Buy Or Sell: U-M's RB Unit Is The Best It Has Had Since The Lloyd Carr Days
The Michigan Wolverines' football running back room appears to be loaded heading into the 2020 campaign, with a dynamite foursome consisting of sophomore Zach Charbonnet, fifth-year senior Chris Evans, redshirt sophomore Hassan Haskins and freshman Blake Corum.
Three of the four aforementioned rushers have already racked up at least 622 yards in a single season at the collegiate level, with Corum being the lone exception (obviously, since he's only a freshman).
The 2020 running back unit should not only be the best group of rushers head coach Jim Harbaugh has had in Ann Arbor, but also the best the program has seen in recent memory.
Is it fair to say the collection of running backs is the best Michigan has had since the Lloyd Carr days, which came to an end in 2007? Austin Fox and Clayton Sayfie provide their takes below.
Clayton Sayfie — Buy
I’m buying, and it’s a fairly easy decision to do so. Michigan has long been searching for the next game breaking running back — since 2007, to be exact. Hart is the last Wolverine back to be drafted — in any round. While Harbaugh has reversed plenty of streaks that Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke left him with, this is one he hasn’t, at least not yet.
Though there’s no Heisman contender or 25 carry per game workhorse back on the roster, the Wolverines are more than optimistic about what this group of ball carriers can do.
"A other group that we’re really excited about is the running backs — Charbonnet, Chris Evans, Hassan Haskins, Blake Corum,” Harbaugh said this week on the Inside Michigan Football radio show. “Really, those four have been outstanding, outstanding, outstanding.”
Consider this: The best group of running backs at Michigan (2017 and 2018) since the Mike Hart days included one back who’s currently on the roster in Evans.
Charbonnet and Haskins have proved they can be productive Big Ten backs, and I expect them to be only better this season. Charbonnet, for example, had an entire offseason of being healthy and should rush for much more than his 4.9 yards per carry average last season.
Corum and Evans are the wild cards, and will be used in different ways to get them the ball where they’re most effective — whether that’s in the quick passing game or rotating in as a change of pace.
With the shortened season, don’t expect a 1,000-yard rusher, but do expect Michigan to lean on its group of backs quite a bit, especially early on in the season while redshirt sophomore quarterback Joe Milton is learning the ropes.
Austin Fox — Buy
The overall performances of Michigan's running backs have been underwhelming since Carr left town following the 2007 season. U-M went six straight years without a 1,000-yard running back from 2012-17, until Karan Higdon finally ended that streak in 2018 by rushing for 1,178 yards.
A stretch like that would have been unfathomable while Carr was still the head coach. The performances of the running backs were subpar under Rich Rodriguez, and Fitzgerald Toussaint's 1,041-yard campaign in 2011 was one of the few bright spots from the position under Brady Hoke.
The running back play got better under Harbaugh, but still hasn't featured an elite, game-changing back. It may not have that on its roster in 2020 either, but what makes the unit so strong is the amount of quality rushers the position possesses.
Quality depth like this hasn't been seen at running back since Carr's final year of 2007, when Mike Hart (1,361 yards), Brandon Minor (385) and Carlos Brown (382) all rushed for at least 382 yards.
Toussaint's 1,041-yard campaign in 2011 and Higdon's 1,178-yard showing in 2018 were nice, but they were both a one-man show (at least from a running back standpoint) in a lot of ways.
In other words, Michigan didn't have another running back who was even close to the level of each year's respective starter, which is saying something when considering neither Toussaint nor Higdon were viewed as elite.
The 2020 season is expected to be anything but a one-man show on the ground, with Charbonnet, Haskins and Evans all likely to be significant contributors (and perhaps Corum as well) on offense.
The competition is so neck-and-neck amongst the group, that it would be not be a surprise if any of the aforementioned former three earned the starting job on Oct. 24 at Minnesota.
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