Donovan Edwards was humbled. Now, he's back for a senior year with Michigan football.

Donovan Edwards didn't plan to be with Michigan football for a fourth season.

At the outset of 2023, the standout U-M running back believed his junior year would be his last in Ann Arbor, and he'd spend the spring as part of a potential record U-M contingent in the NFL draft.

Edwards had even gone as far as to say, in private, that 2023 would be his last year in maize and blue.

That's not how it played out, though.

Edwards struggled for almost the entirety of his junior year. Through 14 games, Edwards had gained just 393 yards on 113 carries — 3.48 yards per carry — and scored three touchdowns. That was after rushing for 520 yards on 70 carries in Michigan's final three games of 2022, part of a 991-yard, nine-TD sophomore year.

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Of course, Edwards ended the 2023 season with a bang, rushing six times for 119 yards and two touchdowns in Michigan's College Football Playoff championship game victory — he took each of his first two touches of the game for scores from more than 40 yards out — in which he was named MVP

That wasn't enough to undo a year's worth of lackluster production, though.

That's why instead of participating with his former teammates in Friday's pro day, in front of nearly 150 NFL personnel, Edwards was inside Al Glick Fieldhouse on Monday afternoon with four spring practices under his belt, reflecting on the year that was.

"I wanted to leave, but at the same time God humbled me and was like, this isn't your plan, it's my plan for you," Edwards said. "Everything last year, I'm blessed that it's happened. There's a lot of things I have to grow in as a man, and last year just showed me everything that I need to do. I feel like I'm in a great spot."

Early season setback

It was the middle of August, the pivotal 2023 season just three weeks away, when Edwards made some bold comparisons.

“I will go down as one of the greatest running backs to ever play the game,” Edwards told Pro Football Focus. “I’ll be up there with Walter Payton, Barry Sanders. I believe I will revolutionize the game and the position. This is the perfect time for me because the NFL wants running backs who can catch. If the NFL wants a linebacker on me, good luck with that. I don’t care who you are. Good luck guarding me."

Despite the brash prediction, the junior was far from 100%. As Edwards told the Free Press earlier in the summer, he had played through the 2022 season with a partially torn patellar tendon (suffered Week 2 vs. Hawaii), and he'd undergone surgery for it earlier in the offseason.

The West Bloomfield standout didn't miss a game as a junior, but on Monday he acknowledged how the injury affected him, delaying his summer conditioning and fall camp participation and leading to a slow start.

"I didn't start practicing again until August," Edwards said. "I feel good now, I feel great. My cuts are looking better, I'm playing better, the speed is back where it needs to be and I put on 14 more pounds. Being able to stay healthy last year and then participate in spring ball right now is continuing to boost my confidence."

Edwards, who is up to 214 pounds, said the added weight isn't as much for potential goal-line situations as it to stay "durable."

With the departure of Blake Corum, the rising senior is expected to be Michigan's lead back for 2024. He doesn't desire a certain number of touches, he said, but only that his team wins.

Edwards is aiming to hit 210 pounds by the fall to help his Wolverines do exactly that.

"Going against 300-pound linemen, 240-pound linebackers," Edwards said. "Each pound you add ... for me, it's good to be able to able to play (at that weight) and to carry the load."

'He's got a way about him'

Just about everybody around the program has noticed Edwards this spring, in the best way possible.

"He has a chip on his shoulder," new offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell said going into spring practice. "He's got a way about him."

Edwards didn't amass more than 2,300 all-purpose yards and 18 touchdowns by accident. He's an explosive back, with elite straight-line speed. There have been troubles with vision and falling forward, but Edwards is well aware. But he's motivated now to address that, as Michigan's main man.

"I've always had this fire in my heart," Edwards said. "I'll be honest, I kind of lost it going into my junior year. Not feeling great, not getting the carries that I want. But it clicked for me again, the fire in my heart was there again, it became evident, there was a practice it just showed back up.

"My obligation is to continue to bring everybody else up with me, as long as we can do that, we'll be successful."

He cited a goal-line carry last season against Indiana when he came up inches short then was pulled for Corum (who easily scored). It wasn't an enjoyable exercise this offseason, going back through last year and looking at what went right and what went wrong.

"The strength, nothing football-wise, it's just me growing as a man, facing adversity and hitting it straight on," Edewards said. "The weakness was, how tough am I? How much can I endure? Contact balance for football, how can I improve that? Driving the feet, how can I improve that?

"There's stuff that I have to work on."

Few have seen Edwards work as long as senior safety Makari Paige has. This will be their eighth season playing together, dating back to their time as top recruits at West Bloomfield.

Paige says Edwards is ready to step up, on the field as a running back and off it as a leader, with the Wolverines losing most of their most vocal players to the NFL.

"Donovan is just Donovan," Paige said. "Going to be that leader the team's gonna need this year."

More change has arrived on the offensive line, with the Wolverines replacing their top six linemen and, perhaps more importantly, going from Mike Hart as position coach to Tony Alford, formerly of Ohio State.

Alford recruited Edwards at OSU, so the two have a relationship that goes back years, which has Edwards as excited as anything.

"He's really detailed us in the game," Edwards said. "It's great to have him here."

Monday marked 159 days until Michigan begins its national championship defense on the field, against Fresno State on Aug. 31, which means 159 days to put in the work. So far, per his coaches, Edwards has been the one setting the tone.

U-M has a tradition at the end of every practice of bringing a different player up to share "wise words" — a line from a movie, a lesson from a mentor, anything that can serve as a lesson for the group.

It was Edwards' turn when U-M kicked off spring camp, the first day of its title defense, and he stepped up.

"Thought his message couldn’t be any better, about continuing to work hard and develop and (not) being satisfied by anything,” Campbell said. “I’m excited about him.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Back with U-M football, how a humbled Donovan Edwards got his 'fire' back