Blake Corum on Sean McVay’s Message to Rams Players amid L.A.’s 3-4 Start

Rich has a list of favorite Michigan Wolverines, and Blake Corum's name is on it every time. So when the Rams running back came back on The Rich Eisen Show, the conversation covered a 3-4 team trying to find itself, a coaching message measured in seconds, and a Michigan family that keeps showing up in each other's lives.

Zara, Diapers, and Looking for Carries

Corum opened by saying he's "blessed," and the reason was obvious. His daughter, Zara, turns eight months old the day after the interview. "Every time I come home, now she's starting to put her hands out a little bit," he said. She's rocking, getting close to crawling, eating food, and "laughing all the time. That's all she does is laugh."

Rich decided she was demanding the ball. "Looking for carries," he said.

Corum is all in on the dad work. Asked if he's changing diapers, he answered: "A thousand percent. I take pride in being a dad." That means middle-of-the-night wakeups and helping his wife "any chance I get." Rich traded his own story about his youngest son, Cooper, who used to save his most sleepless nights for Saturdays before game day.

A Two-Back System That Works

Watching the win over the Raiders, Rich noticed a clear emphasis on getting Corum and Kyren Williams the rock. Corum agreed. "We were definitely trying to establish the run a little more than we did in the previous weeks," he said, crediting the offensive line, tight ends, and receivers who were "blocking their tails off all game." The run game opened up play action, and both backs found a rhythm.

The numbers backed it up. Williams had 16 carries for 99 yards and Corum 17 for 93, and each had a long run of 17 yards. Then Rich hit him with a trivia question: what other duo in Rams history has posted 75 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown each in multiple games? Corum guessed Marshall Faulk. The answer was nobody. "Nobody's ever done it," Rich said.

On sharing the backfield with a player who wants touches, Corum talked about "we before me." When Williams is in, "I'm cheering him on. I hope he breaks a lot of tackles, breaks that long one. So now I can go in and try to better that." He called it "a healthy, competitive relationship" across the running back room. "We feed off each other, which helps the team."

Next Man Up at 3-4

Rich pointed to the injuries, with Davante Adams out and Puka Nacua nicked up. Corum named the others too: Myles Garrett, Kobie Turner, and more. "It's definitely tough," he said. "But you also know that it's like next man up mentality."

Through all of it, Corum said, "it's always going to start with our quarterback, Matthew Stafford," whom he called "such a great leader" and "a great man in general." He enjoys being in the backfield with him. A balanced offense, he said, is a successful offense, and Sunday was "a great start to that."

Inside the building, the win didn't change the approach. "It's more so just like, let's put our head down and work," Corum said. "Not worrying about, are we going to win Sunday? Are we going to lose Sunday? It's like, how can I get better today?"

McVay's Six Seconds

Rich asked what Sean McVay has been telling the team as a 3-4 record "shocking to everybody outside the building" took shape. Corum's answer was two phrases: "work works" and "six seconds at a time."

Each play lasts about six seconds, he explained. "If you can do your very best six seconds and then move on, whether it was good or bad," and repeat that all game, "you can look back at yourself and be like, I left it all on that field. And usually when you leave it all on that field, you can look at the scoreboard and you're going to be victorious."

Rich summed it up: not a game at a time or a quarter at a time, but a snap at a time. Corum said the team carries it into practice, breaking a game that runs about three hours into single plays. "Am I giving my all for my team in that six seconds?" He said you could feel that energy on Sunday.

Nobody, Corum insisted, is worried about the record or the playoffs. "The pen's still in our hand. Our story isn't over," he said. "People might think it may be, but we're not worried about what people say."

Harbaugh, a Home Visit, and a Bakery Photo

This weekend at SoFi Stadium, Corum will see a familiar face across the field: Jim Harbaugh, who Rich noted is "in real need of a W." Did Harbaugh recruit him personally?

"He sure did," Corum said. Harbaugh, Jay Harbaugh, and Josh Gattis came for a home visit even though Corum was already committed. After dinner they asked what he was doing next. His sister, then in high school, had a basketball game, so the coaches went to that too. Before the game they stopped at a bakery in his small town, where people were "in awe" to see Harbaugh. "He actually has a picture in the bakery now," Corum said. "He probably doesn't even know that."

Rich then pulled up a photo of the big moment: Corum holding a trophy, wearing his number two.

JJ McCarthy's Second Chance

That brought Rich to JJ McCarthy, now quarterbacking the Giants for Jim's brother, John Harbaugh. Corum said they talked at a Michigan event this offseason, and McCarthy was positive about his situation.

"I'm so proud that someone else was able to give him opportunity," Corum said. "He's battled many storms before. He's going to probably battle more in the future. That's just life." He pointed to McCarthy throwing for over 200 yards in a fourth quarter two weeks ago, then looking "phenomenal" against what Corum called "a great Houston Texans defense." He said McCarthy possibly didn't get treated fairly, adding that he doesn't know exactly what the problem was in Minnesota. "He got a new opportunity. He took full advantage of it." By Corum's count, McCarthy has "balled out the last five quarters." Rich corrected him to six, since the game went to overtime.

Rich joked that the criticism McCarthy hears about leaning on the run game started with Corum, who kept getting the handoff at Michigan as if McCarthy did nothing else except throw to Colston Loveland and Roman Wilson. And against the Texans, Rich added, McCarthy beat C.J. Stroud. "That's what Michigan men do, right?"

The studio crew, Rich noted, was ignoring all of it.

Michigan's Storm

Asked how Michigan is doing this year, Corum was honest. "It's not great," he said. "They're weathering a storm right now. Storms don't last forever. We'll get back on track."

Rich loved the line and stacked it with the other one: storms don't last forever, six seconds at a time. "Go Blue, Blake," he said on the way out.