Michigan RB Donovan Edwards speaks for first time since return: 'I'm still hungry'

The Michigan Wolverines will be getting a major piece back in 2024 in running back Donovan Edwards, who finally gets a chance to lead the backfield after sharing duties with Blake Corum for the last few years.

Several of his teammates elected to declare for the 2024 NFL Draft after winning a national championship, but Edwards has unfinished business in Ann Arbor, he says. A six-carry, 104-yard, two-touchdown performance in the title game win over Washington could serve as a springboard as he works towards RB1 status at Michigan.

“I’m still hungry,” Edwards said in a podcast with the Champions Circle. “The season wasn’t how I wanted it to be necessarily, and just popping off the way that I did on the biggest stage, it’s like ‘that’s great.’ But what’s better than working hard in the off-season and being able to do it again? So that’s where my mindset is.

“I feel like I’ll be one of the leaders on the team now and that’s what I want to implement to the guys. Everybody’s gone right now, so what we have to do is continue to stay together. Bring the young guys up and have the older guys like Kalel and I mentor Cole Cabana, Ben Hall, Jordan Marshal… That’s where my mindset is. Even though we have the saying that ‘the job’s finished,’ we still want more.”

Edwards had 119 carries for 497 yards and five touchdowns this season, all marks that were well below his expectations. He was still seen as a potential top-100 prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft, but a Michigan degree and being close to home were marks that he leaned on in making his decision.

“I made my pros and cons list,” Edwards said. “A couple of pros were getting a degree. I’ll still be comfortable in my hometown in my home state, being able to connect with other people. Some of the cons were things that were a possibility or maybe will happen, versus the pros being ‘it’s going to happen.’

“So for me, I’m not here for anything else but to be the best version of myself and bring the best out of others. It’s not about money for me, it’s not about gloating about myself, it’s not about that for me. It’s more so just doing what I have to do, being a great person. And what other place to be able to grow at than at the University of Michigan, which is the best school in the country?

“I also prayed on it too and in that, I just feel like that’s what that’s what God needs me to do is to continue to grow up, continue to be a righteous man and uplift other people and to be a mentor now.”

Michigan has a massive leadership void to fill with the number of players that either graduated or are off to the NFL Draft, and Edwards hopes to help fill that and keep Michigan contending for Big Ten titles and national championships.

“I know my mission is to uphold the standard and to be a leader now, and I’m gonna do my absolute best to do that,” Edwards said. “I might be a tyrant and it might be something that people don’t like, but I just see it as me doing it just to win. And I’m also gonna be myself. If there’s nothing to say, there’s nothing to say. I just have to do me at the end of the day.

“I always just refer back to Josh Ross and Aidan Hutchinson’s senior year. They are the reason why we have been successful because they laid down the foundation and the blueprints and we just took that and ran with it. So it’s up to the leaders of this upcoming season to be able to continue to implement that. It’s a lot of younger guys, like Jadyn Davis who’s about to be a freshman, Semaj (Morgan), Fred (Moore), Melo (English), Jyaire (Hill), they’re all about to be sophomores. They weren’t there for that, so it’s up to us to continue to lay the foundation, what they instilled in us because clearly what they laid into us has made us successful so we have to just carry on that tradition.”

Of course, Edwards made his decision not fully knowing who Michigan’s head coach will be next year. Jim Harbaugh is going through the NFL hiring process and could land a job, or he could return. But he sees that as even more of a reason to come back and continue to be someone who has a say in the team’s achievements.

“Personally, I’m very happy that we’ve had the success and all my teammates have had the success,” Edwards said. “But for me, it’s a congratulations to them, but I also have to do me. Like if Coach Harbaugh goes, by all means, he deserves it and that’s not changing my decision to stay here in Michigan at all. I’m a Michigan man through and through, and I’m going to do everything that I can to uphold the standard of being the leader and the best for me and the team.

“It’s sad to see all of them go because I came in with Junior (Colson), JJ (McCarthy), and those were my brothers for life and I was very sad when they said like they were gone. But at the same time, I also have to uphold my destiny and uphold my mission.”