How Donovan Edwards, propelled by faith, 'saved' Michigan football's season

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A hush spread across Michigan Stadium, 110,000 fans silent as they watched in fear.

Late in the first half of the home finale, Michigan football running back Blake Corum fell to a heap inside the Illinois 20-yard line and held his knee as he writhed on the ground in pain. After a few minutes, the junior and Heisman Trophy contender got up, limped off the field and made his way up the Lloyd Carr Tunnel.

He tried to return in the second half, but after two rushes netted just 6 yards, remained on the sideline. His usual backup, Donovan Edwards, was out that day with a hand injury and the available running backs struggled. CJ Stokes and Isaiah Gash combined to run 18 times for 44 yards; the Wolverines squeaked out a 19-17 win but not without great concern about the status of the backfield moving forward.

Edwards put those concerns to rest quickly the following week.

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The sophomore ran 22 times that day for 216 yards and two touchdowns at Ohio State. Both scores came in the fourth quarter; the first a 75-yard run, the other a back-breaking 85-yard house call. The two long plays put the finishing touches on Michigan's 45-23 win, the program's first in Columbus since 2000.

Edwards had breakout performances before: 194 all-purpose yards and two scores against Penn State, 161 yards and a touchdown against Rutgers, but his performance in the Horseshoe was his national breakout.

"I mean, everybody already knew what I’ve been capable of doing since I came in here," Edwards said with a laugh at Fiesta Bowl media day Thursday, just more than 48 hours before No. 2 Michigan (13-0, 9-0 Big Ten) and No. 3 TCU (12-1, 9-0 Big 12) are set for kickoff. "Nobody is surprised at what I’m able to do.

"Maybe the world might be, but the people behind our closed doors, they know."

If anybody thought the performance against the Buckeyes was luck or a mirage, Edwards doubled down in the Big Ten championship game against Purdue. He ran 25 times for 185 yards and one touchdown as U-M won its second straight league title; its first back-to-back outright conference championships since 1991-92.

The "next man up" cliché in sports is almost always easier said than done. The starter is the starter for a reason. But even replacing one of the best running backs in the nation, Edwards showed he really is the next man up.

"We lost a lot with Blake Corum," coach Jim Harbaugh told the Free Press on Thursday. "There was a whole, one-two punch that we had with Blake but I think Blake is so great that when Donovan was out, Blake took it all on his shoulders. With Blake out, Donovan has been able to take two games pretty much all on his shoulders.

"That saved us, that saved our team, only because they’re two great players capble of doing that."

Harbaugh said he has learned not to doubt Edwards — "in any capacity to do anything."

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It's a lesson U-M wide receiver coach Ron Bellamy learned long ago.

Bellamy was Edwards' head coach at West Bloomfield High School. Prior to that, he Edwards as a third-grade quarterback for the West Bloomfield Panthers.

"It warms my heart that one, as a team we’re doing very well, but two, to see the success he’s had the last few weeks, his number was called and he rose to the occasion," Bellamy said.

Bellamy said Edwards is "like a son" to him. When Edwards was 2, he lost his mother, Donna, to breast cancer. From then on, his father, Kevin, raised Edwards and his older brother, Kevin Jr.

Bellamy could see Edwards' father was spread thin, so he did what he could to step in.

"A single father trying to do everything," Bellamy recalled. "I just tried to be a piece of the puzzle for his dad, take something off his plate and be a mentor to him."

That didn't always come in the form of back pats and compliments. On more than one occasion, Bellamy would get after Edwards. Most often it was football related, but sometimes it was just life.

No matter what it was, Bellamy had learned tough lessons himself as a member of the Michigan football program under Carr and made sure he passed it down.

"He would be on me man, he would give me tough love, like prepare me for the future," Edwards said. "The reason I’m so successful is a huge part to Coach Bell. I wanted to play receiver going into high school and then at the next level my whole career, but he saw the vision for me and knew I’d be a running back.

"A huge part of my success and everything I’m going through is Coach Bell."

He expressed similar sentiments about his father. He believes there aren't many men in his father's generation who would step up to the plate and raise two boys on their own and for that "I respect my dad with everything in me."

But if you ask Edwards, there's no comparing in his mind to who is really responsible for his success: God.

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Edwards is a man of extreme faith. He makes sure to praise God in all that he does, even when it's a hard lesson, like last year's College Football Playoff loss or something much worse, the loss of his mother.

"I’m not upset that I don’t have a mother anymore, all it’s done is sharpen me now," he said. "All it’s done is make me tougher and made me more faithful to God because I know he wouldn’t take away my mom if I didn’t need her."

Edwards has still been sporting a small brace on his right hand in Fiesta Bowl practices. He played with it on in both the Ohio State and Purdue games, so he said he will "be fine" on Saturday.

It's a full circle moment, because since the time Ann Arbor, that didn't stop him.

"He showed up after surgery with a cast on his hand, catching seven or eight balls in our spring practices as a mid-year freshman and didn't drop one," Harbaugh said. "Every day the way he attacks, the way he works, the enthusiasm he has — I don’t doubt him to do anything."

Edwards has never doubted himself. The country is learning not to, either.

Contact Tony Garcia at apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @realtonygarcia.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan's Jim Harbaugh explains how Donovan Edwards 'saved our team'