Two of the Michigan Wolverines' best offensive football players in the 40-21 win over Middle Tennessee State were redshirt sophomore receiver Tarik Black and freshman running back Zach Charbonnet, both of whom have made little to no impact during their U-M careers (Black had just 14 career catches prior to Saturday and Charbonnet had obviously never played in a collegiate game before).
The wideout hauled in a team-best four receptions for 80 yards against the Blue Raiders, including a 36-yard touchdown reception from senior quarterback Shea Patterson with 21 seconds to go in the first quarter, giving the Maize and Blue a 10-7 lead at the time.
The 80 yards were the second-most of Black's career, narrowly trailing the 83 he hauled in against Florida in the 2017 season-opener as a true freshman.
"I liked it," head coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game. "He got off to a hot start, had a touchdown and made some real good catches over the middle. It was nice to see him out there healthy and playing from the start of the season.
"Tarik started cramping a little bit and got an IV at halftime, but there are some things to work on there."
Charbonnet, meanwhile, earned the starting nod against MTSU and racked up 90 yards on just eight carries, including a 41-yard run in the fourth quarter.
The freshman recorded 41 more yards on the ground than any other Wolverine player, with redshirt freshman running back Christian Turner's 49 being the next closest.
"We just felt like Zach throughout training camp was performing at the highest level," Harbaugh noted when asked why the freshman was tabbed as the starter.
"He was No. 1 on the depth chart when we finally made one, and I thought he played really well — in protection and seeing the holes, making the cuts and protecting the ball. He looked like a very experienced back out there to me, and the stage wasn’t too big for him.
"Zach played physical, had his eyes open and was seeing the lanes, making the cuts and looked really good."
Harbaugh Sticks To His Word, Plays Both Patterson And McCaffrey At Quarterback
Harbaugh had revealed at Big Ten Media Days in July that he planned on playing both Patterson and redshirt sophomore Dylan McCaffrey at quarterback in every game, and that's exactly what he did on Saturday.
The senior started the contest and led the offense during the first half, tossing three scores (a 36-yarder to Black, and 28-yarders to junior wideout Nico Collins and senior tight end Sean McKeon) to give U-M a 27-14 lead at the break.
"That's big for any quarterback to throw for three touchdown passes in a game," Harbaugh exclaimed. "Where he was excellent, outstanding, was in was managing the checks. They threw a lot of zero blitz at us, which is hard to pick up, but he got us into the right play four or five times — two resulted in touchdown passes and a couple other option checks and running checks."
The only appearances of McCaffrey in the first half were when he was lined up at wideout on a few plays and put in motion, before he took over at quarterback with U-M leading 27-14 and 3:40 remaining in the third quarter.
The redshirt sophomore then engineered a five-play, 44-yard scoring drive that he capped off with a six-yard scoring run to put Michigan up 33-14 (the two-point conversion failed).
Patterson ended the day 17-of-29 passing for 203 yards, three scores and no picks, while McCaffrey went 2 of 2 for 17 yards.
"As we said, we wanted to play both quarterbacks together at times and separately at times," Harbaugh reiterated after the game. "This is a new offense, and I thought for a first time out, it was good. Can it be better? Yeah, sure. And that’s what we’ll be striving for."
Miscellaneous Notes
• Redshirt freshmen Ryan Hayes and Jalen Mayfield each made their first career starts against MTSU, at left and right tackle, respectively. The former started in place of injured fifth-year senior Jon Runyan.
• Black's 36-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter was just the second score of his career, with his 46-yard TD against Florida in 2017 being his other.
• Turner's 11 carries were a career high, surpassing the 10 he had last season against Nebraska.
• Redshirt freshman running back Ben VanSumeren's one-yard scoring plunge in the fourth quarter was the first touchdown of his career. He carried four times for seven yards, both of which were career highs.
• McCaffrey's one-yard reception from Patterson was his first-ever catch.
• Patterson's three scoring tosses against the Blue Raiders tied his career high at U-M (he did so on five separate occasions last year).
• The 40 points Michigan posted were its most in a season opener since Sept. 3, 2016, when it beat Hawaii 63-3.
• The Wolverines racked up 453 yards of total offense against MTSU, a number it surpassed just three times all of last season.
• Junior wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones missed the game with injury, marking the first contest he had ever sat out at U-M (snapped a string of 26 straight appearances).
• McKeon's 28-yard scoring reception in the second quarter was his fifth collegiate touchdown catch and his longest TD grab at Michigan.
• The Wolverines completed 16 of 26 passes in the first half for 197 yards, attempted three passes in the third quarter for zero yards and connected on three of four fourth-quarter throws for 23 yards.
• Michigan netted 80 yards on 16 first-half carries (5.0 yards per attempt) and 153 on 29 second-half runs (5.3 yards per try).
• Charbonnet became the first U-M freshman to start a season opener at running back since Sam McGuffie did so against Utah in 2008. In fact, Charbonnet was just the fourth freshman Wolverine rusher to do so since 1944, with Gene Derricotte in 1944 and Wally Teninga in 1945 being the other two.
The California native carried eight times for 90 yards, marking the most rushing yards for a U-M rookie in his debut since Chris Evans compiled 112 yards in a 63-3 win over Hawaii on Sept. 3, 2016.
• Eight offensive Wolverine players made their debuts in the winged helmet on Saturday — Hayes, redshirt freshman tight end Mustapha Muhammad, freshman tight end Erick All, freshman offensive tackle Karsen Barnhart, Charbonnet, and freshman wideouts Giles Jackson, Cornelius Johnson and Mike Sainristil.
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