Garrett Fishaw Source for Kareem Walker: He is "a lock" for Michigan

Harbaugh will kindly ask him to be faster, and he will.

Yes, being caught from behind implies that they got beyond the LOS.  I'll take it.

Jamaal Charles was very good to excellent all 3 years at Texas*, particularly has last (junior) year where he ran for 1600 yards at 6 YPC and 18 TDs.

So are you saying Kareem would be about as good as that? A bit worse?

It's not out of the question, as for a good 20 year period (mid-80s to mid-00s), UM every 2-3 years had a back who put up great numbers like that (Morris, Boles, Wheatley, Timmy B, A-Train, Chris Perry, Mike Hart). Seeing as that's where Harbaugh is headed, we need that type of back; hopefully Kareem is the guy.

* I assume we're not talking NFL, as there he's an all-time great back, so I assume you're not going there: he's the NFL's all-time leader in YPC at 5.5.

I'd take someone that can consistently hit open holes and make guys miss any day of the week over someone who is fast.

got caught many times in  a run down.  But who did not want Barry Sanders?

You don't need track star speed to be a great RB, and while I would first put the vision, balance, and cutting like Hart had over the speed of Carlos Brown...is it too much to ask for both?  I mean seriously, a lot of RBs out there have good combinations of speed, cutting, vision to have very productive college careers.  Yet UM has had..Fitz Tousaint for one year since Hart left?  That's just crazy.  I don't think the two choices should be 'get caught from behind every time 30 yards downfield' and 'can't find a hole'.

Well, the OL play has not lived up to its rankings, either. We brought in a lot of highly touted guys, and several of them are not playing, they're playing behind walk-ons (Patrick Kugler behind Graham Glasgow), they're playing behind lower-rated guys (Dawson behind Ben Braden), etc. So we can't absolve the OL from blame.

However, the truth is that a couple of those guys were overrated, and we knew it. Green was not the #1 back coming out of high school, regardless of what Rivals said. They missed. He is a straight line back without good balance. Ty Isaac has a lot of physical talent, but his issues are between the ears. De'Veon Smith is simply too slow to be a top-flight back; he would be better as the Thunder part of a Thunder & Lightning duo, but we don't have the lightning, either.

So....unfortunately, we whiffed on all three backs. There's potential for Isaac to still play well if he gets his head on straight, but the other two have pretty much shown us what they are.

Not anywhere near Isaac and Green in the rankings. He didn't have the greatest offer sheet, either. One of my favorite recruiting quotes came from his HS coach.

 

Because there’s a lot of stupid coaches out there and that’s why they get fired. They take 4,3 guys that can’t read, write, block, tackle, hold the ball or win. That’s the bottom line.” Howland, OH HS football coach Dick Angle on why Deveon Smith didn't have any offers yet

the OL is not improved in any way. In fact, they may have collectively underachieved more than our HBs. I don't say that in a complaining or angry light but as absolute fact. In the beginning of the year it was easy to see that the run game hadn't been helped and very likely couldn't be with these particular players and yet every game we'd hear an announcer proclaim the toughness and resurgence of the OL. It was never true. Of course, you hope they progress as the season goes on but the only thing that worked (FB dive/trap) was generally sniffed out and the entire run game actually regressed. An absolute failing grade, I'd only pass them on pass-pro where I'd give them a C+. We need backups to step up and current starters shuffled a bit, IMO. Most of all we need better players on the OL and at HB. Neither is very good.

You can't coach speed....somthing that none of our backs really have.

Cecil Fielder had home run speed...I'd much rather have a running back with triples speed!

I think Walker is a good all around back. He has good vision, good speed, good power, good receiving skills, etc. He doesn't have any glaring weaknesses. I just don't see him as a guy who's going to break off a huge run every single game.