Michigan senior day: Donovan Edwards' top 7 plays as a Wolverine

The Michigan Wolverines will bid farewell to the 2021 senior class on Saturday in Ann Arbor with the Northwestern Wildcats in town. There is no shortage of great players or memories to sift through from over the years and a group that won 45 games (and counting), three Big Ten Championships and a national title.

Few provided as much sizzle as senior running back Donovan Edwards, who had a ton of critical runs, game-sealing moments and big plays in victories during his time in Ann Arbor. There have been a ton of ups and downs on the field, but when the moment called for it, ‘The Don’ typically delivered.

Here are the 7 best plays of No. 7’s Michigan career.

7. Securing a win vs. Michigan State

Michigan’s offensive struggles in 2024 have been well-noted, but for one night at the end of October, the team was able to empty the playbook and upend the rival Michigan State Spartans in a 24-17 victory. Up 16-10 in the fourth quarter, U-M dialed up a trick play that saw Edwards complete a touchdown pass to Colston Loveland, extend a lead and helping Paul Bunyan stay home.

6. The wheels on The Don go round and round

Michigan was without Blake Corum in a 59-18 win at Maryland in 2021, one week before a program-changing win against Ohio State. That meant a bigger role for the then-freshman running back, who flexed his potential as a pass catcher in the game with 10 catches for 170 yards and a touchdown. His score came on a 77-yard scamper off a wheel route from Cade McNamara with the Wolverines already cruising up 38-18. We wish we would have seen more of him as a receiver in his time at Michigan, but this showed off his big play ability early on in his career.

5. 67 yards at the Big House

Only a few teams in the country have been victimized to the extent that the Penn State Nittany Lions have been over Edwards’ career. Despite Urban Meyer saying on the FOX set before the game that PSU would stop the run against Michigan, the Wolverines ran for 418 yards with Edwards going off for 173 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-17 romp. His 67-yard rush gave Michigan a lead that it would never look back from down 17-16 in the third quarter.

4. 3rd and 11

Another play, another moment against Penn State. This was a modest stat line comparative to his outing against them the previous year, but 10 carries for 52 yards and a touchdown was a big boost in a 24-15 win against the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley without head coach Jim Harbaugh. His biggest moment of the game came on a 3rd and 11 play in the second quarter where Michigan elected to run the ball – it did so 32 times to close out the victory – for a 22-yard touchdown on the road, and helped set a tone in a dominant, old-school win

3. Trickeration

We’ve already had an Edwards trick pass on this list, but you never forget the first one. What makes it even better is that it came in a game that saw Michigan put a Big Ten Championship Trophy in its locker room for the first time since 2004 in a 42-3 defeat of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Edwards hit Roman Wilson for a 75-yard score on the first play of the third offensive possession, extending the Michigan lead to 14-3 and sending the Maize and Blue faithful at Lucas Oil Stadium into a frenzy.

2. The national title game

At the end of a season that did not go as planned, only gaining 383 yards and three touchdowns on 109 carries, Edwards broke out in outstanding fashion during the team’s CFP title game win over Washington. Against the Huskies, he rushed 6 times for 104 yards and two touchdowns, both from 40-plus yards in the first quarter. It was his first 100-yard game of the season.

The 41- and 46-yard scoring runs are the second and third largest in CFP title game history behind Derrick Henry, who had a 50-yard scamper for Alabama in the 2016 game against the Clemson Tigers.

‘The Don’ breaks the Buckeyes

Michigan landed the knockout blow of the OSU game in 2023 after the Mike Sainristil pass breakup and goal line stand. It took one offensive play for the momentum to swing completely in the Wolverines’ direction thanks to a 75-yard touchdown run from Edwards to extend the lead to 38-23 with 7:23 remaining.

Michigan’s defense grabbed an interception on the next drive, and Edwards followed three plays later with an 85-yard touchdown run that sealed the deal in U-M’s victory over the Buckeyes. Both long runs came courtesy of the center and right guard sealing off their men and giving Edwards a wide-open running lane to get through.