PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — You could hear the air being sucked out of Michigan Stadium all the way back on Nov. 19 when, a week before a season-defining match against Ohio State, the Wolverines’ star running back, Blake Corum, grabbed his left knee after a first-quarter run.
The Wolverines beat Illinois that day, but the injury to Corum, considered a Heisman Trophy candidate at the time, overshadowed an underwhelming win. Corum tried to give it a go at Ohio State the following week, but left the game for good after two carries, a torn meniscus ending his season.
Nevertheless, the Wolverines went on to dispatch Ohio State and then Purdue in the Big Ten Championship game, putting themselves in the College Football Playoff for the second straight season. They’ll try to win a third straight game minus their 1,463-yard rusher on Saturday in the Fiesta Bowl against TCU.
“It’s a credit to all the guys around him stepping up,” co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss said. “Like [running backs] Donovan [Edwards] or C.J. [Stokes] or [Tavierre Dunlap]. But it’s a credit to the offensive line, obviously, and [quarterback] J.J. [McCarthy] and the tight ends who are a huge part of the running game.”
The Wolverines have not missed Corum all that much. Not in Columbus, where they ran for 278 yards, as Edwards, a sophomore from West Bloomfield, Mich., salted the game away with touchdowns of 75 and 85 yards. And not in Indianapolis, where they ran for 161 yards and controlled the game throughout against Purdue.
What about the Fiesta Bowl?
“They are going to try and run the football,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “It’s going to be important for us to do everything we can to get the run game stopped.”
The Horned Frogs have given up more than 100 yards of rushing in all but two games this year, against Texas and Tarleton State. Only six times, though, have opponents averaged more than four yards per carry against them. But Michigan’s offensive line is coming off a second straight year winning the Joe Moore Award as the best in the country, and will be a challenge greater than any that TCU has faced in the pass-happy Big 12.
“Just being able to dominate the man in front of you, that’s kind of what we live for in this game as offensive linemen,” Michigan center Olusegun Oluwatimi said. “And run blocking is definitely more enjoyable than pass blocking.”
Dykes is not wrong: Michigan wants to maul its way to a national title. Even undermanned, the Wolverines just might be capable of doing that.