Blake Corum On Learning From Mike Hart, Michigan's Mindset To 'Just Win'
Michigan Wolverines football players have a few weeks off until they report back for summer conditioning ahead of fall camp, but for second-year freshman running back Blake Corum, who says he has "fallen in love with the weight room," being 'off' is more of a formality. The Marshall, Va., native is back home for a week seeing family and working out with his high school trainer.
"Then it’s time to get back to business. I can’t wait," Corum said in an appearance on the In The Trenches podcast with host Jon Jansen.
During Michigan's disappointing 2-4 season in 2020, Corum got some opportunity to see the field, registering 77 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries and also hauling in five catches for 73 yards. While it wasn't the season the Maize and Blue wanted as a whole, he was able to learn quite a bit, which is setting him up for the rest of his career in a winged helmet.
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"I learned that it’s bigger than football. Everyone from the team can play football. It comes down to what your IQ is like," Corum said. "Can you read the defenses? Can you read the over and under fronts? Can you tell which blitz is coming? That’s where I had to go with it.
"I knew I could play, I knew I had speed, I knew I had power — but I feel I was lacking the IQ part. So I really took time and got in the classroom, really just understanding everything as a student of the game.
"With everything, it takes time. But when you put your all into something, you can pick it up kinda fast. Me going in the classroom dang near every day benefitted me during the season, after the season and in the spring. And I can definitely tell a big difference in my game just by being able to read the defense."
Now, he's learning even more under new running backs coach Mike Hart, a former Wolverine player who is the school's all-time leading rusher.
"I believe I was in the car when [head] Coach [Jim Harbaugh] called me and told me what he was about to do [hire Hart], and I was excited," Corum recalled. "I had a big grin on my face. I think my mom was driving, we were going somewhere. I told my mom, ‘Hey mom, we just got Mike Hart.’ And I called my dad and said, ‘Dad, we just got Mike Hart.’
"I was excited. I know Coach Mike Hart from high school and the recruitment process, and I know what he did at Michigan was huge. Just to be able to learn from him, a smaller running back that had no fear, just wanted to attack everything … learning from him has been great so far, and I can’t wait to keep learning from him."
Harbaugh made significant changes to his staff and many other aspects of the program during the offseason, and players have said there is more energy around the building and in practice. They also say the team built a stronger bond during spring ball, all of which will help them this fall.
"It allowed us to bond together and really determine what we want the outcome to be this year," Corum said of the team's 15 spring practices, pointing out that he enrolled early last year but didn't have a spring in Ann Arbor due to the pandemic."
That has set the groundwork for the squad coming up with their goals and a collective mindset heading into the 2021 campaign. Corum says they're ready to right the ship after 2020 didn't go as planned.
"As a team, what we’ve been talking about this spring — anything we put our mind to, we can accomplish as long as we come together and we’re on the same page and communicate," Corum said. "The way I feel about our team right now, we’re brothers, but we really bonded this spring, and I feel like it was needed.
"We’re going in, we’re going to win. And we’re not [just] going to win, we’re going to beat them pretty bad. That’s the mindset I feel like we have — and we have to have — going into this season, that no one can stop us. The only people that can stop us are ourselves, and we’re not going to let that happen. I feel like that’s the mindset and that’s the expectation — just win."
Individually, Corum, a 5-foot-8 speedster who estimates he can run a 40-yard dash in the '4.3 range,' wants to help the team in whatever way he can. In his mind, that means playing the role of a complete running back, whereas some say he should be more of a change-of-pace ball-carrier.
"I feel I bring an all-around back," Corum explained. "A lot of people say [to] get me to the edge or put me in the slot. But really, I feel like I can run up the middle, I can find those holes, I can get skinny, I can break tackles, I can block. I feel like I’m an all-around back, so however the coaches feel they want to use me — outside zone, inside zone, pass protection — I feel like they can use me anywhere on the field. And I’m going to give it everything I have, wherever I’m at. So that’s the type of player I feel like I bring to the table."
And his personal expectations didn't include a number of carries or yards, no set quotas he wants to meet.
"My expectation is just to get better every day, whether it be in the weight room, on the field, in the classroom," Corum said. "Just to get one percent better every day. If I get better every day, at the end of the summer when camp starts and then at the end of camp, I feel like it’s going to be a good outcome if I put in all the work I put in. So that’s my expectation, is to just get better every day, strive to be great and give everything I have."
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