Michigan Wolverines Football: Position By Position Review — Running Back
Heading into the 2019 season, running back was a huge question mark for the Wolverines. True freshman Zach Charbonnet started off as the guy but redshirt freshman Hassan Haskins finished the year as the main ball carrier. Both had pretty solids seasons but neither of the really took the bull completely by the horns.
Michael Spath recently asked a very direct question about U-M's backfield on Twitter — who was Michigan's top running back this season?
More than 1,100 people weighed in and Haskins came away with 63 percent of the votes, which surprised me a little bit. If I had voted, I probably would've tabbed Haskins as well, but it would've been very, very close. The above vote, was not.
As I stated, Charbonnet began the year on a high noted and it looked like he'd be the bell cow throughout the year. He carried it too many times against Army, seemed to get a little dinged up at some point and ultimately saw a big decrease in his workload.
Enter Haskins.
The redshirt freshman, who switched positions from running back to linebacker and back to running back, climbed up the depth chart and ultimately passed Charbonnet. Haskins started the final five games of the season and almost caught up to Charbonnet in terms of carries and yards.
Charbonnet finished the year with 11 touchdowns to Haskins' four, but that was really the only big advantage. Charbonnet carried the ball 136 times for 654 yards, while Haskins toted it 103 times for 575 yards. Haskins edged out Charbonnet in yards per carry, 5.4 to 4.7, and also had the longest run of the season with a 49 yarder.
Once the dust settled, Haskins looked like the more complete and explosive back. He seemed to have more burst, showed off his athleticism by hurdling a defender against Notre Dame and just seemed to have a little more everything you want in a back. Charbonnet certainly is no slouch, and with Chris Evans returning to the program, U-M suddenly looks loaded at running back.
Who did you think was the better back? What will the backfield look like next year? Comment below!!!
