Jay Harbaugh Talks Charbonnet's Progression, Overall Running Back Battle

Redshirt freshman Christian Turner was expected to be the Michigan Wolverines’ football starting running back for much of the offseason (and still might be), but much of that speculation has shifted toward freshman Zach Charbonnet as of late.

Regardless of who earns the starting job, Turner — who missed all of spring with injury — is still expected to contribute heavily this season, and position coach Jay Harbaugh provided an update on the youngster’s status this afternoon.

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“Christian is healthy now,” Harbaugh confirmed. “He continues to get better. It’s sometimes hard to make improvements when you’re not on the field, but he’s gotten a lot better in camp.

“We’re excited to have him get out there, turn some heads and show everybody what he can do.”

Senior Tru Wilson is in strong contention for Michigan’s starting running back gig as well, though it’s widely assumed he will not be an every down back who shoulders the workload for the Wolverines this season.

Harbaugh was asked today why Wilson, a former walk-on, has been ‘overlooked’ for so much of his career.

“People really like big-named, high-star guys,” the position coach explained. “That’s the nature of fans, and those guys are more fun to talk about and anticipate playing.

“Tru is a great example of a guy who really doesn’t care about it, and just continues to work day in and day out. He’s developed himself into a really good football player.”

In fact, Wilson is now the lone veteran of the running back group following Karan Higdon’s graduation and senior Chris Evans’ indefinite suspension.

Though the position as a whole is incredibly inexperienced, Harbaugh revealed that the youngsters are mature beyond their years.

“The guys we have haven’t played a ton,” he admitted. “Tru has played a lot, but not that much in the grand scheme of things.

“The interesting thing is that even though they’re inexperienced, they’re super mature. The way they go through meetings and walkthroughs in practice is impressive — there’s very little nonsense and they support each other, root for one another and compete like crazy to outdo the others.

“They’ve made it easy on me and have set a tone of constant improvement. I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people.

“Experience is helpful but each of these guys has played more in fall camp than they’ll play during the season, just in terms of exposure in 11-on-11 football.

“Doing it against our defense in a competitive environment allows you to naturally learn a lot, and I really believe they’ll be ready to play because of these experiences in camp.”

Harbaugh expanded a bit on the maturity level of Charbonnet, who is obviously one of the youngest players on the team as a freshman.

The bruising runner from California has bounced back incredibly well this fall after missing all of spring ball with injury.

“He’s healthy now,” Harbaugh said. “It’s not that difficult [getting him back up to speed] with a guy like him, because he was mentally engaged — more than most guys — when he was out.

“He took great notes and asked a ton of questions. In April and May when he hadn’t been in the system long, he was at about the same level as everybody knowledge-wise, which speaks to how much he loves the game and how engaged he was able to be, despite not being physically out on the field.

“The great thing about Zach is that you never have to ask him to do anything — he’s always eager to do more and ask questions.

“We drew stuff up on the whiteboard and he’d text me at 1 in the morning about a part of practice he wasn’t even in. Our players love the mental side of it and understanding everything, because they can grow in that regard and it will benefit them on the field.”

Notes

• Harbaugh explained that the versatility and different strengths of the running back unit is one of the aspects that makes it so potent in first-year coordinator Josh Gattis' new offense.

“Being able to make plays is the big thing," he explained. "As a running back, we have more space to work with now because there will be less people in the box when we’re running the ball.

"All our guys are good, but they’re all different — Tru is more likely to try and make a guy miss, CT [Christian Turner] is more likely to outrun someone, Zach is a little in between, and [redshirt freshmen] Ben VanSumeren and Hassan Haskins are going to run you over.

"It’s nice having a variety there.”

• Another aspect of Gattis' offense that will be utilized more than before is the running backs' ability to catch the ball out of the backfield.

Harbaugh was asked this afternoon to provide an update on how his unit was progressing in that area.

“We had a couple rough days in camp where not everyone was catching the ball as consistently as we’d want," he revealed. "Those guys will be on the jugs machines before and after practice, and really working on those specific situations.

"They’ll try to become reliable in that aspect, so we’re hoping to have the kind of success Gattis has had in the past getting it to the running backs. As we continue to stretch the ball downfield, there will be a lot of space for check downs and it could have a huge impact for us.”

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