Running back has been one of the most intriguing positions to monitor on the Michigan Wolverines’ entire football team so far this season, thanks in large part to freshman Zach Charbonnet.
He burst onto the scene by averaging 95 rushing yards over the club’s first two games, with his 33-carry, three-touchdown performance Sept. 7 against Army generating plenty of headlines.
The youngster has been banged up ever since, however, and has only accumulated a combined 28 yards over the club’s last two games.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh admitted that 33 carries was/is way too many for the California native and that they are limiting his touches moving forward.
Running backs coach Jay Harbaugh, meanwhile, also chimed in on the matter for the first time Wednesday.
“Zach is good to go,” Jay Harbaugh revealed. “We take pride in taking care of our guys, and we wouldn’t start a player in a game who wasn’t totally healthy and ready to play at his best. You do your best to make sure the pace guys are playing at is sustainable for 13, 14 or even 15 games in a season.
“It’s just kind of common sense [that 33 carries is too many]. You don’t want that as a running back, but there are times in games where you get in a situation and it’s a little bit unavoidable. You can look at guys’ careers in colleges and in the NFL, and you’ll find outliers like that all over the place. It’s happened at Michigan in the past, and it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world.
“It’s just not the most ideal thing. We obviously look at how Zach is playing and talk to him about how he feels. Then you do your best to make sure you’re taking care of your guys.
“We wouldn’t put a player in position to get himself hurt or make an injury worse, or put someone back in a game if it puts them at risk. Zach is a very unselfish team guy and isn’t one to ask for anything for himself. He’s always looking for ways to help out both the team and his buddies in the running back room.
“All our guys are like that, and there’s nobody complaining or causing a scene because they didn’t get what they wanted. Everyone knows we have a long-term vision and understand what it will take to get to where we want to be.”
Jim Harbaugh raved about Charbonnet’s pass-blocking abilities through the first two games of the season, and it became evident that he was the best blocker among the running backs, especially when senior Tru Wilson missed time with a broken hand.
Those abilities undoubtedly contributed to Charbonnet seeing the field more than redshirt freshman Christian Turner through the club’s first two games, though Jay Harbaugh revealed that each of the runners have progressed mightily in that department over the last several weeks.
“That’s a huge key for anybody,” the running backs coach explained. “Protecting your quarterback is the second priority after taking care of the ball. Anybody who doesn’t do those things makes it really hard to get them on the field, and if you’re not up to par in that regard, it’s hard to move the ball and to win.
“Some of our guys who had a hard time with it in camp have come a long way. Christian Turner is a guy who can take a bad play and move on from it, using it as a fuel from Sunday to Friday. He wants to look at extra film and put in the extra work to make sure those mistakes don’t happen again. A lot of people will often point out how he may have missed a block, but they don’t realize how he also picked up five blitzes.
“That gets lost to the outside because people are looking for a young man to blame on Twitter and all that … These kids work their butts off to improve their weaknesses.”
Special teams/safeties coach Chris Partridge raved during his time with the media about the way Jim Harbaugh rallied the team together following the Sept. 21 blowout loss at Wisconsin, citing how the head man "put on a clinic" afterward.
Jay Harbaugh was asked today to describe in his own words his father’s tactics last week, and noted how situations usually aren’t as bad as people make them out to be.
“The world we’re in wants everything to collapse, and for people to quit and drive their cars away [after a loss],” he said. “He [Jim Harbaugh] was able to sit us down and explain how the focus is now on Rutgers and how that’s all that matters. He reassured everybody to get back to meetings and practices, and that everything will be good.
“That same message was consistent both after the Wisconsin game and after the 52-0 win [over Rutgers]. It’s nice as a player and as a coach to have that kind of leadership that’s consistent and that you can lean on while seeing the direction you’re going in.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Sign up for our newsletter, The Wolverine Now
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @Balas_Wolverine, @EJHolland_TW, @AustinFox42, @JB_ Wolverine and @DrewCHallett
• Like us on Facebook
