'Biggest achievement': Michigan football names six captains, including Blake Corum

Ann Arbor — Among the reasons Blake Corum returned to Michigan this season was to fulfill a goal of being a captain.

He can check that off the list.

Corum is among six captains this season, joining guards Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan as the representatives on offense, and defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, linebacker Mike Barrett and cornerback Mike Sainristil, who was voted as a captain last year and automatically retains that title this year, are the defensive captains the program announced Thursday.

Only seniors are eligible, and Keegan explained that Sainristil and Corum were already locked in as captains and the vote among players Thursday morning was for the four other spots. Each captain is presented with a coin. Corum called it his “biggest achievement."

“It’s definitely one of the reasons I came back,” Corum, a unanimous All-American last season who rushed for 1,463 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns before he suffered a knee injury in the final home game. “I was hoping I was going to be able to be captain, and I am. It means a lot. It shows my consistency ever since I got here. People respect that. It means a lot.”

Barrett, a sixth-year senior, had a brief conversation with his mother after he was voted captain.

“She was yelling on the phone, said she’s so excited and so proud of me,” Barrett said.

He said his hand wouldn’t stop shaking even after he had been handed the coin given to the captains.

“It was a lot,” Barrett said of the emotions triggered as soon as he heard his name called. “It was joy, excitement, a little fear just thinking about trying to fill the shoes of all the great captains that’s been here before and also that joy of being viewed as that leader and as that captain of this team. I had a bunch of emotions.”

Zinter, Keegan and Jenkins, like Corum, considered leaving Michigan for the NFL after last season.

“This is everything,” Jenkins said. “I never would have expected to be here. This is beyond an honor and a privilege. Honestly, I just want to do everything in my power to represent the block ‘M’ in the best way possible.”

It seemed fitting that the two returning starting guards, Zinter and Keegan, would be elected together. They both mentioned former center Andrew Vastardis, a captain in 2021, and how he led as someone they’d like to emulate.

“You want to be a captain, obviously, help lead this team,” Zinter said. “So definitely one of the goals. The biggest thing is your teammates have seen the hard work you've put in and they recognized it. But even though there's six of us captains, we have so many other leaders on this team. It's not gonna be just us six. It's definitely gonna take all of us. We're gonna need a lot more leaders than just six of us.”

Zinter included players like junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy and running backs Donovan Edwards and edge rushers Braiden McGregor and Jaylen Harrell.

“My phone’s been kind of blowing up,” Keegan said. “It means everything. I feel like I’ve kind of had to earn my role here and work to be in the role that I am. It’s honestly a loss of words. It’s a true honor being elected by my teammates, and I’m going to do everything I can to lead them and be the best leader I can be.”

This will be Sainristil’s second season as a captain.

“It feels good being viewed by teammates in that light,” Sainristil said. “I don’t think there’s a brighter light that you can be viewed in than this one. Because these are the guys that see what I do daily, hear how I talk daily, know how I act daily. Ultimately, they were the ones that made the decision.”

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