College Football

Michigan runs at, through and past Penn State to separate from the Big Ten pack

Updated Oct. 18, 2022 2:31 p.m. ET

By Michael Cohen
FOX Sports College Football Writer

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A throng of bodies swarmed running back Blake Corum as he returned to the Michigan sideline following his latest, greatest cleaving of Penn State’s vaunted defense. The pint-sized but pound-strong Corum had exploded through the middle of his offensive line before swerving right — at which point he caused two Nittany Lions defenders to collide — and then outraced cornerbacks Joey Porter Jr. and Kalen King to the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown that proved to be the winning score.

Blake Corum dashes for 61-yard touchdown

Michigan running back Blake Corum wove his way through Penn State for a key touchdown in the third quarter.

Corum wound his way through a procession of helmet taps and hugs along the Wolverines bench while fellow tailback Donovan Edwards trailed in his wake. With the maize-clad crowd of 110,812 at Michigan Stadium still humming, Edwards flapped his arms in Corum's direction to either cool down his red-hot teammate or signify that those in attendance weren’t worthy of being in the Heisman Trophy candidate’s presence — either of which seemed wholeheartedly appropriate amid Saturday’s demolition.

Corum and Edwards spearheaded a rushing attack that emasculated the country’s fifth-ranked run defense to the tune of 418 yards and four touchdowns on 55 punitive, punishing and pugilistic carries. They embodied the ethos of their run-first, run-second, then run-it-again head coach, Jim Harbaugh, to declaw the Nittany Lions in a 41-17 win that cemented Michigan’s status as a College Football Playoff contender and one of the Big Ten’s two best teams.

"Like coach Harbaugh said in the locker room," quarterback J.J. McCarthy recalled in his postgame news conference, "‘It’s a butt-kicking in every which way a butt can be kicked.’ This was in our house, and we take pride in that. We protect our house. Just being able to do it in the fashion that we did was just awesome to see."

Such ruggedness was merely the latest confirmation of Harbaugh’s affinity for smash-mouth principles during Michigan’s most important games. It was the spring of 2021 when Harbaugh and his coaching staff redirected the focus away from offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ speed-in-space approach and replaced it with the kind of brute force that would have made former coaches Lloyd Carr and Bo Schembechler proud. The Wolverines finished the season seventh nationally among Power 5 programs with 214.4 rushing yards per game behind an offensive line that won the Joe Moore Award and a running back in Hassan Haskins who accrued more first downs (103) than any tailback in the country.

Highlights: Penn State vs. Michigan

No. 5 Michigan dominated No. 10 Penn State in this top-10 Big Ten matchup, 41-17, with Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards leading the way.

How rigidly Harbaugh committed to the rushing attack felt tethered to the quality of opponent his team faced: the bigger the game, the stronger he clung to his roots. Michigan ran the ball 138 times for 784 yards and 10 touchdowns (5.7 yards per carry) in high-profile wins over Washington, Penn State and Ohio State with McCarthy and fellow quarterback Cade McNamara attempting just 64 passes in those three games combined.

The run-pass ratio from Saturday’s dismantling of the Nittany Lions felt eerily similar when the Wolverines ran the ball more than twice as often as they threw it. McCarthy completed 17 of 24 passes for 145 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception while adding 57 rushing yards of his own.

"You have to have a dominant run game," McCarthy said. "You don’t see any Air Raid offenses winning national championships. It’s where it’s done, in the trenches, and that’s where the battle is won. Of course, coach Harbaugh loves that. He’s all about the nitty-gritty way of playing football and the blue-collar way."

On Saturday, Harbaugh’s blue-collar way was predicated on the successful pairing of Corum and Edwards in a multipronged attack that averaged 7.7 yards per carry. Concerns about whether the 5-foot-8, 210-pound Corum could shoulder the load of a bona fide No. 1 tailback like Haskins were answered in bruising performances against Maryland (30 carries, 243 yards, 2 TDs), Iowa (29 carries, 133 yards, 1 TD) and Indiana (25 carries, 124 yards, 1 TD) the last three weeks. Running backs coach Mike Hart told reporters Corum’s volume of carries during that stretch was a necessary evil en route to winning games.

Michigan's unstoppable ground game

RJ Young analyzes Michigan's impressive win over Penn State.

Corum’s work rate metastasized in the first half against Penn State, which arrived in Ann Arbor allowing a meager 79.6 rushing yards per game. He carried 21 times for 93 yards in the opening half alone to slash the Nittany Lions for six first downs, one touchdown and what amounted to far more production than highly touted PSU tailbacks Nicholas Singleton (six carries, 19 yards) and Kaytron Allen (six carries, 16 yards) managed in four quarters combined. At one point, co-offensive coordinators Sherrone Moore and Matt Weiss called Corum’s number on five consecutive plays to pound the ball into the end zone from the 16-yard line.

"When you’re rushing for 400 yards in a game against the No. 10 team in the country," McCarthy said, "I’ll sit back and be a part of that ride every single game."

Augmenting Corum’s 28 carries for 166 yards and two scores was the coaching staff’s most effective sprinkling of Edwards as a supplementary option. The former five-star recruit from nearby West Bloomfield, Michigan, gained 124 of his career-high 173 yards after halftime to further erode Penn State’s demoralized defensive front. Edwards preempted Corum’s dazzling 61-yard touchdown with a 67-yard score of his own, sweeping around the right side of an offensive line that whitewashed a running lane with two pulling linemen, punctuating the run with a devilish open-field juke that floored Penn State’s last defender.

With the game long since won, Michigan applied its final twist of the knife with 2:17 remaining: four consecutive handoffs that melted the clock, delighted the fans and pushed the Wolverines over 400 rushing yards.

"I thought the team made a real positive statement today," Harbaugh said. "Do you call it a statement game? OK, call it a statement game."

A butt-kicking, indeed.

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Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.