The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 — 11
Corum, Edwards show full capabilities in
dominant performance against Penn State
JARED GREENSPAN
Managing Sports Editor
After Penn State allowed a
stunning 418 rushing yards in a
41-17 loss to the Michigan foot-
ball team, a number of defensive
standouts admitted that the Nit-
tany Lions needed to be better.
That much was evident to anyone
who watched Penn State’s fifth-
ranked rushing defense — one of
its core strengths — morph into a
fatal flaw.
Yet, amid the somber scene,
linebacker Curtis Jacobs still
found a reason to smile.
Jacobs had just been asked
about someone he considers one of
his “dearest friends” — junior run-
ning back Blake Corum.
“I’ve seen the same thing from
him since sixth grade,” Jacobs
said.
Jacobs
and
Corum
played
together on Team Maryland in
the FBU eighth grade circuit.
They went on to play at competing
high schools: Corum at St. Fran-
ces Academy and Jacobs for the
McDonogh School.
“In our FBU Tournament, I
saw some flashes,” Jacobs remem-
bered. “But when I saw him at St.
Frances, that’s when I knew he
was gonna be one of the best backs
in the country. He’s lightning in a
bottle.”
Saturday, Corum and sopho-
more
running
back
Donovan
Edwards combined to decimate
Jacobs and Penn State’s defense.
Corum once again affirmed his
presence as one of the nation’s top
running backs, tallying 166 rush-
ing yards and two touchdowns on
28 carries. Edwards, meanwhile,
ran for a career-best 173 yards and
found the endzone twice, too.
There is no more speculation
surrounding Corum’s ability to
evolve into a power, short-yardage
back who can fill the void left by
Hassan Haskins. Gone, too, are con-
cerns over Corum’s ability to handle
a taxing, demanding workload.
These days, it seems like the
only question pertaining to Corum
is if the opposing defense will ever
be able to stop him.
“Everything
that
y’all
see
in games, we see in practice,”
senior edge rusher Mike Mor-
ris said. “There are some plays
where I have to cover (Corum and
Edwards) on downs and it’s like, I
just look to the coaches like, ‘Why
are we calling this play?’ ”
Penn State, on paper, seemed
poised to test Michigan’s rushing
attack. Entering the day, it had
allowed just 79.6 rushing yards
per game and a mere 398 rushing
yards on the season.
The Wolverines eclipsed that
figure with time to spare in the
fourth quarter.
Penn State players attributed
the performance to a number of
reasons. Most of them blamed a
lack of execution in their individ-
ual assignments. Some stressed a
need to be more physical. Others
cited schematic issues.
One constant emerged: Heading
into the game, each player felt pre-
pared for what was coming.
“We knew what we were get-
ting into,” linebacker Jonathan
Sutherland said. “We knew what
kind of game it was gonna be.”
Nothing could prepare them for
the dominance that would ensue.
In the first half, Michigan
racked up 168 rushing yards,
marching the ball methodically
down the field.
“Of course you’re not gonna feel
good about it,” linebacker Kody
King said. “But it’s just a next play
mentality: next play, next play,
next play.”
And yet, so often, each play
yielded the same result. In the sec-
ond half, the Wolverines’ rushing
game evolved from dominant to
lethal. A sequence of back-to-back
runs eventually swung the game in
their favor for good.
On a first and 10 from the
Michigan 33-yard line, Edwards
bounced around the edge, elicit-
ing an initial thunder of cheers.
Then, he cut back inside and juked
cornerback Ji’Ayir Brown to the
turf, taking it 67 yards to the house
while the crowd crescendoed.
“Knowing what he can do
with the ball in his hands, with
his speed, I knew it was gonna be
a big gain,” sophomore quarter-
back J.J. McCarthy said. “That’s
just the special player he is.”
On the next offensive play,
the Wolverines lined up on their
own 39-yard line. This time,
Corum earned the carry. He
burst through the middle and
left everyone else behind, sprint-
ing 61 yards for his second score
of the day.
Morris remembered being on
the sideline, having just taken his
helmet off. Before he could even
ask for water, Corum was in the
clear.
“I’m happy for him but I was
like, ‘Gotta let us get a break a
little bit’,” Morris laughed.
Corum and Edwards didn’t
give either defense a break. Mor-
ris may have had to retake the
field, but Jacobs had to worry
about bringing Corum to the
ground. And yes, it’s as difficult
as it seems.
“He has a really strong lower
base,” Jacobs noted. “He works
on that. He really works on
balance and being able to run
downhill and that’s big. Being a
running back in the Big Ten, you
have to be able to run downhill.”
Saturday’s game, in a way,
highlighted
everything
that
Corum
and
Edwards
have
worked on. Corum put on 12
pounds in the offseason with
the idea of adding a little more
power to his game while also
retaining his trademark speed.
Edwards, meanwhile, has bided
his time since arriving as a five-
star recruit, confident a breakout
of this sort would happen.
“I feel like I’ve been prone for
a game like this for a while now,”
Edwards said. “I just had to sit
back and wait my turn and show
the world what I’m capable of
being able to do.”
The duo did just that Satur-
day. And if the fifth-ranked run
defense can’t even slow them
down, well, who else stands a
chance?
Sports
FOOTBALL
Josh Taubman: With statement win, Michigan reinforces its own narrative
At halftime, No.
10 Penn State was
taking the fight to
the No. 5 Michigan
football team. Lit-
erally.
Things
got
chippy in the tun-
nel,
with
both
teams shoving and
engaging in the
skirmish. What had transpired on
the field in the previous 30 minutes
didn’t fit that narrative. The Wol-
verines handled the Nittany Lions
for the most part, outgaining them
heavily in yardage and, astonish-
ingly, holding them to just one first
down despite only leading 16-14.
But standing in the tunnel, Penn
State — whether warranted or not —
was confident.
The
Wolverines,
meanwhile,
were simply unbothered.
“They didn’t talk on the field,”
senior defensive end Mike Morris
said. “So they wanted to talk at half-
time because they got lucky.”
That attitude, the nonchalance
with which Michigan treated the
Nittany Lions at halftime, was
exemplified by its dominance on
the field.
The narratives surrounding the
Wolverines entering their Top-10
matchup were pertinent: Could they
move the ball against Penn State’s
top-five ranked run defense? What
would the defense that had strug-
gled against lesser Big Ten competi-
tion look like? And, of course, how
would Michigan handle its first
“real” test?
The Wolverines passed with fly-
ing colors.
They throttled Penn State from
the opening kickoff to the final
whistle. They marched right over
the Nittany Lions’ run defense to
the tune of 418 rushing yards, they
stymied Penn State’s pair of talent-
ed running backs to 35 yards com-
bined and they never punted.
The game was close in the first
half because Michigan found itself
settling for field goals instead of
touchdowns. It was in a battle not
with its opponent, but its own inept-
itude. The Wolverines looked at the
first half and didn’t see themselves
in a dogfight.
In their eyes, they just weren’t
playing to their standard.
“We knew that we beat our-
selves,” graduate center Olusegun
Oluwatimi said. “… So going into the
locker room at halftime. Our spirits
were up, we were ready to go back
out … We felt like we were dominat-
ing on both sides of the ball and even
in special teams, so we just (had) to
keep doing us.”
Even with a 6-0 start, college
football pundits criticized Michigan
at every turn. Its weak non-confer-
ence schedule meant nothing could
be gleaned from its blowout wins.
Next, Maryland was able to move
the ball against the Wolverines,
raising further red flags. Then, they
didn’t play four dominant quarters
against Iowa or Indiana. More and
more, questions swirled about their
defense and whether a better oppo-
nent could exploit them.
Penn State was supposed to be
the better opponent. And Michigan,
instead, looked the most dominant
it had in conference play all season.
“Take away three plays and the
score is 41 to 3,” Morris said. “So we
were not really worried about it.”
The Wolverines entered this
game looking for respect. Despite all
they accomplished last year, they’re
still viewed as a team that’s begging
for a seat at the big kids’ table.
But a resounding win in a top-10
matchup proves Michigan should
LILA TURNER/Daily
have its spot firmly anchored in the
college football’s hierarchy. Michi-
gan coach Jim Harbaugh went as
far to call it a “statement game.”
There’s a laser focus to this year’s
iteration of the Wolverines. The
breaks in the game were going Penn
State’s way — and it didn’t matter.
They possess a confidence, built
from the fact that they’ve seen what
they can accomplish and have the
belief that they can do it again.
Up until kickoff, it was unclear
how Michigan would look against
the Nittany Lions. But, as it moved
the ball at will and seized control of
the game in the second half, those
narratives quickly shifted — shifted
to a point where going 11-0 enter-
ing the matchup in Columbus looks
realistic.
That’s a narrative that wasn’t
floated with much confidence out-
side of Ann Arbor before Saturday.
But inside the Wolverines’ locker
room, a new narrative about what
they can accomplish this season has
already been written.
Last year, the narrative was
about resetting expectations.
This year, the expectation is to
win, and Penn State was simply the
first measuring stick.
Against Penn State, Michigan dominated
the line of scrimmage
SPENCER RAINES
Daily Sports Editor
Football games are won in the
trenches — and that’s the way
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
and his fifth-ranked Wolverines
like it.
Not
only
did
Michigan’s
offensive line maul No. 10 Penn
State’s defensive front on its
way to a 41-17 victory, but its
defensive line tamed the Nit-
tany Lions’ offense. It was as
thorough a performance on both
lines of scrimmage as a team can
have, and the Wolverines did it
all against a top-10 team.
That much was evident to
everyone in the Big House on
Saturday,
fans,
players
and
coaches alike. After the game,
sophomore
quarterback
J.J.
McCarthy noted that.
Asked at what point in the
game he knew his team would
control the line of scrimmage,
McCarthy answered like some-
one who has the utmost confi-
dence in his offensive line.
“(We knew) from the jump,
from the first drive,” McCar-
thy said. “I mean, just the way
they were moving them off the
ball. … And just the way these
guys were running the ball right
away and the way the offensive
line was blocking. I just knew
it was going to be a dogfight
until the end in the trenches
and yeah, our guys pulled out in
front.”
It really was clear from the
very beginning that Michi-
gan’s lines were better. On the
first drive, the Wolverines ran
it down Penn State’s throat,
always on schedule, and mov-
ing the sticks with ease. To
add to that, on Michigan’s very
first defensive possession, it
forced a three-and-out, doing so
emphatically with a tackle for
loss on third and one.
That’s how things went for
both the offensive and defen-
sive lines for most of the game.
The offense pounded the ball
to great success time and time
again. And the defensive line
stymied the Nittany Lions’ tal-
ented freshman running back
duo of Nicholas Singleton and
Kaytron Allen to the point
where their offense was com-
pletely one-dimensional.
Outside of a 62-yard run on
a read option from Penn State
quarterback Sean Clifford, the
Nittany Lions’ rushing attack
repeatedly ran into a wall at
the line of scrimmage. Single-
ton and Allen combined for just
35 yards on 12 attempts — their
worst mark of the season.
It was apparent that the Wol-
verines were the more physical
team on both sides of the ball
early on, and that only grew
more obvious as the game pro-
gressed.
“I felt like we played domi-
nant on both sides of the ball
with our fronts,” graduate
center Olusegun Oluwatimi
said. “We stopped their run
game and obviously we had a
big game on the ground. So it
was just a dominant perfor-
mance.”
As Oluwatimi spoke, he
donned a pair of shades and
a smirk fitting of the accom-
plishment. He exuded the type
of confidence you’d expect to
see from a quarterback, a wide
receiver, a running back, or
realistically, any player other
than a lineman.
But that’s what the Wol-
verines are: A program that
prides
itself
on
physical,
smash-mouth football. A pro-
gram that elevates linemen —
offensive and defensive — to
the status of a skill position,
one of the utmost importance.
Even McCarthy shares that
belief.
“With
any
successful
offense — you could go to any
program in the country — you
have to have a dominant run
game, you have to,” McCarthy
said. “You don’t see any air
raid offense winning national
championships.
It’s
where
it’s done, in the trenches, and
that’s where the battle is won.”
Saturday, that was certainly
the case. And that’s just how
Michigan likes it.
FOOTBALL
FOOTBALL
JEREMY WEINE/Daily
JEREMY WEINE/Daily
JOSH
TAUBMAN