The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1169070
24 THE WOLVERINE OCTOBER 2019 The competition is about to get big- ger and better. Still, Gattis and Har- baugh both like what they see out of the rookie with the nimble feet and toughness to take on pass rushers. After Charbonnet went 9 of 9 in pass protection pickups in the opener against Middle Tennessee State, Har- baugh fairly gushed about the effort. "I don't think we've had a back get nine pickups in protection since we've been here," Harbaugh said. "It was like, 'Wow, that is really good.' There were some sophisti- cated protections going on, some changes in protection at the line of scrimmage. "It was just easy for him. He just handled it. Not even a misstep. That is rare. I have been around pro backs that don't understand the protec- tions as well as the freshman back did in this game." Charbonnet's 190 yards with three touchdowns in two games led a Michigan rushing attack that produced a net 341 yards. Redshirt freshman tailback Christian Turner turned in 69 yards on 14 carries, averaging 4.9 per try, while senior tailback Tru Wilson sat out against Army, nursing an undisclosed in- jury. The biggest drawbacks among the tailbacks so far involved the missed blitz pickups against Army and a pair of fourth-quarter, fourth-and- short stops by the Black Knights. It appeared on both that Charbonnet had nowhere to run. Overall, Gattis likes what the offensive line is doing, especially given its youth. Fifth-year senior left tackle Jon Runyan Jr. missed the first two games with an injury, and hopes were high that he would be back for the showdown at Wisconsin's Camp Randall Stadium following the bye week. Runyan's absence in the opener meant the Wolverines went with two redshirt freshman tackles. Ryan Hayes manned the left side, while Jalen Mayfield — who battled for starting duties with redshirt sopho- more Andrew Stueber until Stue- ber suffered a season-ending knee injury late in camp — took over at right tackle. "They've done a really good job," Gattis said of the line overall. "[Se- nior right guard] Mike Onwenu played a really good game this past week. We've started off the first two weeks with two freshmen that are starting on the offensive line. To see Coach [Ed] Warinner get those guys prepared, it's a tremendous asset. "It's their first time starting in college football. Those guys have stepped up big time, Ryan Hayes and Jalen Mayfield. [Junior center] Cesar [Ruiz] and [senior left guard] Ben [Bredeson] have played at a very high level. We've had some penalties that we just have to clean up, false starts and small kinds of things." CLEANING IT UP The theme of cleaning up mistakes pervaded heading into the bye week. Gattis pointed to the second half of the Army game as an example of good resulting from the Wolverines hanging onto the football. When someone pointed out Army enjoyed a major time-of-possession Freshman running back Zach Charbonnet has many thinking back to legendary U-M running back Mike Hart when watching the youngster. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL