Offense notes: Donovan Edwards, Blake Corum, Michigan bulldoze Washington in national championship game win

HOUSTON, Texas — No. 1 Michigan Wolverines football went over 41 minutes without converting on a third or fourth down but finished 15-0 with a 34-13 win over No. 2 Washington in the national championship game Monday night at NRG Stadium. The Maize and Blue were able to accomplish that with big plays early on, an incredible defensive effort and an offense that found itself late to finish the deal.

Washington couldn’t stop the Michigan run game early on, with the Wolverines amassing 174 yards and 2 touchdowns in the first quarter. That yardage total would’ve ranked as the sixth-most among Michigan performances this season, in only 15 minutes of play. Junior running back Donovan Edwards averaged only 3.5 yards per carry all season but ripped off 41- and 46-yard touchdown runs, the second and third longest in CFP national championship game history (since 2014) and his two longest of the year.

“I was so excited for Donovan because I just felt like he needed that,” Michigan senior running back Blake Corum said. “He needed it. He’s back. Dono is back. And I don’t know what he’s going to do after this. I hope he just celebrates and doesn’t think about what decision he’s going to make.”

“I’ve been honored to be his roommate for two years,” Michigan junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy said. “And just knowing everything he goes through behind the scenes and just the man he is on a day-to-day basis, this couldn’t have been a better moment for him to show out and show the world who he really is. And just so frickin’ happy for the guy.”

“The Don is back,” Corum added with a smile.

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Corum also had a huge hand in Michigan’s rushing success, of course, with a 59-yard run (his longest of the season) down to the Washington 20-yard line that set up a field goal to give the Wolverines a 17-3 edge.
He went off late with a 12-yard touchdown and 1-yard score to finish the deal, and finished with 134 of the team’s 303 rushing yards.

Corum will leave Michigan with 58 career rushing touchdowns.

“Playmakers … coaches always say, playmakers have to make plays,” Corum said. “And don’t wait on anyone else to make a play. But today was a complete, complete team effort. There’s so many people making plays out there.”

J.J. McCarthy, Michigan passing game held in check

McCarthy completed 10 of his 18 passes for 140 yards, really struggling to get much going through the air. Only four receivers caught a pass, led by sophomore tight end Colston Loveland with 3 grabs for 64 yards. His 41-yard chunk gain on 3rd and 18 helped set up Corum’s 12-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter and give the Wolverines a two-touchdown lead. Loveland’s big play came after a play fake.

“It was just one of those plays where just trusted my fundamentals, trusted the play, trusted Colston,” McCarthy explained. “Just seeing him over the middle and see the linebackers press up, I knew it was going to be there. I just had to get that ball off. And the line held up just enough. They held up just enough.”

Before the pass to Loveland, McCarthy had missed his previous 3 throws and 8 of his last 10. Starting with the key third-down pickup, he completed 5 of his last 6 passes.

Michigan totaled 131 total yards in the second and third quarters combined — not a pretty performance for much of the night. But the Wolverines did enough early and late to bulldoze Washington to the tune of 8 yards per carry and convert on just enough key passes.

Miscellaneous Michigan football offense notes

• Michigan is now 2-2 in College Football Playoff games, appearing in three events with one national championship.

• U-M ends the season with a perfect 15-0 record. Clemson (2018), LSU (2019), and Georgia (2022) are the only other teams in college football history to achieve a single-season record of 15 wins without a loss. It is the winningest season in Michigan history. U-M’s 28 wins over the past two seasons (2022-23) and 40 wins over the past three seasons (2021-22-23) are program records over two- and three-year stretches.

• Michigan is the second Big Ten team to win a national championship in the CFP era (Ohio State, 2014).

• Only Alabama running back Derrick Henry‘s 50-yard touchdown run against Clemson in the Jan. 11, 2016 national championship game was longer than Edwards’ two scores. Edwards is the first player in CFP National Title Game history to run for two touchdowns of 40-plus yards.

• The Wolverines had four plays of 35-plus yards in just one half.

• • Both Corum and Edwards registered two rushing touchdowns in the game. It was the first time since Sept. 18, 2021, that multiple U-M ball carriers recorded multiple rushing touchdowns, and the second time in CFP Title Game history that a team produced the feat (2022 Georgia).

• Michigan finished with 303 rushing yards, both a season-high for the Wolverines and a CFP championship game high. It was U-M’s fourth time with over 200-plus team rushing yards rushing this season.