Jim Harbaugh saw plenty to like from his team in Saturday’s 47-14 blowout win of Western Michigan, including play from a number of first-year guys. One in particular caught his eye on film.

Freshman running back Donovan Edwards is biding his time behind two outstanding backs in redshirt sophomore Hassan Haskins and freshman Blake Corum, but he got his shot late in the game Saturday. He carried six times for 27 yards (4.5 per carry) and caught a pass for three yards in his first taste of action, looking confident and showing nice acceleration to the hole.

He’ll continue to see more and more time going forward, Harbaugh said Monday.

“No doubt. You just had [a good] feeling the way he was running the ball, breaking tackles, driving through, really doing a good job going north and south … that’s been a big coaching emphasis,” Harbaugh said. “He’s been used to just trying to run everything around everybody, all the time. It’s been a steady process, but we saw nothing but north and south out of Donovan.”

They’ve seen some special plays in practice, and Harbaugh predicted the fans would see it in games soon enough. He added that the carry allotment — 14 (for 111 yards) for Blake Corum, 13 (70) for Hassan Haskins and six for Edwards — was probably indicative of how it would be in the short run.

“It’s going to be a matter of time before he breaks one,” Harbaugh continued of Edwards. “You just had that feeling on the sideline. Same thing after watching the tape. He just wants it so bad. He’s one of those type of players. You’ll be seeing more of Donovan Edwards.

“I think you had a pretty good example from the first game. Both [Haskins and Corum] are standout players. We’ve been saying we’re considering both the starting running back, so we said we were going to lean on them and ride ‘em. That’s the plan. I’ve been pretty transparent about that.”

Several other young guys got their first consistent playing time, as well. Freshman linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green “had some really good, physical plays,” Harbaugh said, noting he is frosh had been practicing at 'such a high level.' True freshman Junior Colson played well, he added, and ends David Ojabo, Mike Morris and others were solid.

“There are a lot of guys that haven’t played a ton that were out there. We kind of think of them as steady, regular guys,” Harbaugh said. “You kind of forget that they haven’t played too much in games. Factoring all that in, they acquitted themselves pretty darn good.”

The Wolverines played 73 guys Saturday, a healthy number. They’d like to do that every game if they could, Harbaugh said … under the right circumstances.

“We wanted to play guys, play them early, get them that game experience once the game presented itself to have that opportunity,” he said. “There will be times where especially some of the freshmen may not be traveling a week or have an opportunity to play, so the opportunity to have a game, get that experience … we’ll be mindful of the four games they can play in and still be a redshirt, keep a close eye on that.

“But I felt like for a first opportunity, we like to see them get that experience and playing time.”

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