TreVeyon Henderson won’t forget Michigan’s Blake Corum being named top running back in the B1G heading into the 2022 season

I should probably open this article up by stating that I’m not a fan of PFF College and their rankings/grades at all. It seems that at least once a week during the season, their formulas spit out someone who did basically the bare minimum as their “X conference player of the week”, while another player at the same position that put up monster numbers is nowhere to be found.

Apparently there is no such thing as the offseason when it comes to PFF College grinding my gears. Earlier this week it was revealed that Michigan’s Blake Corum’s rushing grade is the best amongst Big Ten running backs. Apparently the grading is on a curve, since even though Corum is a fine running back, there are at least two running backs in the conference that have a serious claim to being better than Corum, with one of those backs being a Buckeye.

One of the running backs that can make a claim as being the Big Ten’s top running back heading into the 2022 season is Wisconsin’s Braelon Allen. After playing sparingly in his first few games as a Badger, Allen was a big reason the Badgers were able to rebound from a 1-3 start to the season, as Wisconsin won eight of their last nine games in 2021. During that span, Allen topped 100 yards in each of those wins by the Badgers. The freshman finished his first season in Madison with 1,268 yards and 12 touchdowns on 186 carries.

Since I know nobody came to LGHL to listen to me slobber over what Allen did on the field last year, we can shift our attention to the running back that Ohio State fans feel is better than Corum. All Henderson did as a freshman for the Buckeyes was rush for 1,248 yards and 15 touchdowns on 183 carries. The 6.8 yards per carry by Henderson was the best mark in the Big Ten.

Early on it looked like Henderson was going to share carries with Master Teague III and Miyan Williams, but eventually Henderson showed why he deserved to be RB1, with his best performance coming against Tulsa in a game where quarterback C.J. Stroud struggled. Henderson rushed for a school freshman record 277 yards in the 41-20 win, breaking Archie Griffin’s mark that had stood for 49 years. Had it not been for Henderson, the Buckeyes would have been in serious danger of falling to the Golden Hurricanes in that game.

Michigan fans are quick to point out how Hassan Haskins was Michigan’s featured running back for most of the season, and Corum was dealing with an ankle injury later in the year. Imagine what Henderson’s stats could have been like if Ohio State didn’t run an offense that was geared to throwing the football as much as it does. C.J. Stroud finished the year with 441 passing attempts, and that’s with the quarterback not playing at all against Akron. Henderson was also dinged up at times this year, which took away possible carries from him. Had Henderson been healthy all year, we could have seen him run for 1500-1600 yards.

Not that I’m trying to say that Corum is a slouch by any means, because he did have a really nice season. As a sophomore, Corum ran for 953 yards and 11 touchdowns. The Michigan running back was one of just four Power 5 backs with at least 6.5 yards per attempt on over 100 carries, as well as one of six Power 5 backs with four runs of at least 50 yards. Let’s not pretend that Corum didn’t do most of his damage against the weaker teams on Michigan’s schedule, though. 526 of Corum’s rushing yards in 2021 came against Western Michigan, Washington, Northern Illinois, and Northwestern.

What’s going to be really interesting is to see how Corum and Henderson play in 2022. Corum will have a bigger target on his back, since the Wolverines won’t have Hassan Haskins to compliment Corum at running back, as Haskins is now in the NFL. In Columbus, Henderson now has had a taste of what college football is like, so he can spend the offseason specializing his training so he can be ready for his sophomore season. Even though the Buckeyes offense is likely to be pass-heavy this year, Henderson has proved already that he doesn’t need to touch the football a ton to have a huge impact on the game.

Photo by Steven King/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Does this PFF College grade really mean all that much in the grand scheme of things? No, not at all. Actually, what naming Corum as the Big Ten’s top running back does is add more fuel to Henderson’s desire to have a huge 2022 season. Ohio State has already been listening to Michigan’s players and fans chirp since the Wolverines won their first game in a decade against the Buckeyes. Please believe that the Buckeyes have been taking notes on everything that has been said about them since the loss, and they’ll be ready to collect some revenge in late November when Michigan visits Columbus for The Game,