The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1184078
20 THE WOLVERINE DECEMBER 2019 ferently is protecting the football," Gattis explained. "Over the past few weeks, we've done an extremely good job protecting the ball. We're still not where we want to be or where we strive to be, but our kids are doing a really good job executing and it's shown. "The biggest thing is emphasizing the small little details and eliminat- ing the small little wounds. You look at our first five games, we had a lot of good plays and points scored, but there was a heavy cloud of 13 or 14 turnovers." RUN GAME IS STEPPING UP The Wolverines averaged 223.5 yards per game on the ground in the four contests between Iowa and the bye (against Illinois, Penn State, Notre Dame and Maryland). That compares to U-M's clip of 170.7 for the first nine games, which ranks No. 58 in the na- tion (223.5 would check in at 18th na- tionally as of Nov. 12). Charbonnet leads the way among the backs, rushing for 559 yards on 117 carries (4.8 average) with 11 touchdowns. Haskins has come on strong of late (100-yard games against Illinois and Notre Dame), and entered the MSU contest with 72 carries for 426 yards (5.9 average) and a pair of touchdowns. Senior tailback Tru Wilson has also contributed, after healing from an early season hand injury. He man- aged 190 yards on 31 tries (6.1 av- erage) with one touchdown, while redshirt freshman Christian Turner accounted for 171 yards on 44 carries (3.9 average) with one score. Michigan quarterbacks ran for a net 179 yards through nine games. Pat- terson paced that attack with 223 gained yards, reduced to a net 96 via lost yardage. Those numbers should be better in theory, given Gattis' offense, which includes the run-pass op- tion by the quarterback. He pointed out to Jansen, though, that a significant factor played into Michigan not rushing the quarterback as much as it might have otherwise. It involved the cheap shot to the head taken by redshirt sophomore quarter- back Dylan McCaffrey at Wisconsin, resulting in a concussion. "Unfortunately, Dylan got banged up quite a bit early in the year," Gattis mentioned. "And there was a point in the year where we really only had two quarterbacks, so it really changed the way we approached game plan- ning. "Myself, I didn't want to get an- other quarterback hit or another quar- terback hurt, so we eliminated things that we were doing in the quarterback Michigan featured a 1,000-yard rusher in 2018, senior tailback Karan Higdon breaking through for 1,178 yards, despite foregoing the Wolver- ines' bowl game. This year's backs aren't likely to re- peat that effort, but in terms of a one- two punch in the Jim Harbaugh era, the pair of freshmen are not far off the pace. Here are the leading rushers in the five years Harbaugh has been at the helm (2019 totals are through nine games): 2019 — Zach Charbonnet, 559 yards and 11 touchdowns 2018 — Karan Higdon, 1,178 yards and 10 touchdowns 2017 — Karan Higdon, 994 yards and 11 touchdowns 2016 — De'Veon Smith, 846 yards and 10 touchdowns 2015 — De'Veon Smith, 753 yards and six touchdowns Charbonnet, a true freshman, aver- aged 62.1 yards per game through Michigan's first nine contests. Pro- jected out over three more regular- season games plus a bowl, he'd be at 807 yards for his rookie season. He's poised to become Harbaugh's most effective Michigan back in terms of finding the end zone. His next trip there will snap the tie with Higdon's 11 rushing scores in 2017. Redshirt freshman tailback Has- san Haskins has come on to provide a strong effort as well this year. His numbers could thrust a freshman- freshman combo into a better or simi- lar level of production than almost all of Harbaugh's duos thus far. Here's a look at the totals, adding in the production of the No. 2 backs in each of the five seasons (again, 2019 numbers are through nine games): 2019 — Charbonnet and Haskins, 985 yards and 13 touchdowns 2018 — Higdon and Chris Evans, 1,601 yards and 14 touchdowns 2017 — Higdon and Evans, 1,679 yards and 17 touchdowns 2016 — Smith and Evans, 1,460 yards, and 14 touchdowns 2015 — Smith and Drake Johnson, 1,024 yards and 10 touchdowns Together through nine games, Charbonnet and Haskins have aver- aged 109.4 yards per game. Projected through the rest of the schedule, it would put the duo at 1,422, fourth behind some much more veteran combos. However, Charbonnet and Haskins will likely prove Harbaugh's most ef- fective pair yet in reaching the end zone. They had 13 touchdowns at the Nov. 9 bye, four off the pace of Hig- don and Evans in 2017. All of it bodes well for Michigan's run game in the future, with Charbonnet and Haskins, with others, continuing to grow or joining in. — John Borton Zach Charbonnet had run for a team-high 559 yards through nine games. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN Young Michigan Backs Are Keeping Pace