Donovan Edwards set to step up with Blake Corum out

Ahead of the Michigan Wolverines’ Big Ten Championship appearance against the Purdue Boilermakers, sophomore running back Donovan Edwards spoke on In The Trenches with Jon Jansen to talk about the team’s and his own performances against the Ohio State Buckeyes last Saturday.

When asked about the atmosphere in the locker room during and after the game, Edwards was ecstatic.

“We were lit.” Edwards said with a laugh. “We were really excited, really happy, it was one of those moments the Lord blessed us to be in the position to come and pull away with the win. We were down at halftime by I believe three points, and one of the players in the locker room said we’re a second half team, and it was all hell after that one. It was like ‘oh yeah, you right, you right. Let’s get it going.’”

Though Edwards didn’t seem to show it on the field, he acknowledged to Jansen the early jitters on playing with an arm in a cast.

“It was a couple plays where it felt weird cause like I’m getting the ball on the right side, I gotta have my left arm up, and it was like aw snap, I got something on my arm right now, I got something on my hand right now, I gotta put it in my left. So there were a couple kinda bobbled snaps, it wasn’t clean. If they were clean I could’ve hit the holes a little bit harder, a little bit faster.”

Ultimately however, the cast played almost no role in Edwards’ performance on Saturday, as he finished the game with 216 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries.

With Blake Corum reportedly out for the season with a knee injury sustained against Illinois, Edwards will be asked to carry the load in the backfield moving forward.

“We’re onto Purdue now,” edwards said. “It was a great thing that we beat Ohio State, that was one of our goals this year. But now we’re chasing another goal. We have 24 hours to gloat about Ohio State — 24 hours is up, now we’ve got Purdue. That’s what we’re worried about. We need to start watching film on Purdue ASAP to get the Big Ten Championship, to achieve our goal.”

Though the interview was largely mum on the game in Indianapolis, Jansen did reflect on Edwards’ 75-yard passing touchdown in last year’s Big Ten Championship. With his “throwing arm” in a cast, Jansen asked Edwards whether a repeat would be possible.

In a semi-joking matter, Edwards gave a simple three word answer — “I’m ambidextrous, man!”