– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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STATE COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA — It remains to be seen if the University of Michigan football team officially made the word “bet” jump the shark with the way many players used it on social media soon after the announcement on Friday that their head coach, Jim Harbaugh, would be prohibited from joining his team on the sidelines for the Wolverines’ biggest challenge of the season.
What “bet” did signify, for at least one gamea, was a rallying cry for the Wolverines, who, literally, ran their way to victory on Saturday afternoon — even if the team is still a ways away from running past the sign-stealing scandal that currently has enveloped the program.
Blake Corum ran for 145 yards, including the game-sealing touchdown run from 30 yards late in the fourth quarter, as No. 2 Michigan moved to 10-0 on the season with a 24-15 victory over No. 9 Penn State in Happy Valley on Saturday afternoon. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy only threw the ball eight times in the game — and completed seven of those passes for 60 yards — as Michigan used the running back combination of Corum and Donovan Edwards, who ran for 52 yards and a first-quarter touchdown to amass 227 yards on the ground as a team.
Michigan played the game without Harbaugh on the sidelines, who was suspended by the Big Ten for the final three games of the regular season under the league’s sportsmanship policy as the program remains under NCAA investigation for a sign-stealing scheme that led to the resignation of a former team staffer, Connor Stallions.
“We’re one. It made us stronger,” said Corum about the news of Harbaugh’s suspension. “Obviously, we wanted Coach Harbaugh to be here, but we did it for him today. We’ve been going through a lot lately, but it’s only brought us closer together.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s game, with all photos taken by Detroit-area photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 20 pictures in total.
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