Michigan football: Bond, similarities between Mike Hart, Blake Corum continue to grow
In the second quarter of a 27-14 Michigan win at Iowa, junior running back Blake Corum added another feather to his cap. Having already made his presence felt in the running game, he took a shot in pass protection. He met a blitzing linebacker head on, got low — and flipped him head over heels.
Anyone who watched Mike Hart play from 2004-07 had seen this one before.
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Hart, though, refused to take full credit for Corum’s pass pro, even though it’s clearly and consistently improved.
“I think he’s been great since I’ve been here. It’s just the want-to,” the Michigan running backs coach said. “He wants to block everybody, hit everybody, cut everybody, do everything he has to do, so … yeah. It was good.”
Then he grinned.
“That was a good block.”
Corum has taken the Hassan Haskins role and run with it, having added good weight to move piles and take hits. Though he’s not at the point where he’s breaking tackles like Haskins — yet — he’s always falling forward for extra yardage.
Two weeks in a row, the Michigan junior racked up the carries. He was over 30 in a win over Maryland and at 29 against Iowa. If they need him to carry 40 times against Penn State, they probably would.
“I told him he’s not going to break my records [for carries], but I tell the kids and they know — we’ll do what we have to, to win,” Hart said. “So, do I want to do 30? No. I want to get Donovan [Edwards] more carries, CJ [Stokes] more carries. But we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to get to the win.
“I just feel like sometimes it’s best.”
It was similar when Hart played. Former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, one of Hart’s mentors, knew to lean on him when necessary, as did then-running backs coach Fred Jackson (now an offensive analyst).
But it takes trust, too. There were other talented backs on the roster when Hart played, but Jackson knew he could trust Hart on and off the field to do the right thing. Corum is even better than he was, Hart insisted, in being the dependable teammate.
He had to think a minute when he was asked if Corum was a “young Mike Hart.”
“I love Blake — and this doesn’t really answer your question, but — I want to think about somebody … like, I have two daughters. One of them’s a beast, and the other is really nice,” Hart said. “So basically, one of them acts like me, the other one of them acts like their mom. And Blake Corum could marry my daughters any day.
“When I think about that … you want your daughters to marry who you are, and that’s Blake Corum, in my opinion. I love the kid. We do have a special relationship. But I don’t want anyone touching my daughters, talking to my daughters. Blake Corum — he can do what he wants. My 4-year-old says, ‘When ‘Bwake’ coming to the house?’
“So, that’s all. The kid is special. He acts like me; he is me. He just eats better than I did.”
Though Corum is considered more an explosive, home-run hitter than Hart ever was, he’s also proving he has some of his former coach’s toughness in him. Saturday’s game was a “3-yard game,” Hart said — Iowa tends to play that way and has since he was there, Hart noted — and Corum played it perfectly.
At the end of the game, though, he made a move for a 20-yard touchdown that clinched the win, showing he’s got it all.
At 5-foot-8, he’s not the biggest back in the Big Ten. Like Hart, though — and again — he’s simply one of the best.
“I just think that whether you’re big, whether you’re small, if you’re good, you’re good,” Hart said. “And he’s good. He should be a guy that’s going to be talked about for the Doak Walker [Award], for the Heisman.
“We move as Blake moves. He’s a special player. I just love that kid.”
