ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football running back Blake Corum, coming of his second consecutive big game, is the Big Ten's offensive player of the week.
Corum set new career highs in rushing yards (171), all-purpose yards (231) and touchdowns (three) on 21 carries (8.14 avg.) in Michigan’s 31-10 win over Washington Saturday night, adding three catches for 11 yards. He also returned two kicks for 49 yards (24.5 avg.) and became the first Wolverine to score three touchdowns in a game since Nico Collins at Indiana on Nov. 23, 2019.
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“I want to shout out the O-line. They fired off the ball and were real physical," Corum said after the victory. "They made [Hassan Haskins'] and my job real easy. I thought they played a phenomenal game.”
This was Corum's first Offensive Player of the Week award. Shea Patterson was the last Wolverine to win it (Nov. 25, 2019).
Corum notched 14 carries for 111 yards in a Week One win over Western Michigan and is averaging 8.0 yards per carry. He's shown patience to the hole and explosion through it in becoming one of the conference's breakout performers in the early going.
“I feel like we knew at the end of the first quarter we were wearing them out. We were just going to keep pounding it," Corum said. "We were getting like five yards a carry. We were definitely moving the ball on them. We knew we were wearing them out. We could tell it in their posture, and just the way they were approaching the game.
“I believe they started to stack the box tonight, and we kept running it. If you can’t stop our offensive line, stacking the box doesn’t really matter.”
Michigan next plays Northern Illinois Saturday in Ann Arbor.
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