Michigan final thoughts: Is Blake Corum’s knee ‘fine’ for Ohio State?

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In honor of 11-0 Michigan versus 11-0 Ohio State, 11 final thoughts on the Wolverines’ 19-17 victory against Illinois:

1. The topic on everyone’s mind after the game was the health of running back Blake Corum, who injured his knee late in the first half and had one carry after halftime.

Corum spent Sunday afternoon handing out turkeys to families in Ypsilanti, Mich., as part of a Thanksgiving charity event he started last year. Corum purchased 150 turkeys with his name, image and likeness earnings and partnered with community organizations to distribute them at two locations.

Corum didn’t provide a lot of detail about his injury but did address it briefly.

“The knee’s fine,” he said. “It’ll get better. I’ll be back.” Asked if he underwent more testing Sunday, he reiterated, “It’s fine.” As for Saturday’s game against Ohio State, he said, “I’ll be there.”

Blake Corum spent this afternoon in Ypsilanti handing out turkeys he purchased with his NIL proceeds.

“The knee’s fine,” he said. “It’ll get better. I’ll be back.” pic.twitter.com/43IxRw55jS

— Austin Meek (@byAustinMeek) November 20, 2022

Coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game that Corum’s knee was “structurally good.” That’s not a guarantee he’ll be able to play against the Buckeyes, or that he’ll be close to his usual self if he does. It’s a positive sign that Corum was cleared to return against Illinois, but it’s hard to conclude much from one carry.

“It felt fine,” Corum said. “I think it was a 5-yard carry. It felt fine. The coaches just said, ‘You’re good.’”

How much can Michigan realistically expect from Corum this week? That’s the question everyone will be asking, and we may not get the answer until kickoff.

2. College football programs spend millions of dollars managing their 85 scholarships, trying to recruit the best players and build a roster that can stand up to anything. Yet every year, there’s a moment when somebody’s season comes down to a play from a fourth-string walk-on.

That was the case for Michigan in the fourth quarter against Illinois. Without Corum and Donovan Edwards, the Wolverines were relying on freshman running back CJ Stokes and walk-on Isaiah Gash, the son of former NFL fullback Sam Gash.

Gash did not have a reception in three years at Michigan entering Saturday. He had a crucial drop in the fourth quarter when the Wolverines were in the red zone and trying to score a go-ahead touchdown. But when the Wolverines needed to convert a do-or-die fourth down with less than a minute remaining, quarterback J.J. McCarthy didn’t hesitate to look Gash’s way.

“I have 100 percent confidence in every single guy on this team,” McCarthy said. “He obviously doesn’t want to drop that ball. I know he’s going to come back the next opportunity he gets to make that play.”

3. On fourth-and-3, Gash split out wide and jogged in motion like he was going to come across the formation. At the snap, he stopped and drifted into the flat. Tight end Colston Loveland cleared out his defender — to the chagrin of Illinois coach Bret Bielema, apparently — and Gash was wide open for an easy reception.

To all #ILL players, coaches and especially for our fans…. We will work all week in practice to defend this play especially on 4th down #famILLy https://t.co/bJhpShjbcY

— Bret Bielema (@BretBielema) November 19, 2022

That was a play Michigan installed last week specifically for Corum, Harbaugh said. Despite Gash’s earlier drop, Michigan had the confidence to call his number in that situation, and he delivered.

“That was a Blake play all the way,” Harbaugh said. “Blake got the most reps on it. Blake was the guy we wanted to run that play. I think Isaiah had one practice rep on that play. We talked about it on the sideline. He said he got it, he would be able to execute it. He did a fantastic job doing it in the game.”

4. Gash’s reception extended the drive and gave Jake Moody a chance at the first winning field goal of his career. Moody, last year’s Lou Groza Award winner, is in his fifth season and had made 64 of his 78 attempts before that final kick, including 51 of 56 inside 40 yards.

Moody is known for his steely nerves, and the pressure of the moment — swirling wind, his first kick to win it, Michigan’s season on the line — didn’t faze him.

“I treated it as any other kick,” said Moody, who was 4-for-4 on field goal attempts. “I didn’t think, ‘Oh my God, I need to make this, I can’t miss it.’ I go out there, I pick my spot, I trust my steps, trust the snap and the hold, and everything went to plan.”

5. Moody’s winner moved him past Garrett Rivas for the most made field goals in program history. It also moved him past Tyrone Wheatley and into third place on the school’s career scoring list with 330 points, 24 behind Rivas for the school record.

With at least two games remaining, Moody has a chance to hit the trifecta and become Michigan’s career leader in made field goals, scoring and field goal percentage. He’s currently at 82.3 percent, trailing only Bob Bergeron’s school record of 82.9 percent.

“I’ve been watching Michigan football since I was a kid,” Harbaugh said. “I’m a pretty decent historian for Michigan football, and I am nominating him for legendary status.”

6. One of the key sequences of the game happened early in the fourth quarter when Illinois quarterback Tommy DeVito mishandled a snap on third-and-8, resulting in a punt and a 40-yard return from Ronnie Bell.

The Illini had made very few mistakes up to that point. They were near midfield, and another scoring drive would have put Michigan in serious trouble. Bell’s return gave Michigan great field position, and even though the Wolverines didn’t cash it in with a touchdown, Moody’s field goal alleviated some of the pressure.

Bell was only returning punts because A.J. Henning wasn’t playing. Bell tore his ACL on a punt return last season, so maybe it was fitting that his final game at Michigan Stadium included a crucial return.

“Once I broke the first (tackle), whoever hit me the first time, I knew it was go time,” Bell said. “I just tried to get as many yards as possible and get upfield and just run.”

7. It’s difficult to imagine what was going through the mind of center Olu Oluwatimi when he stepped onto the field Saturday. As a transfer from Virginia, Oluwatimi was hit hard by the news of the shooting that killed three Virginia players. On top of that, Oluwatimi’s father underwent successful surgery last week to remove a brain tumor, Harbaugh said.

“All that was going on for Olu this week,” Harbaugh said. “I think back to being that age. There’s no way I could have handled that, but he has the strength of 10 men.”

8. The Wolverines wanted to take a moment to savor their senior day victory before turning their focus to Ohio State, and that’s fair enough. But the Ohio State game has been building on the horizon for a while, and now it’s the only thing anyone will be thinking about for the next five days.

As we noted last week, the passing game is what it is at this point. Maybe the Wolverines will do what South Carolina did Saturday night and have an out-of-nowhere performance against an elite team, but I wouldn’t bet on it. It’s more likely that Saturday’s game will come down to whether Michigan can hit a few explosive plays through the air to complement what the Wolverines want to do on the ground.

McCarthy had two throws that could have changed the complexion of Saturday’s game. One was a shot to Andrel Anthony on fourth down when McCarthy thought he had a free play. The coverage wasn’t bad, but Anthony got his hands on the ball and should have come down with it. If McCarthy had completed that pass and another to a wide-open Loveland in the red zone, he would have had two touchdowns and 250-plus passing yards.

There’s no magic fix for the passing game, but there have been a few makeable plays in each game that could change that narrative a bit. Cade McNamara hit those throws last year against Ohio State. If McCarthy can do the same, Michigan has a shot. If not, it could be a long day.

9. It’s clear the Wolverines are getting tired of being asked about their passing game. The same thing happened last year when the Wolverines were seen as being too limited to beat a team like Ohio State, until they did.

This year’s offense had the potential to be more dynamic, but the passing game has stagnated in the second half of the season. At some point, that unrealized potential starts to look like a hard ceiling. The Wolverines are optimistic that their passing game can rise to the occasion, and at this point, that’s exactly what it is: optimism.

“I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s not there,” Bell said. “It’s just the slightest of things we’re missing on.”

10. The odds of the Big Ten getting two teams into the College Football Playoff improved slightly with Tennessee’s loss to South Carolina. It’s hard to imagine the Michigan-Ohio State loser getting in ahead of a one-loss USC team that wins the Pac-12, and it would be fascinating to see what the committee does with a one-loss Clemson team that wins the ACC. This is the time of year when upsets happen, and although most of the CFP contenders survived Saturday’s scares, there’s a lot of football left.

A competitive game in Columbus is the Big Ten’s best shot at getting two teams in the CFP. Maybe I’m in the minority, but if the Wolverines lose to Ohio State, I’m not sure that a CFP rematch against Georgia is clearly preferable to playing in the Rose Bowl. I’m partial to Pasadena, though.

Option A for Michigan is to beat Ohio State, win the Big Ten and earn one of the top two seeds, which likely means avoiding Georgia in the semifinals. Anything else is a backup plan.

11. As a final thought, it’s worth reflecting on how much things have changed in two years. At the end of the 2020 season, Michigan was 2-4 with a roster so depleted by injuries and COVID-19 that The Game had to be canceled. At the time, Michigan was so far behind the Buckeyes that catching up seemed like it would be a multiyear process, if it ever happened at all.

The Wolverines are 23-2 since then, including last year’s 42-27 victory against Ohio State. Some of those wins have been ugly, much like Saturday’s game against Illinois, but the Michigan program of two years ago didn’t have the resilience to keep winning those games. This one does.

“Everything about it is the culture the players have set and the culture that coach Harbaugh has flooded into the building every single day,” Bell said. “It’s completely shifted, man. The ones that didn’t make it through 2020, it’s a whole different team now.”