Replacing Blake Corum — arguably the best running back in Michigan football history — will not be easy for the Wolverines heading into the 2024 season. Corum totaled more than 1,200 yards and 27 touchdowns last year as a senior.
That type of production would be hard for any college football program to replace, but senior running backs Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards are ready to do whatever they can to keep up the dominance of the Michigan running game.
With Corum handling many of the goal line opportunities last season, Mullings only rushed for 222 yards and a score, with his lone touchdown coming against Nebraska in the form of a 20-yard scamper.
Edwards, meanwhile, spent most of the 2023 season struggling to find his role. Optimism was extremely high for Edwards heading into the season, but he never seemed to get into a consistent rhythm.
He rushed for just 497 yards and five touchdowns in 2023.
But heading into 2024, Mullings says he sees the backfield returning to the 'thunder and lightning' identity that it first adopted in 2021.
"I definitely think Dono and myself — our games complement each other," Mullings said. "Dono can take that thing 90 yards like that. I feel like I can definitely bring some thunder to that lightning, and it will be great to play off of each other, so I'm excited."
Mullings has drawn early comparisons — from Edwards, ironically — to Hassan Haskins, who emerged as the original lightning in 2021.
"I think that's a great comparison," Mullings said. "I know H2 played a little defense back in his day. I did as well. We're about the same size; both run hard, so that's a great comparison. I'm a fan of it. [I'm a] fan of H2's game, and really, sort of, when I was first making this transition to offense, that's really who I was looking at as a role model. I'm all for that comparison."
But thunder isn't as effective without lightning, and Mullings says Edwards — the lightning — has been locking in during spring camp.
"For Dono, I just feel like this spring, for these first few practices, I've seen him so locked in on every small part of the game. ... Just so focused on all the little details and making sure — because it's easy sometimes, once you're a great player, to forget about small, minor things, but this whole spring, I've just seen him attacking all the little details and all the little things to make sure everything's polished up, so it's been great to see that."
Not only does Michigan feature a dynamic 1-2 punch of Mullings and Edwards, but it also has a young core of running backs that will soon showcase their talents.
Tavierre Dunlap, Benjamin Hall, Cole Cabana, Micah Ka'apana and Jordan Marshall are all waiting their turns to become the next 1-2 punch of thunder and lightning.
But for 2024, the majority of the workload will be on the seniors, the ones who have proven they can contribute in big moments.
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