Last Saturday was a big day for Darryl Stonum.

After all, his 87-year-old grandmother, Nettie, boarded a plane for the first time in her life from Houston, Texas to see her grandson play as a Wolverine.

“A lot of people in the stands were trying to calm her down because they didn’t know if she’d have a heart attack or what,” Stonum joked on Monday. “But from what I heard, she was screaming and jumping out of her wheelchair in the stands.”

Nettie sure picked the right game to watch her grandson. Stonum exploded for 121 yards on just three receptions, including a perfectly executed screen pass that he took 66 yards to the house. Soon after, he found himself in the endzone again on a nine-yard pass to take the lead over the Minutemen heading into the half.

For his first time at Michigan, Stonum, a former four-star wideout, looked like the deep threat the Wolverines had recruited him to be.

“I was always the big-play guy in high school,” Stonum said. “I was always the deep-threat guy. And I always wanted that to transition over to Michigan. And I think I showed a lot of people that I can be that deep-threat, big-play guy.”

But in Stonum's first two years in Ann Arbor, things weren’t always going in that direction.

On April 8, 2009, Stonum stood in front of a judge at Ann Arbor’s 15th district court house and pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while visibly impaired.

He had been driving 60 miles per hour the previous September when his car almost collided with another at the intersection of State Street and Hill Street. He was pulled over and blew a blood alcohol content of .10, .02 above the Michigan legal limit.

Stonum served his penalties, which included fines and substance abuse education, but he still had a long way to go to make up with his coaches after having fallen out of their good graces.

So he set out to do just that. And after surpassing his yardage and touchdown total from last year in the Wolverines’ third week of the season, Rodriguez said he’s definitely made up ground.

“When a guy messes up and everyone wants to throw him out to the wolves…it’s pleasing to fans and certainly for coaches when you see a guy grow and mature and he gets it,” Rodriguez said. “You see that maturity kind of kick in. Sometimes they grow up and they get it. “

Stonum has used his past mistakes as motivation to get better, and without any senior leaders at wideout, he feels he’s on his way to filling that void.

After the Wolverines' loss to Ohio State in the final week of last season, then-senior receiver Greg Mathews approached Stonum and fellow wideout Junior Hemingway and ceremoniously handed the pair his gloves and his helmet.

“It’s on you guys now,” he told the two wideouts.

“Greg (Mathews) left, LaTerryal (Savoy) left,” Stonum said. “A bunch of senior receivers left, so it was like, ‘Who’s next? Who’s going to step up to be that guy?’

“We all learn from our mistakes in the past. Coach Rod stayed with me, he gave me a chance to prove that I matured, grew up and learned from my mistakes”

And as Nettie watched her grandson score a career-high two touchdowns last Saturday, she was able to watch him transform in front of her eyes and Rodriguez's.

“With Darryl’s history, he had to show and do the right things off the field as well,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve been proud of him.”