10 greatest Michigan football rushing seasons of all time
One could make the argument — and it perhaps wouldn’t be that difficult — Michigan football has its most talented backfield of all time entering the 2023 season.
The face of the unit, of course, is senior running back Blake Corum. In 2022, he became Michigan’s first unanimous All-American since 1947 (Bob Chappius), rushing 247 times for 1,463 yards (5.9 yards per carry) and 18 touchdowns.
His understudy, Donovan Edwards, proved every bit as electric when given the opportunity.
The West Bloomfield native recently revealed he played the majority of last season on a partially torn patella, not to mention the brace he wore on his hand to protect a broken thumb over the final three weeks. He still ran 140 times for 991 yards and seven touchdowns.
With both poised to have big seasons again in 2023, it’s time to look back at the 10 best single-season rushing performances in Michigan football history.
10. Mike Hart, 2004: 1,455 yards
Now the running backs coach at Michigan, Hart has several appearances on this list, but ‘04 was when he first endeared himself to the Wolverines’ faithful, taking the Big Ten by storm as a freshman during U-M’s last conference championship for nearly two decades.
Hart ran eight times for 37 yards in the first two weeks combined before he broke out for 121 yards against San Diego State in Week 3. He scored his first career touchdown the following week at Iowa, his first of nine on the season, and then exploded in an October to remember.
He had 160 yards and a TD against Minnesota before 234 yards and a TD against Illinois, 206 yards against Purdue and 33 rushes for 224 yards and a TD in a legendary 3OT comeback win over Michigan State, 45-37.
After a bye week in November, he ran for 151 yards — his fifth straight game topping 150 yards — and three touchdowns against Northwestern on Nov. 13.
9. Butch Woolfolk, 1981: 1,459 yards
When Woolfolk was done at U-M, he held the program record for carries (718) and yards (3,861), and a gigantic 1981 season helped him do just that.
Woolfolk followed up his 1981 Rose Bowl MVP with a dominant season, averaging 115.7 yards a game and totaling six scores to make his way onto this list. He ran for 123 yards early in the year against Notre Dame, had a 176-yard two-score performance against Indiana in early October and followed that with 253 yards in a 38-20 win over MSU.
8. Blake Corum, 2022: 1,463 yards
Simply put, Corum’s knee injury sabotaged what could have ended up as the best rushing season in U-M history.
The star from the Washington D.C. area scored at least one touchdown in each of his first 11 games; when he went down against Illinois, he was averaging 139.9 yards per game. If he’d kept that pace going against U-M’s final three foes, Corum would have reached 1,951 yards.
Corum’s season came to life when he tied a Michigan record with five touchdowns against Connecticut in Week 3, but it was when he ran 30 times for 243 yards against Maryland that it was clear there was a chance to be different.
Corum had at least 20 touches each of the next eight weeks as he proceeded to run for 100 yards and a score in every Big Ten game before his injury.
7. Rob Lytle, 1976: 1,469 yards
A consensus All-American, Lytle played both fullback and halfback as a captain for one of Bo Schembechler’s teams.
Lytle, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015, ran 221 times and averaged 6.6 yards per carry while totaling 14 touchdowns in his senior season; he finished third in the Heisman race behind Tony Dorsett (Pitt) and Ricky Bell (Southern Cal).
Lytle, who died of a heart attack in November 2010, was U-M’s all-time leading rusher (3,307 yards) when he graduated.
6. Mike Hart, 2006: 1,562 yards
Hart’s junior season was not the flashiest, but it was the most consistent season of his record-setting days in Ann Arbor.
Although he topped 150 yards just twice, he ran for at least 92 yards in every game as he tallied a career-high 318 carries on 4.9 yards per carry and 14 touchdowns. He had 124 yards and a touchdown in a beatdown of No. 2 Notre Dame, 195 yards against Minnesota, and 126 yards and two scores against Iowa.
That all led up to the No. 1 OSU/No. 2 U-M matchup in Columbus, Ohio, where Hart ran 23 times for 142 yards and three touchdowns, albeit in a 42-39 loss.
Hart remains Michigan’s all-time rushing leader with 5,040 yards.
5. Chris Perry, 2003: 1,674 yards
Before Hart, there was Chris Perry, who ran over, through and around Big Ten defenses, especially in 2003.
As a senior, Raymond Christopher Perry ran 338 times, picking up 18 touchdowns on 4.95 yards a carry as he was named a consensus All-American. The Doak Walker winner had a handful of memorable performances, including 232 yards and two touchdowns against CMU, 133 yards and three TDs in a 38-0 hammering of Notre Dame and 154 yards and two TDs against Ohio State to clinch a Big Ten championship and trip to the Rose Bowl.
However, for Perry, who was the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, the signature game came in East Lansing, where he ran a programrecord 51 times for 219 yards and a touchdown in a 27-20 win over MSU.
Perry’s 3,696 yards are seventh all-time in U-M rushing history.
4. Denard Robinson, 2010: 1,702 yards
The only quarterback on the list, Denard Robinson remains perhaps the most electric player to ever wear the maize and blue.
The man they call “‘Shoelace” delivered a command performance as a sophomore in Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense, running nearly as many times (256) as he passed (291), racking up 14 touchdowns and 1,702 yards (6.6 yards per carry), at the time an FBS record for a QB.
He opened the season with 197 rushing yards — the most by a quarterback in program history — and a touchdown against Connecticut before he shattered the record the next week, running 28 times for 258 yards and two TDs, including the winner in the final minute, to beat Notre Dame, 28-24.
After consecutive 100-yard games against UMass and Bowling Green (on just five rushes), Robinson ran 19 times for 217 yards and two TDs against Indiana to open October.
An eventual All-American and Big Ten Offensive
Player of the Year, Robinson added a 191-yard, three-TD performance against Penn State and 121-yard, two-TD performance in a loss to Wisconsin.
Robinson had two more 1,000-yard seasons and finished his career second all-time in rushing (4,495 yards) at Michigan.
3. Jamie Morris, 1987: 1,703 yards
Jamie Morris was a productive player in each of his four seasons in Ann Arbor, but his senior campaign was far and away his best.
A co-captain of the 1987 team, Morris ran 282 times at 6 yards per carry with 14 touchdowns; he set U-M’s recorda for most rushing yards in a year, most in a career and most 100yard games. He got there with several big games in his final year: 128 yards vs. Notre Dame, 182 yards and three TDs against Wisconsin and 23 rushes for 234 yards in a careerclosing Hall of Fame Bowl win over Alabama in Tampa, Florida.
2. Anthony Thomas, 2000: 1,733 yards
The “A-Train” bulldozed his way into the record books during his four-year career from 1997-2000.
That reached an apex in 2000 when Thomas ran 319 times (5.4 yards per carry) for 18 touchdowns en route to a first-team All-Big Ten nod.
He ran for more than 150 yards in six of 12 games, including against Penn State (35 rushes, 171 yards, one TD), Michigan State (25 rushes, 175 yards, two TDs), UCLA (24 rushes, 182 yards, one score), Auburn (32 rushes, 182 yards, two TDs), Northwestern (37 rushes, 199 yards and two TDs) and Illinois (35 rushes, 228 yards and two TDs).
1. Tim Biakabutuka, 1995: 1,818 yards
The season both Corum and Edwards will be aiming to beat — Tshimanga “Tim” Biakabutuka’s 1995 — is still unrivaled in U-M history.
The senior, who would go on to finish eighth in Heisman voting and be selected eighth in the 1996 NFL draft, had 97 yards and three TDs in a Week 2 win at No. 25 Illinois. He later added 117 yards against Boston College, and 111 vs. Indiana before he really got going. He put up 205 in a loss to Northwestern, 196 yards and two TDs in a win over Minnesota, 191 yards and a TD in a loss at Michigan State and 147 yards and a TD against Penn State.
But without question, he’s known for what happened on Nov. 25, 1995, against rival Ohio State.
Biakabutuka ran 37 times, ripped off a career-high 313 yards and added two touchdowns in a 31-23 win over OSU, considered by some as the single best performance in U-M football history.