Michigan football's RB room is so deep, the challenge is finding snaps for everyone
Michigan football's running back room is deeper than it has ever been under Jim Harbaugh.
It's also significantly healthier than it was last season, too.
In a Zoom call with local reporters Wednesday afternoon, offensive coordinator Josh Gattis revealed that last season's top two backs, Zach Charbonnet and Hassan Haskins, dealt with numerous injuries during 2019 campaign, while praising Chris Evans and Blake Corum, the two additions to the room.
Between what he has seen from all four running backs, Gattis is "very, very pleased" with the position group.
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"We weren’t quite pleased where they were at the start of the season," Gattis said, "but when you look at that room and where we finished the season, I felt great about our running back room and they've been able to pick up from where they left off."
The highest-ranked running back recruit of Harbaugh's tenure, Charbonnet set a program record with 11 rushing touchdowns as a true freshman. He stood out immediately with eight carries for 90 yards against Middle Tennessee State in the season opener and 33 carries for 100 yards and three touchdowns against Army in Week 2.
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But Charbonnet's production and workload oscillated throughout the fall. After his first two games, he had 22 carries for 70 yards and one score over the next three games, followed by a three-game stretch with 48 carries for 271 yards and five touchdowns; in his final two games, Charbonnet had four carries for seven yards against Ohio State and 13 carries for 84 yards against Alabama.
That variance, Gattis said Wednesday, was due to injuries Charbonnet suffered in high school and dealt with as a true freshman. Now that Charbonnet is healthy, there has been a notable difference in his play.
"He’s been able to spend this offseason more focusing on his body," Gattis said. "First and foremost, the dude is chiseled as can be. He just takes such great (care) of his body, it’s really impressive. He’s always in the weight room. He’s so mature about his approach and his preparation to get his body feeling the best that he can be and playing at the highest level.
"And now that he’s feeling great, he reminds you of the player he was in high school and (he was) such a great player. Going into Year Two just having a better feel for the run schemes, having a better feel for everything, he’s been impressive out there. He looks like a totally different player, and everyone's gonna see an even better player than what you saw last year."
Meanwhile, injuries were the reason for Haskins' delayed breakout (he didn't receive extensive playing time until the sixth game), although he still finished as the team's second-leading rusher with 622 yards and four touchdowns.
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"He was dinged up," Gattis said. "He wasn’t available. Hassan played very little football in our first four games because he was dealing with injuries and adversity."
In 2020 there are more options if the Wolverines run into similar health issues. Evans, a fifth-year senior with 1,722 rushing yards, 392 receiving yards and 16 total touchdowns across his first three seasons, is the most experienced member of the room after returning from a year-long suspension. And Evans' versatility as a pass-catcher could lead to an even bigger role within Gattis' offense.
“Chris has been everything as advertised from a skill-set standpoint," Gattis said. "He’s a very, very smart football player. Just a quiet leader. Very professional. There’s times out there where he surprises me and there’s times out there I gotta remind myself, 'Okay, this guy has played football for five years.'
"He’s what you’d expect a senior running back to look like and act like and approach each and every day. ... He’s going to make a number of plays for us this year. I’m really excited about his future moving forward as a football player."
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Corum, who signed with the 2020 class and enrolled early this past winter, is less experienced than his peers. But the former four-star prospect has already made a positive first impression upon Gattis, who relayed a story of how he recently checked Corum's social media pages and saw the true freshman running on a track at 9:30 p.m.
"Blake's a worker," Gattis said. "That’s the type of players that we’re talking about — guys that are committed to developing themselves to be the best possible player that they can be. Blake brings an explosive element to our offense and running back position. He is fast. That’s one of the greatest skill-sets people see early on, but he’s so balanced. He’s another guy that can run routes like Chris Evans. He’s got great ball skills. He’s pretty stout."
It's not the first time this offseason that Gattis has expressed excitement about the running backs. The biggest challenge this fall could be finding snaps for all four players.
"Really excited about that running back room and the depth that we have," Gattis said. "We’ve got to figure out how to put all the pieces together. There’s a ton of pieces with all the different personnel and packages that you have, that can create a problem, but that’s our job to put the pieces all together and get them all involved.”
Contact Orion Sang at osang@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The 4 Michigan football RBs who can play big roles in 2020
