Michigan's running back usage was a puzzle last year, from the who to the when. The carry distribution, second down running game ... all of it seemed somewhat disjointed.

New assistant coach Mike Hart's addition has many believing the Wolverines will be looking for a bell cow to carry the load this year, the way he did from 2004-07.

It's not that simple, offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said Wednesday.

"There’s always going to be something, a question about it," Gattis said. "Looking back on it, had one back played last year, then the conversation would be why so-and-so didn’t play. You wasted that talent.

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"One of the challenges, when you do have a number of different players that have talent, is how to equally, or the right way, to divide it. Obviously, we’ve had really good play by Hassan Haskins. Blake Corum has displayed some things. We’re in a different situation this year. We don’t have the depth that we had at running back."

Sophomore Zach Charbonnet left for UCLA as a transfer, not a surprise given how last year played out. He carried for 70 yards and a touchdown early in a win over Minnesota and then three more times for no gain, wasn't used much after that.

Redshirt sophomore Haskins was the leading rusher against MSU with seven yards per carry, and then was limited to seven carries the next two weeks, only one in a loss to Wisconsin. Freshman Blake Corum, meanwhile, averaged only 3.0 yards per carry and wasn't put in positions to succeed.

Gattis insists that will change this year.

"Hassan and Blake have proved themselves that they’re two elite backs that need to touch the ball as many times as possible," he said. "As we move forward, I think by situation, I feel very good about those two guys and, obviously, what Donovan Edwards and Tavi Dunlap bring as freshmen. We’re really excited about Blake and Hassan.

"Looking back on last year, it’s hard to judge anything on last year. When you’re not having success in a lot of different areas ... we played the second-fewest amount of snaps on offense and we ran the ball at a pretty good level. I think we averaged 4.6 yards per rush. That number went up from the year before about a half a yard even with four freshmen on the offensive line."

But numbers can be deceiving, too. The Wolverines were 118th of 127 schools in rushes of 10 yard or more with only five in six games. The offensive line was continuously shuffled due to injuries, and the backs never found a rhythm.

Part of that, again, seemed to be due to their usage. They were rarely left in long enough to get comfortable. When Haskins was, albeit against Rutgers, he carried 23 times for 111 yards, following up with 17 for 101 in a loss to Penn State.

"The problem was, we were just down in games where we couldn’t run the ball. Once you’re down 21 or down 28 in the first half, the game changes," Gattis insisted. "We had a ton of success running the ball in the first game and the second game, had some success there, but things change when you’re not winning and staying ahead of the chains.

"I’ve got to do a better job staying consistent in those situations where maybe we get down in a game. We’ve got to do a better job as a team playing complementary football and making sure we’re not getting ourselves behind the chains and not putting our defense in bad positions ... ot getting behind the score early in games."

There were three games last year, he noted, in which they managed only 55 snaps or less.

"That’s not a lot of football. When you’re playing less than 50 snaps on offense, that’s not a good sign," he said. "We’ve got to do a better job of staying on the field. Whether that’s by third down percentage or just maintaining long drives, we have to do a better job of staying in on offense."

That includes short yardage, he said, an area in which they were really poor after being solid in 2019.

But it can mean avoiding those situations with more explosive plays, as well, and those often come when a back has had a chance to "feel out" the game.

How that changes under Hart and who has what input will all be determined in the next several months, but it's an area of the offense that needs to be under the microscope the rest of spring ... and beyond.

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