The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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[ R U N N I N G B A C K S ] 68 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2021 FOOTBALL PREVIEW level?" Jansen mused. "The most obvious is, you hand it off to him, you have a per- fectly blocked play, he gets into the second level and just takes off. "But it's like with Chris Evans. I can see him in the slot, I can see him catching some swing passes, some screen passes. Any way that you can get him in the open field, that's where he is going to really excel." Edwards didn't need any introduction when he came to Ann Arbor. The media handled that, detailing his exploits for new Michigan assistant coach Ron Bellamy's squads at West Bloomfield. The Wolverines have experienced five- star recruits who turned out to be sub- five-star college performers. Gattis doesn't anticipate that to be the case with this true freshman. "There are certain guys you say, that guy's a, quote-unquote, five-star," Gattis observed. "It's pretty obvious that when you label a player a five-star, you want them to look like something. Donovan has met those expectations. "He's special. It's going to continue to take time, him grasping the whole offense, so he can have that discipline on every play and consistency on every play, but he's go- ing to have a very, very bright future here." Edwards fits in well to a top-three backs rotation that passes muster in the eyes of the OC. "Those three guys are what the running backs room is supposed to look like here at Michigan," Gattis said. "I'm really, really excited about them." Jansen is as well, he noted to The Wol- verine. "You look at Hassan Haskins and you see the biggest running back in that room, the guy that's had the most success in that room," Jansen said. "He is a physical, downhill runner. That's what you're sup- posed to have at Michigan. "Then you've got Blake Corum, who I know is powerful and could probably gain some yards inside, but he's more like, I'm going to get to the edge, I'm going to catch some swing passes, maybe some screens, then I'm going to blow you away with my speed. "Then Donovan really has a little bit of both. I'd like to see him put some weight on, which he will, but he's got the speed, he's got the hands, he's got this natural 'I can find the hole' patience. It combines Hassan and Blake all in one." Redshirt sophomore Hassan Haskins enters the campaign just three yards shy of 1,000 rushing yards in college. He has 182 attempts for 997 yards and 10 touchdowns so far. If he was quali- fied, his 5.48 yards per rush would rank ninth all time in the U-M record books, though that list requires 200 carries to qualify. Among rushers with at least 60 attempts last year, Haskins ranked 13th nationally per Pro Football Focus (PFF) with an average of 4.34 yards after contact per rush. His PFF breakaway percentage (the percent of his yards gained on rushes of 15 yards or more) of 54.1 ranked 17th among the same grouping of backs, while he was awarded an elusive rating (a PFF stat that measures suc- cess and impact of a runner with the ball independent of the blocking he receives) of 99.7, which ranked 40th. Four different running backs tallied carries last fall, and each scored a touchdown. They combined for 649 yards and 10 scores on just 122 totes (5.3 yards per carry), but exactly half of the rushes for the position group went to Haskins. The foursome also combined for 20 receptions that gained 201 yards. At No. 58 overall, four-star freshman Donovan Edwards is the highest-ranked running back recruit the Wolverines have inked according to Rivals.com since Derrick Green, a five-star that was listed No. 8 overall in the 2013 class. [ F Y I ] Redshirt sophomore Hassan Haskins ended last season with two straight 100-yard rushing performances, the third and fourth of his career. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL