Michigan football's Blake Corum wants NFL teams to know he plans to keep finding ways to win

INDIANAPOLIS — Had he chosen to, Blake Corum could have stood at the same podium and answered the same questions at the same time last year.

But as the former Michigan football star said back then, and repeated to reporters Friday morning, he had unfinished business to attend to in Ann Arbor. Born and raised on a farm in rural Virginia, the 5-foot-8, 213-pound tailback couldn't even fathom the idea of leaving something he'd dedicated so much of his life to without seeing it through the finish line.

"Growing up where I grew up taught me about hard work, tenacity, go and get it,” Corum explained Friday at the NFL Combine. “Hustler mindset, blue collar mindset ... whatever you have to do, the job has to get done. Whether that’s staying up late or getting up early, the job has to get done, so that’s the type of mindset it gave me.”

That job, of course, did get done.

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Corum and the Wolverines completed an undefeated season, 15-0, as they won their third consecutive Big Ten Championship, the program's first Rose Bowl game in more than a quarter century and just its second national championship in 75 years with a 34-13 victory over Washington.

Though Corum's efficiency regressed — he ran for 218 fewer yards as a senior, despite carrying the ball 11 more times than he did during his All-American junior campaign — he still made history in the process.

Corum ran 258 times for 1,245 yards and a single-season program-record 27 rushing touchdowns.

Named to the All-Big Ten first team for a second consecutive season, Corum had at least one touchdown in every game, and multiple TDs in eight of his final nine games, passing Anthony Thomas (56) and finished with a program-record 58 rushing touchdowns and 60 total touchdowns.

Naturally, he knows he couldn't have had the year or career he did without his teammates; that's why Corum said it wasn't a coincidence there's a combine-record 18 Michigan players participating in the offseason's marquee event.

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"I mean, that's what happens when you win, right?" he smiled. "I'm proud of each and every last one of them."

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After working his way to legendary status in Ann Arbor, Corum is ready to once again work his way up the depth chart. While he joked that could mean playing defense if it would help the team win, he was more serious when he offered his services on a unit he hasn't seen for years.

"If I gotta play special teams, five carries a game, 20 carries," Corum insisted. "Whatever the team needs, whatever we need to win a Super Bowl, that's what I'm bringing."

He was asked Friday if there's a specific play or game he's pointed to as he's gone through interviews with various teams to highlight exactly what type of player they would be getting, when he acknowledged he's been asked that question but couldn't pick just one.

Most frequently he will point to the biggest games: at Penn State, he ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns as the team had 32 consecutive rushes to ice the game away; against Ohio State, he scored twice including a momentum-changing 22-yard touchdown run after Zak Zinter was carted off with a broken leg; against Alabama in the Rose Bowl, where he caught a critical fourth-down pass to keep the game alive in the fourth quarter and scored the eventual game-winning touchdown on the second play of overtime; or even the final game of his collegiate career; and in the national championship against Washington, when he ran for 134 yards and a pair of fourth quarter scores.

"I tell them turn on the tape any game, best believe I'm giving my all," he said. "Each and every rep, I'm going to take advantage of it."

Corum insists he plans on continuing doing exactly what he did in Ann Arbor, and that's not limited to on the field. He was also known for his philanthropy during his undergraduate years, whether that was a fundraiser which got tens of thousands of toys donated for children in need, or handing out turkeys on Thanksgiving in the Ypsilanti community.

"Outside of football, the community service, I'll make sure the organization looks good with all my community efforts," he insisted. "That's what separates Michigan Wolverines, we're just good human beings, people that want to help the community."

Even with that said, Corum is looking to do more than he did in college, both on the field and off.

It's just one reason he was working with his former college quarterback J.J. McCarthy, where the two were caught throwing passes across the hallway on the second floor of the Indiana Convention Center as the running back appeared to work on keeping his toes in bounds near the imaginary sideline.

"Blake was telling me feels like he could've done a lot more in that area," McCarthy said Friday morning. "He's gonna run some routes at pro day from the slot, so that will be another sight to see for you guys."

Corum won't ever stop working to get better, because in his mind, he was born to work.

It's how he's able to squat more than 600 pounds, how he was reported to put up more than 30 repetitions of the 225-pound bench earlier this fall and also how he became the most-decorated running back in the history of the winningest college football program in the nation.

"It’s helped me get this far, best believe it won’t stop just because I’m going to the NFL and going to be on an NFL roster," Corum said of his work ethic. "No, I’m going 10 times harder. This is a dream, but the dream isn’t finished until it’s finished.

"This is just the start."

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

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's Blake Corum keeping 'hustler mindset' entering NFL