The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1514918
FEBRUARY 2024 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 11 dominant running game. The Wolverines changed it up and started running some "duo" scheme, a vertical attack with the offensive line, to create more room for the backs. While Corum took advantage, junior Donovan Edwards was the one to get it rolling. Edwards scored twice in the first quar- ter on runs of 41 and 46 yards, the sec- ond opening a 14-3 lead. Nobody knew it at the time, but those two touchdowns would be all the U-M defense needed. "The Don" showed burst and accelera- tion he hadn't displayed much of the year on his runs. There was a reason for that, Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart said leading up to the game. "He had a couple major surgeries in the offseason that he came back early from," Hart noted. "I tell him — he has to believe. And he had that confidence." He'd shown flashes during the year, including a key touchdown run against Penn State, but averaged 3.5 yards or less per carry in 10 of 14 games heading into the championship matchup. Against Washington, though, he looked like the Donovan Edwards of old. The junior from West Bloomfield, Mich., bounced left out of a pile for his first run, accelerating to the left sideline. He showed patience and vision on the second, bursting through a hole between right guard and tackle. "I knew Donovan always had the ex- plosiveness in him," right tackle Trente Jones said. "Everybody talked about how he wasn't this, wasn't that this year. But it was always there this year. It was only a matter of time before he popped one. It was just the time. "We knew we were going to go out there with our preparation and attempt to run the ball. Once we got our feet in the ground [and saw Edwards run] … it was,