Michigan Football: Spring Football — Chat Notes — Running Backs
Posted at 8:00am — 4/19/2014
Michigan Football: Spring Football — Chat Notes — Running Backs
We are going to share some notes from our past chats. Not all the information will be available, but we will share some of our past Michigan football spring chat reports.
Running Backs:
Coach Nuss is investing time teaching the running backs how to see the cutback lanes and what he would like to see them do in his offense. This is something we don’t remember to often a Michigan coach doing this before.
Aug 31, 2013; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines running back DeDe’Veon Smith (#4) is the clear number one at running back in our opinion, quicker than most thought and he was relentless running with the ball this spring.
Justice Hayes (#5) plays running back and that’s it. None of this going from running back to slot receiver anymore. Saw some good things this spring, but a player like Douglass is going to make it interesting for the “speed back” on the team. Hayes has been at running back not in the slot at all and has been very good.
Derrick Green (#27) showed some glimpses of why he was rated so high and why the coaches were glad to see him come to Michigan. Remember he came in overweight, got injured early, and fell behind. That isn’t good for a highly regarded player to come in and start off so poorly.
Apr 5, 2014; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines quarterback Wilton Speight (19) hands the ball off to running back Derrick Green (27) prior to the Spring Game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY SportsWould have been nice to get him on campus last spring and probably could have worked off some of the weight issue before the season started. Once the season started it was all catch-up and then when the team was struggling it became a lot tougher to work the other running backs in because this team was just trying to survive and not get reps for younger guys like several games should have been last year.
This spring for Green they had a 3rd down at the 4, ran off tackle, Green was hit hard at the 3 and carried somehow the entire defense it looked like into the end-zone. We saw glimpses of a tough runner and super aggressive at times when carrying the ball. Green is not too heavy, he looks quick.
Green is behind both Smith and Hayes in our opinion, but get snaps with the first team a lot, there’s a lot of rotation and we hope this continues during the fall as well.
Apr 5, 2014; Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Michigan Wolverines defensive back Ross Douglas (29) and safety Shaun Austin (32) during the Spring Game at Michigan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY SportsRoss Douglas (#29) is probably the biggest surprise this spring, he was outstanding in the big scrimmage. He has extremely quick feet and had at least 60 yards in the Saturday scrimmage before the spring game. One particular run he was bottled up, broke to outside for substantial gain that day. This kid can play and he looked much faster and quicker than Justice Hayes on that day which was the Saturday before the TV practice. We believe he is a much better at Michigan being a running back than at cornerback especially with the depth chart we have right now. We did see him getting some snaps with the first group as well.
Wyatt Shallman (#32) plays a lot of running back but also H-back as well. Shallman did get some reps with the first group at both positions (H-Back and RB).
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
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