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

Rivals ESPN 247 Composite 4*, 5.9 rating, #135 overall, #11 RB, #8 MD 4*, #173 overall, #18 RB, #8 MD 3*, #454 overall, #32 RB, #14 MD 4*, #202 overall, #17 RB, #8 RB

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.]