The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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8 THE WOLVERINE ❱ DECEMBER 2023 "What are you going to do when your back's against the wall? What are you go- ing to do when everyone's against you? Are you going to cower down? I was taught to stand on all 10. Keep fighting. Keep fight- ing. Keep punching. Keep going." — Michigan senior tailback Blake Corum B lake Corum looked more like Maxi- mus Decimus Meridius (aka Gladi- ator) after Michigan's 24-15 win at Penn State. He sat in the cramped postgame press conference afterward, the bridge of his nose streaming blood down both sides, despite getting tightly taped. The blood trickled under and out from an eye black strip, enhancing the war paint look. He and his teammates just went 15 rounds with Penn State, another top-10 team. Corum got punched early, and he — behind the Michigan offensive line, tight ends and wideouts — punched back, over and over and over. Thirty-two straight times they ran the football, channeling a combination of Bo Schembechler and Fielding H. Yost. They didn't record a single second-half pass. They didn't know Penn State's signs, and the Nittany Lions didn't need to know theirs. The latter knew what was coming. We're running it. You stop us — if you can. "Going into halftime we said, up front we're going to dominate," Corum recalled. "I just kept pushing them — push, man, and fight! Fight, fight, fight! We're going to run hard. That's what happened." They faced a lockdown defense without Jim Harbaugh, sidelined by the Big Ten in what athletics director Warde Manuel called an "unethical" fashion. They did it for Jim Harbaugh, who couldn't even show up for the biggest game of the year to date. The Wolverines got bloodied along the way, but they never stopped counterpunching. That's got to be the battle cry for the rest of the 2023 season. Absorb the blows, and respond with a furious, overwhelming combination of your own. They've been called cheaters. They've been called sympathy seekers. They've been pilloried for alleged jaywalking by relative axe murderers in the col- lege football rule-breaking world. And they've been turned on by their own conference, one steeped in hypocrisy and governed by a new commissioner who treated due process like a quaint, anach- ronistic notion in benching Harbaugh for the remainder of the Big Ten regular season, barring legal remedy. While in no way condoning running afoul of the rules, Manuel swung back hard against the process, in this instance. The Big Ten shelved Harbaugh in a fash- ion timed to keep him off the field at Penn State. The only item on commis- sioner Tony Petitti's checklist remaining blank involved a Penn State victory, and Manuel refused to keep silent. In a game-day press release, Manuel torched the Big Ten, saying in part: "Yes- terday, under the guise of the NCAA Rule regarding Head Coach Responsibility, the Big Ten decided to penalize Coach Har- baugh without knowing all the facts, and I find that completely unethical, insult- ing to a well-established process within the NCAA, and an assault on the rights of everyone [especially in the Big Ten] to be judged by a fair and complete investiga- tion. Not liking someone or another uni- versity or believing without any evidence that they knew or saying someone should have known without an investigation is not grounds to remove someone from their position before the NCAA process has reached a conclusion through a full NCAA investigative process. "All of the Head Coaches in the Big Ten [some who have been accused of actively participating in the trading of signals of opponents] and my Big Ten AD colleagues can rejoice today that someone was 'held accountable,' but they should be wor- ried about the new standard of judgment [without complete investigation] that has been unleashed in this conference. "You may have removed him from our sidelines today, but Jim Harbaugh is our head football coach. We look forward to defending Jim's right to coach our foot- ball team at the hearing on Friday. He has instilled his pride, passion, and the team's belief in themselves to achieve greatness. I will continue to support Jim through- out this process, my coaches and staff, and especially our student-athletes as we continue to play this game and fight to win for Michigan and all who love us." Michigan's job? Make sure those who hate the Wolverines hate them more over the next several weeks. Keep fighting. Keep punching. Keep winning. And keep creating a united front at Michigan, which recent events crystal- lized. From university president Santa Ono to Manuel to Michigan's Board of Regents, it's coming across like The Team, The Team, The Team. "Boy, I'm feeling a galvanized Michi- gan," Harbaugh said. "University, alumni network, all the alums — largest living alumni body in the world, for any school — and the fan base, which goes coast to coast, and worldwide, really being galva- nized. That's a tremendous thing. That's a monumental thing, when you think about it. Everybody fighting like the team we're supposed to be. And that's going to be tough to beat." ❑ WOLVERINE WATCH ❱ JOHN BORTON It's Michigan Vs. Everybody — Bring It On This postgame photo of Blake Corum — the face of a warrior — went viral following Michigan's hard-fought 24-15 win at Penn State Nov. 11. PHOTO BY BEN HERBERT Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @JB_Wolverine.