TEAM SAGA: My place can`t be taking "He should go to where He belong"

Blake Corum bounces back from injury, leads Michigan to brink of first national title since 1997

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Blake Corum declared it was “natty or bust,” before the college football season kicked off and reiterated his bold statement before helping Michigan beat Alabama to put the school within a win of its first national championship since 1997.

“This time last year, I wasn’t here,” Corum said following the Rose Bowl, a year after having surgery on his left knee. “So, I just want to thank God. Full circle. Full 365, and I’m blessed.”

The top-seeded Wolverines feel fortunate to have Corum on their side against second-seeded Washington on Monday night in Houston at the College Football Playoff championship game.

Power up: Michigan's Blake Corum adds 12 pounds, ready for larger workload in 2022 - mlive.com

“I feel like he in my eyes is the most valuable player of our team,” Rose Bowl and team MVP J.J. McCarthy said Wednesday. “There’s so many of them that are right up at his caliber, but especially from an offensive perspective, I feel like he’s one of the guys that makes our offense go.

“Just everything he’s been through, all the adversity that he’s been through, just from his upbringing to this past year, just everything about who he is and just his character, how he attacks every single day, it just rubs off on all of us.”

Corum had a season-ending knee injury late last season, limiting him against Ohio State and keeping him out of the Big Ten championship game and national semifinals.

He bounced back well enough to win college football’s Comeback Player of the Year award just before extending his single-season Michigan record to 25 rushing touchdowns and setting the career mark at the school with 56 touchdowns on the ground.