Michigan Football: Blake Corum, Hassan Haskins have eye-opening stats

Michigan football is one of the best rushing teams in college football and there are some incredible stats that tell the success of Blake Corum and Hassan Haskins.

Regardless of the stat, Michigan football is near the top in all the major categories when it comes to running the football.

The Wolverines rank seventh in college football in rushing yards per game at 246 and are also tied for fourth in rushing touchdowns with 21. Michigan football is also tied for 17th in yards per rush and has created its fair share of explosive runs with Blake Corum and Hassan Haskins.

While the long runs have slowed a little bit in Big Ten play, both Corum and Haskins ripped off explosive runs (20 yards or more) against Nebraska and I’d expect to see more down the stretch.

Corum and Haskins are both rated by Pro Football Focus as two of the best backs in college football and Zach Shaw of The Michigan Insider offered a tweet outlining some of the incredible stats they have put up through six games.

Blake Corum and Hassan Haskins most impressive stats

There are a couple of stats that jump out when you see those numbers. The yards are impressive as are the touchdowns and the first downs.

However, there were two other numbers that really stood out. One was the fact that on 198 rushing attempts this season, Corum and Haskins have been stopped behind the line just twice.

That’s pretty incredible when you think about it and one reason why the Michigan football staff feels confident feeding both Corum and Haskins the ball.

Most of the time, regardless of what happens, those guys are getting positive yards. And eventually, they start to make guys miss. All those positive yards keep U-M ahead of the chains.

Haskins definitely becomes harder to tackle as the game goes on. We saw that on display in Nebraska. He fought through defenders for a key first down in the third quarter and then hurdled a guy for a 50-yard run in the fourth.

This leads to the other eye-opening stats: 660 yards after contact and 50 tackles broken this season (combined). Corum and Haskins have 442 yards before contact this season, which means 60 percent of their combined yards have come after defenders have made contact.

That shows what kind of runners they are and while Michigan football has an outstanding offensive line, one that was recognized as one of the best during the first six games, those stats just reinforce that Corum and Haskins are an elite duo.

Maybe even the nation’s best.