Josh Gattis Praises Early Enrolled Freshman

There are nine early-enrolled freshmen on offense at Michigan and Josh Gattis seems to be beyond excited about one of them.

Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis has five new skill players and four new offensive linemen to work with as spring ball continues and he seems beyond excited about one of them.

Running back Donovan Edwards. 

The former West Bloomfield standout was atop Michigan's recruiting board as a prep star, and now that he's at U-M, he might be working his way to the top of the depth chart. 

"Donovan has displayed some unique talent," Gattis said. "I think it was pretty evident the kind of talent that he has throughout his recruitment. Those types of plays have shown up on the field. He’s an exceptional player with explosive play ability. He’s so versatile in everything that he does — he can run the ball and he can catch the ball."

Those kinds of words aren't exactly surprising when you consider how good Edwards looked as a senior in high school, but it seems clear to everyone around the program that the in-state product is special. Now the question is, how will he be used under new running backs coach Mike Hart? The former Michigan star hasn't talked with the media yet, but Gattis touched on the topic a bit while explaining how the offense is coming along. 

"I think one of the challenges when you do have a number of different players that have talent, is how to equally, or the right way, to divide it," Gattis said. "Obviously, we’ve had really good play by Hassan [Haskins]. Blake [Corum] has displayed some things. We’re in a different situation this year. We don’t have the depth that we've had at running back.

"We’ve gotta do a better job as a team playing complimentary football and making sure we’re not getting ourselves behind the chains and not putting our defense in bad positions; not getting behind the score early in games. We’ve got to do a better job of staying on the field. Whether that’s by third down percentage or just maintaining long drives. We have to do a better job of staying in on offense."

The success of running backs is dependent on a lot of things — the running back coach, the offensive coordinator's scheme and the offensive line play. Edwards looks like the future of the position, but he might end up being a big part of the now based on what Gattis is saying. 

It's going to be really interesting to see how Corum, Edwards and Haskins are used during Hart's first season as running backs coach, Gattis' second year as OC and behind an inexperienced offensive line being coached up by first-time offensive line coach Sherrone Moore.