 2020, he’ll have to 

do so without the extra semester 
of training he thought he’d gotten.
That’s not to say it can’t be done. 
Sophomore 
Zach 
Charbonnet 
missed all of spring ball in 2019 
with an injury and still took hold 
of Michigan’s starting job in the 
fall, and though this is a different 
situation, 
the 
Wolverines’ 
coaches are confident. Running 
backs 
coach 
Jay 
Harbaugh 
described Corum as someone 
who went all-out at everything. 

Despite only being able to meet 
with the rest of the team over 
Zoom, Corum has made the best 
of the situation without making 
excuses, and that hasn’t gone 
unnoticed. And though he didn’t 
get to participate in spring ball, 
Corum did get a taste of campus 
life and participated in winter 
workouts with the team before 
the COVID-19 shutdown.
“(Corum) did practice with 
us, so he’s done it a little bit at 
least and even though he missed 
spring, he’s a guy who will walk 
through things on his own,” 
Harbaugh said in a teleconference 
Friday. “He played against great 
competition in high school, so I 
would expect him to transition 
well in terms of the speed of the 
game and everything”
When 
Michigan 
takes 
the 
field again, Gattis sees in Corum 
a skillset that will allow him to 
play all over the field, taking 
handoffs, running routes out of 
the backfield and making plays in 
space. His strengths are similar 
to those of fifth-year senior Chris 
Evans, giving Corum another 
running back to learn from once 
he comes back.

Corum still faces an uphill 
battle for significant playing time, 
both because of the pandemic 
and because the Wolverines’ 
top 
two 
running 
backs 
last 
year — Charbonnet and Hassan 
Haskins — still have three years 
of eligibility left (though Haskins 
will be draft eligible next year 
and Charbonnet in 2022). But if 
the coaches are to be believed, 
Corum will make the most of his 
stiff competition.
“Blake is awesome, you know,” 
Harbaugh said. “ … He just goes 
hard at every single thing he’s 
presented with. I think he got a 
4.0 or close to it his first semester. 
He’s on time for everything 
virtually, he turns everything 
in, he takes tremendous notes, 
he asks questions, he’s just a 
junkie for football, but also for 
everything. He’s very binary. It’s 
like, all in or he’s not into it. So 
I think that that will serve him 
really good in terms of getting 
through this without it being a 
setback for him.”
There’s no way to know how 
Corum will look when he steps 
onto the field for the first time. 
But the coaches believe he can 
force their hands into playing 
time right away, even at a crowded 
position. For Michigan, it’s a good 
problem to have.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

FILE PHOTO/Daily
Runnings back coach Jay Harbaugh is operating with an abundance of talent. 

