FootballScoop is proud to announce that Mike Hart (Michigan) is the 2021 FootballScoop Running Backs Coach of the Year, presented by AstroTurf as selected by prior winners.
How do you know you've got a great room? You coach your starter -- a mirror image of yourself as a player -- to become a Heisman Trophy candidate, lose him at the most crucial stretch of the season, and you don't miss a beat.
Such was a case at Michigan, where senior Blake Corum ranked among the top 10 nationally at 121.92 rushing yards per game. In 12 games, he toted 247 carries for 1,463 yards (8th in school history) and 18 touchdowns (t-3rd).
Corum ripped off a string of eight consecutive games with at least 100 yards and a touchdown. That run tied him for sixth in Michigan history in single-season 100-yard games, and tied him for fifth with four 150-yard games in a season.
And once Corum was lost for the season to a knee injury suffered in Michigan's penultimate regular season game, the Wolverines continued running the ball at a championship level.
Sophomore Donovan Edwards stepped in and bludgeoned Ohio State for 216 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. Edwards delivered two knockout blows -- ending consecutive drives with touchdown runs of 75 and 85 yards to stretch the maize and blue's lead to its final margin of 45-23.
Edwards added 25 carries for 185 yards and a touchdown in Michigan's Big Ten Championship defeat of Purdue, then carried 23 times for 119 yards in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal against TCU.
For the season, Edwards was one good carry shy of making Michigan the only FBS team with two 1,000-yard rushers; he compiled 991 yards and seven touchdowns on just 140 totes. The sophomore's 7.08 yards per carry average was bested by just two players nationally with an equal or greater number of carries.
In addition to Corum and Edwards, reserves CJ Stokes, Isaiah Gash, Tavierre Dunlap, Kalel Mullings, Danny Hughes, Leon Franklin and Henry Donohue combined for 109 carries for 501 yards and six touchdowns.
A Doak Walker Award finalist and a First Team AP All-American, Corum was named the Big Ten's Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year in addition to making the All-Big Ten first team.
A former Michigan running back himself, Hart started four seasons still holds the school's record for rushing attempts, yards, 100-, 150-, and 200-yard games. After a 3-year NFL career, Hart entered coaching in 2011 as a quality control coach at Eastern Michigan. He coached running backs at Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Syracuse and Indiana before returning to his alma mater in 2021.
Hart is also Michigan's run game coordinator in addition to coaching running backs.
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by AstroTurf are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Marquel Blackwell [Ole Miss], Hindley Brigham [UAB], Anthony Jones [TCU], Deland McCullough [Notre Dame] and Hart) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Previous winners of the Running Backs Coach of the Year award are Burton Burns (Alabama, 2008), Willie Taggart (Stanford, 2009), Jim Mastro (Nevada, 2010), Frank Wilson (LSU, 2011), Calvin Magee (Arizona, 2012), Jeff Lebby (Baylor, 2013), Bryan McClendon (Georgia, 2014), Lance Taylor (Stanford, 2015), Jeff Horton (San Diego State, 2016), Tony Elliott (Clemson, 2017), Tim Albin (Ohio, 2018), Jabbar Juluke (Louisiana, 2019), Robert Gillespie (North Carolina, 2020), and William Peagler (Michigan State, 2021).
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