1
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.