Michigan Football: 3 Keys for Wolverines against Rutgers
By Adam Childs
2. Get Charbonnet and Haskins the ball
On paper having four running backs, you can count on is a good thing. But when it is put into practice it doesn’t exactly turn out as planned. That is what is happening with the Wolverines right now.
I understand you want to try and get them all carries and make them happy, but at some point, you need to do what is best for the team and stick with who is running the best.
Blake Corum got the bulk of the carries on Saturday against Wisconsin and he has shown some promise, but it has seemed like he is better in space where he can use his speed. Running between the tackles with him right now doesn’t seem to be the answer.
The up the gut type of runners are Zach Charbonnet and Hassan Haskins. But yet they have 13 and 21 carries, respectively, on the year despite both averaging over seven yards a carry. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense why those two guys aren’t the center of the running attack for the Wolverines.
Look if you want to be successful in college football you need to be deep at running back, but most teams can get away with riding just two guys. Those guys appear to be Charbonnet and Haskins, but yet they aren’t getting the touches.
Jim Harbaugh and Josh Gattis need to get rid of the four running back rotation and let these two guys show you what they can do. Haskins has looked like the best runner so far, but Charbonnet showed flashes last year.
Not that losing a player should be a reason to play someone if they don’t belong out there, but if the Wolverines don’t start focusing on Charbonnet more, he may be gone. He has proven he could be the feature back and losing him would be a huge blow.
Take these next four games and give them the ball and see what you got. Oh, and if they keep running as they have in limited touches, then the Wolverines are in good shape to win their games. Seems easy enough right? Now the Wolverines just need to do it.