What started as a busload of prospects visiting in February has turned into a busload of commits. St. Frances Academy is such a powerhouse program that they had enough kids interested in Michigan—and vice versa—to take a pseudo class trip to Ann Arbor. Linebacker Osman Savage had been committed for about a month when the visit took place, and he was followed a day or two after the trip by offensive lineman Micah Mazzccua. 247’s Steve Lorenz moved running back Blake Corum up to the “top targets” list in light of the trip and cast a Michigan crystal ball. Then a month passed. Then two, then three, then four. There was an unofficial visit to UCF, then an official visit to Ohio State in the middle of June. Michigan finally got Corum back to campus for their massive visit weekend, and a recruitment that could have included official visits to USC and LSU was over.

GURU RANKINGS

247 is the clear outlier here. From his tape I tend to agree with where Rivals and ESPN have him. It’s especially odd for 247 to have him as low as they do considering some of what we’ll see in the next section, even more so because they don't view his size (all three sites have him at 5'9" and about 180 pounds) as a negative.

SCOUTING

Brian Dohn, 247’s national analyst, wrote a notably optimistic scouting report of Corum on his player profile page:

Corum has burst, can change direction at a high speed, is patient in waiting for plays to develop and he knows how to set up his blocks down the field. He is elusive, and he he runs with power. He has the speed to get to the edge, and the balance to turn the corner. As he gets older, his size and strength will continue to develop. He also will develop more ability to cut back.

Rivals’ Adam Friedman and Josh Helmholdt saw Corum at a camp in New Jersey in May 2017 and were generally on the same page as Dohn regarding Corum’s skills; it makes sense that they posed development as a question since Corum was coming off his freshman season.

A shorter back with good change of direction and quickness, Corum was a tough assignment for linebackers in both the cat-and-mouse drill and the receiving one-on-ones. The question going forward is how much more growth – fundamentally and physically – does Corum have, or is he close to being maxed out?

SBNation’s Alex Kirshner after an Under Armour camp in May 2018:

He’s another guy with a powerful build that suggests he can run between the tackles and a certain fluidity in his route-running that suggests he’s versatile.

ESPN national recruiting coordinator Craig Haubert provided a brief scouting report while quote-tweeting a Corum highlight:

Diminutive But tough, quick-footed, shifty runner - built low to ground w/ excellent balance & good speed.

Corum to The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich on how Jim and Jay Harbaugh said they would use Corum:

“They plan to use me everywhere. They plan to run me up the middle, outside, catch balls and also maybe return punts. I like it a lot.”

Corum’s junior highlights make a good case for using him in as many spots as possible. I think he’s likely to start in the backfield more often than the slot (i.e. presnap placement) because he has good balance through contact, reads the field exceptionally well, and makes the kind of decisive cuts you need from a zone runner. Pair that with obvious breakaway speed and rare elusiveness and you’ve got a back with tons of potential to take advantage of his #SpeedInSpace. He also appears to have reliable hands; it’s not the same, but having him on punt return shows they trust him to track the ball under duress in a job that we’ve seen is really hard to do well.

[Hit THE JUMP for film, more scouting, etc.]

OFFERS

Michigan and Ohio State got official visits, and Corum told 247’s Bill Kurelic he would take officials to LSU and USC if he hasn’t decided after the Michigan visit. Corum also had offers from Georgia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue, Ole Miss, and Kentucky, among others.

HIGH SCHOOL

St. Frances Academy has turned into one of the best teams in the country in the past few years; there’s an article in The Washington Post Magazine about how their former leaguemates refused to play St. Frances last year. As noted above, Corum makes three St. Frances players in the class of 2020 committed to Michigan. Also of note is Biff Poggi; the father of Henry and former Michigan staffer is a coach at St. Frances.

STATS

According to the beginning of his highlight tape: 1,415 rushing yards, 280 receiving yards, 20 touchdowns.

FAKE 40 TIME

He ran a laser-timed 4.44 at the Opening regional in D.C. in May, which gets zero FAKEs out of five.

VIDEO

Junior highlights:

Single-game reels can be found on his Hudl page.

You know that part of Revenge of the Sith where Yoda shows up and pulls his lightsaber on Darth Sidious and he’s jumping all over and parrying and dodging things and it’s all kind of over the top but it’s mostly fine because it’s fun? That’s Corum’s highlight tape. It’s not just the size thing, either. It’s that you watch and the cuts are implausible but they’re there in front of you and there’s not much you can do except suspend disbelief and keep watching.

If you’re looking for more, there are highlights from a Rivals camp in April 2018 that really drive home how awful it would be to find yourself in the open field against him.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Corum has all the tools to be a tremendously useful all-purpose back; it’s difficult to prevent this post from reaching high levels of corniness because of how well he fits the #SpeedInSpace mantra. A definitive scouting take can’t be issued without watching him over the course of a full game, but everything available on film points to a guy who can carry the ball out of the backfield and find extra room thanks to well-paired vision and athleticism, and also one who can run through contact when someone eventually gets to him. The one thing that stood out from Opening regional numbers and the camp highlight film is that he seems to have an average vertical, which isn’t a huge deal as a running back but points to why he should not primarily play slot.

There’s a fairly clear path to the field for Corum. We know Michigan’s very likely to rotate their RBs, and I’m not seeing a similar APB on the current roster. Zach Charbonnet is a standard back plus, and Christian Turner and Hassan Haskins also fit the standard RB profile. Maybe Chris Evans comes back? Either way, Gattis is going to need guys who can run and catch, and Corum is one of those guys.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

247’s Steve Lorenz had mentioned recently that Michigan was looking to take two all-purpose backs and one standard back in this class. Corum is certainly one of the APBs, and it’s possible that Eamonn Dennis could be the other, though he's more likely destined for the slot. Either way, Michigan does not have a standard RB committed, so look for more running backs to be added. Michigan’s class is now up to eighth nationally and second in the conference in 247’s composite rankings.