Michigan fifth-year senior running back Ty Isaac seems to have earned the right to start following his 11-carry, 114-yard game in a win over Florida, but running backs coach Jay Harbaugh wasn’t tipping his hand Wednesday.
“We’ll see,” Harbaugh said with a grin. “Nice try.”
Which translated means, “I know, but I’m not telling you.”
He was, however, impressed with Isaac’s play, as was just about everyone else who watched him versus the Gators.
“He was playing fast, he was playing at his full speed, he was decisive … he was great after contact, I think he had 80 yards after contact, which was huge,” Harbaugh said. “He played with a physical presence he has, and we needed him to play with [it]. I was excited about that.”
He got the call on many second- and third-and-long downs, plays on which Florida was likely thinking pass.
“Ty arguably might be our best protection guy, so some situations make sense for him to be there anyway,” Harbaugh said. “Certain runs he had on two third-and-13 runs he does particularly well. [Junior] Karan [Higdon] also does.
“Sometimes you like a certain guy for a certain scheme. That was why on those couple plays.”
The coach noted he would love all his backs to all be interchangeable, so the element of predictability is eliminated.
Starter and sophomore Chris Evans, meanwhile, ran well, but he had a few plays on which he tripped over his feet. He might have been a bit anxious in the opener, Harbaugh acknowledged.
“The turf was a little bit different,” he explained. “He tripped one time, and a second time he did stumble a bit. I think he was pressing just a little bit too much, could have been a little more patient, but funny things can happen in the first game.
“We trust all those guys. I think going from week one to week two, we are all going to be better … that's typically the case from a good program. We hope to see that.”
He wants all of them to want the ball and would be disappointed if they didn’t. At the same time, Harbaugh is pleased that he has a united locker room.
“It’s certainly competitive. Every running back is going to want the ball, but they’re rooting for each other’s success and taking advantage of their own opportunities,” he said. “I expect them to want the ball more.
“As a coach, you hope everyone has a healthy discontent for their role, because if you’re recruiting the right guys, that would be the case. They do a nice job balancing selfish instinct … with wanting their brothers to succeed and do well. The relationship between them is kind of on them. You hope as a coach the guys you have, at their core, regardless how much they want to succeed, they are team players.”
There’s nothing more important than being a winner, after all.
“If they’re motivated by team success, it’s all going to work out,” he concluded.
NOTES
• Harbaugh said he was relatively pleased with the pass blocking from his group, with a couple exceptions.
“We had one mishap unfortunately, which we hope to rectify in the future … it was good but wasn’t great,” he said. “In the pass pro world we expect to be perfect. The standard is really, really high. We weren’t perfect, and that was unfortunate, but we’re hoping to get there this week.”
• Michigan redshirt junior quarterback Wilton Speight missed the running backs in the flats a few times, but Harbaugh is confident the backs will be employed more as safety valves in the future.
“A couple of those times we hit deep shots or attempted them, which you’d love to hit and take 50 yards over check-downs,” he said. “As we move forward and the quarterbacks get comfortable in a game rhythm, feel how the protection side of things is unfolding, they’ll find the backs more and more.
“We’ll continue to be there for them when the quarterbacks need us and get some more opportunities in the check-down world in the future.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @BSB_Wolverine, @JB_ Wolverine, @AustinFox42, @AndrewVcourt and @Balas_Wolverine
• Like us on Facebook
