Jay Harbaugh Talks Blake Corum, Chris Evans' Return & More

One of the deeper position groups for Michigan football in 2020 is undoubtedly the running backs. The Wolverines return both players that started games in 2019, in sophomore Zach Charbonnet and redshirt sophomore Hassan Haskins.

They've also added fifth-year senior Chris Evans, who was not with the team last season due to an academic issue. Evans has accumulated 1,722 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns throughout his three years playing at U-M. He's also caught 40 career passes for 392 yards and two touchdowns.

"He’s come back and he’s been highly motivated," running backs coach and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh told Jon Jansen on the In The Trenches podcast. "He’s been a leader; he’s been, by all accounts, really impressive in the workouts and been on top of his business. That’s great to see. As a coach, you love having that kind of veteran leadership, especially with a guy like him, who hasn’t had the smoothest, most perfect ride, but that’s now a strength for him.

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"Football-wise, he’s a guy who will be great to have, because he has a certain type of elusiveness to him that not many other guys on our roster have, and it’s pretty special in the scope of our conference and nationally. Just what he can do in tight spaces with his feet, with his hips and it’ll be a nice added weapon for us."

Adding Evans brings depth and an element of explosiveness to what was a solid position group in 2019. Charbonnet started in the first six games of the year (U-M did not start a running back in the seventh game against PSU), and was productive. He had 149 rushes for 726 yards and 11 touchdowns, which broke the record for most touchdowns by a U-M freshman.

"Looking back at his first year, he had a really strong year," Harbaugh said. "I think the thing that he will tell you, and will be apparent in a year from now or two years from now, is that he was just scratching the surface."

Charbonnet didn't miss any games, but he was limited mid-way through the season with an injury. Harbaugh says having an offseason to get healthy and train will benefit him going into his sophomore campaign.

"As he has an offseason of really being able to develop his lower body and getting healthy, it’s going to be really special how he improves with his speed, with his lower body flexibility, his balance, his change of direction," Harbaugh predicted. "He was really good, but I think you’re going to see a guy that’s going to become great.

"He’s a guy who loves to workout, loves to train, loves to do extra. If he could put a cot in the weight room and sleep there, he probably would, like a lot of other guys on our team."

After starting his career at linebacker and suffering an injury that limited him for most of last offseason, Haskins shifted over to offense for the 2019 season, and was healthy from fall camp on. He got the starting nod in the final six games of the season, starting with a breakout game against Notre Dame, in his first start, carrying the ball 20 times for 149 yards. He finished the year with 121 carries for 621 yards and four scores.

"The cool thing about him is he just keeps his mouth shut and he shows up," Harbaugh said. "Every single day, he got a little better, and it got to the point where it was like, ‘Hey, let’s give this guy a shot.’ He starts doing some good things and continues to build confidence when he’s in there, and you see a guy running more decisively, more violently, to the point where you can say, ‘Hey that really looks like him. That looks like the guy who can do a backflip and who can squat over 400 pounds, takes an endless amount of reps.’ That’s when you know a guy is really in the zone, when you can see what he can do physically, you actually see it in the play."

U-M is also adding early enrollee Blake Corum to the running backs room. Corum, a speedy back, is already impressing on campus.

"The expectations are high," Harbaugh said of Corum. "As an early enrollee, you find your way in the winter. You work out, you learn the playbook, you go through spring ball. You get to a certain point in there where you’re really not even a freshman anymore, just because you’ve been around and you’ve been exposed to everything.

"The cool thing about Blake is he totally embraces that. He loves that, and he’s obsessed with football. Just like other guys on our team, which is a pretty special thing, these guys want to be in here on Saturdays, they want to watch extra film, they text you questions at 1 in the morning about plays and stuff.

"That’s the great thing that we have going in our room, as well as other positions, is just the culture right now is really strong in terms of football being what’s important to these guys. They take care of their business in school. They’re obsessed with us winning and becoming great players. Blake definitely adds to that, bolsters that and he’ll being great competition to the group, in terms of what he can do skillset wise."

Harbaugh was named the team's special teams coordinator, following the departure of safeties coach and special teams coordinator Chris Partridge, who took the defensive coordinator position at Ole Miss this offseason.

Harbaugh had already been heavily involved with the special teams in years past, but now he'll run the show.

"It’s something I’m really excited about," Harbaugh said. "It doesn’t change my week a ton. I’ll probably just shift a little bit of time towards special teams, but that was something I was spending time on to begin with. I’m really excited to work with the players that we have and the coaches that we have involved in that phase.

"We’ve had a lot of success here on special teams, and we have a good culture with the way we meet and the way we practice. So, we’re not going to change just for the sake of changing, but the same as every other year ... "You look at the different trends and say, ‘this is cutting edge, this may be a way to get us an advantage or get better field positon.’ Always looking for ways to improve, but keep the core of what we do in tact."

Harbaugh will be tasked with finding ways to get sophomore wide receiver and kick returner Giles Jackson the ball in space. He averaged 25.9 yards per kick return in 2019, and took the opening kickoff 97 yards to the house against Maryland.

"You watch Giles, and he has an electric nature to him of what he can do with the ball in his hands," Harbaugh said. "It’s the kind of thing that excites you. We got something special, we got to let him do his thing, but we as coaches have the responsibility to put him in position to shine. Guys like that can really take over a game in college football, so your focus as a coaching staff has to be, ‘How do we let him be at his best and not get in his way?’"

• Junior running back Christian Turner got some run last season, notching 44 rushes for 171 yards and one touchdown. He battled with an injury late in the season, and was and did not play in the last three games of the season.

"He’s working to get healthy now," Harbaugh said. "He’s maintained a great attitude throughout, and his time here has had a little bit of bad luck with the injuries that have come his way, but to his credit, he’s managed to keep improving, keep learning and maintain a good attitude and be a good teammate throughout the whole process. For him, he’s got to continue to do that. We know what he can do from a movement perspective, and everyone’s just anxious and excited to see it for an extended period of time, because that’s really, as a runner, it’s under appreciated how much of a factor reps are.

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