We should be talking about Chris Evans
2020 has been an awful year. We all know why, plus all our own personal struggles have been amplified by the "why" in question.
We, as a fan base, are talking about a great many things. How Michigan and it's associated personalities, have failed. The state of our precious football team, for alumni and non-alumi fan alike. There's one man we should be talking about.
Chis Evans.
He has done a thing.
He made mistakes in school, serious ones, and he earned his place back in school and on the team. He fought hard for that. Because a Michigan degree means something, and this school refuses to budge on that. And most of all, to earn that opportunity, to still go out and compete, fight every week. That guy is a person I admire.
If we were a good fan base we would talk about him a little more. He's the star of this team.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:42 PM ^
Better to type/write about him being a forum.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:57 PM ^
Is this guy saying Chris Evans is being shortchanged because MGoBlog isn’t “talking about him”? I’m gonna guess he doesn’t care.
November 17th, 2020 at 5:51 PM ^
He shouldn't have been cast to be both Johnny Storm and Steve Rodgers.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:00 PM ^
I disagree.
Charbonnet should be the lead back, period.
And by lead back, I mean 20 carries.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:34 PM ^
I disagree.
Haskins should be the lead back, period.
And by lead back, I mean 25 carries.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:53 PM ^
I disagree, Christian Turner should be our lead back! He had like 3 good carries against Norte Dame! He will be All Big Ten. Said tons of people last year.
Also...can Chris Evans player cornerback?
November 17th, 2020 at 7:19 PM ^
Bull. Go with the future and make Corum the lead back. ZC is a one cut and done type of back. UM needs a speed in space type guy.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:03 PM ^
Put one for 15 and one for 20. I have no effing idea why they don't do this. I guess cause OL can't block
November 17th, 2020 at 9:47 PM ^
I agree with Putin. Charbonnet has done a good job with blitz pick ups, but he’s running tentatively this season. Haskins is running with authority and decisiveness.
November 17th, 2020 at 7:55 PM ^
Lot of divisiveness here in opinions, I tend to agree with Haskins, but anything but Corum. He is not a lead back by any stretch of the imagination, at least this year.
November 18th, 2020 at 1:01 AM ^
It seems like the coaches have different types of runs they call with different backs. Charbonnet tends to be the "sacrifice him by slamming him into the teeth of a loaded box" guy.
November 18th, 2020 at 3:10 AM ^
The coaches would never tip a play by running certain plays based on which running back is in the game!!! That’s just preposterous...honestly, the stupidity...I can’t keep this up. It’s true! It’s all so f’ing true!
November 18th, 2020 at 9:04 AM ^
20 carries...into a line that (for the last three games) can't open any holes?
November 17th, 2020 at 6:00 PM ^
Yeah let's have a Chris Evans Appreciation Post. Bravo to him. At the same time, we should also acknowledge and thank all the other players who have stuck with the team and gone through the hell this year has been (even before the games started). They're all students, young men, humans, and we should appreciate their hard work, even if the results on the field don't match our expectations.
These feel like platitudes, but I think it's good to be reminded of the basics so we don't get too caught up in the emotions of gamedays, and worrying about the future of the program, or what schools up and down the road are doing.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:57 PM ^
We are all Winners!!! ?
November 17th, 2020 at 7:42 PM ^
I can get behind this.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:38 PM ^
Participation trophies for everyone!
November 18th, 2020 at 10:35 AM ^
Chris Evans’ story is retold every game. And yes, he did a great job fighting back to be on the team, but why do we need to honor/acknowledge people that screwed up and made up for it? Rather than the other 100+ players on the team that weren’t suspended by the school.
November 18th, 2020 at 11:38 AM ^
I bet he's never been an assistant coach either.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:11 PM ^
I love Chris Evans. Note that he would never have had to worry about academics at schools like osu and msu.
November 18th, 2020 at 10:07 AM ^
He is required to keep a freaking 2.0 GPA to stay on the team, stop pretending like the athletes up there are required to be 3.5 GPA students. The excuses are amazing.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:18 PM ^
Chris Evans 1 on 1 with a LB in the open field
November 17th, 2020 at 6:24 PM ^
He was great in Knives Out
November 17th, 2020 at 10:54 PM ^
Should have won an Oscar for Cellular.
November 17th, 2020 at 10:54 PM ^
Should have won an Oscar for Cellular.
November 17th, 2020 at 10:54 PM ^
Clearly, I have zero patience.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:24 PM ^
Chris. Delete your account.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:26 PM ^
Yes. Chris Evans is a great example of the absolute genius of the offensive mastermind Josh Gattis. Evans is averaging under 4 touches per game (rushing and receiving) and on pace for 166 yards from scrimmage for the season.
Maybe we should be talking about what a turd playcaller Gattis is instead of the redundant posts calling for Gattis to be the interim head coach. The dude sucks at calling games. Perhaps the next offensive coordinator's claim to fame should not be he never called a play at Penn State or Alabama but he's awesome at Madden.
November 17th, 2020 at 7:45 PM ^
Can we talk about whoever is in charge of substituting running backs? The substitutions have made no sense since 2017 and I was negged for it for pointing it out back then.
Any time a back does anything good they're immediately substituted out.
November 17th, 2020 at 7:51 PM ^
Man who could it be? I mean the offensive coaching staff has been completely stable and in place from the 2017 to 2020 so it's going to be difficult to figure out just who exactly is demanding a four player RB rotation all these years.
If only there was just one constant over the past four years so we could identify the culprit and talk some sense into them. But alas, too much continuity on the offensive staff for us to figure it out.
November 17th, 2020 at 7:53 PM ^
Jay Harbaugh began coaching the running backs group prior to the 2017 season.
Interesting you note that the running back substitution patterns have made no sense since 2017.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:04 PM ^
No, he coached tight ends in 2015-2016.
edit: Nevermind, I see what you mean
November 17th, 2020 at 7:58 PM ^
They don't have to necessarily "tip" plays based on personnel, but it certainly seems like they're trying really hard to have every RB be the same. No matter who's in, they have to be able to run between the tackles or catch a pass (they never throw to RBs anyways) when some are clearly better than others. Mike Hart and Kevin Grady were not the same RB. If Carr was going to throw a screen, it was Hart. Never Grady. That's not tipping a play, it's using the right guy to run the right play.
Similar to now, Haskins is the guy you put back there to get 1 yard because he almost always falls forward. Doesn't mean when he's in there you HAVE to give it to him. But when you are going to run for 1 yard, use him and not Evans. Throwing a swing pass? Corum or Evans. Not Haskins or Charbonnet.
Anybody remember the Vick era Falcons? Warrick Dunn and TJ Duckett. You could never mistake one for the other and you knew when 1 was in, there were only 2 or 3 likely plays that would go to them. Duckett wasn't going to run a flair screen and catch a pass. Dunn was.
RE: 2017 - Higdon was a bowling ball. There were plays when the staff would put in Evans to try and get 1 or 2 yards and he'd get hit at the line and fail to reach the first down. It wasn't his fault. He ran into an 8 man box and took a guy head on in the hole. How is he supposed to win that? Higdon being in and bashing a guy's facemask in would have been the right approach. Would he have gotten that yard or 2 given the same circumstances? Maybe. Maybe not. But he definitely is a better shot than Evans at taking on a ILB in the hole.
November 18th, 2020 at 9:55 AM ^
This has been an ongoing issue that I've bitched about since Jay took over RB coaching duties. I think that is one of the major reasons our running game sucks, and largely has the past few seasons.
November 17th, 2020 at 6:55 PM ^
Glad he made it back but wish he would’ve gotten in so I didn’t need to have my eyes burned out by one of the most pathetic goal line efforts ever.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:07 PM ^
This is one thing that's actually positive, good post.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:36 PM ^
What were the serious mistakes he made?
November 17th, 2020 at 8:43 PM ^
I believe it was some type of academic fraud.
November 17th, 2020 at 8:52 PM ^
Does anyone know what on earth happened to him? Was it cheating or something?
November 17th, 2020 at 9:02 PM ^
Chris make a heckuva move for the near TD called back to make two guys whiff if I remember right Saturday.
November 17th, 2020 at 9:15 PM ^
If he would've just reached the ball out at the goal line he would not have been short by a half yard. Player's fault or coaching?
November 17th, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^
And if he would not have made two guys miss after an ill advised decision to throw to a covered guy he would have been stopped for little to no gain. LMAO at trying to fault Evans on that play, him making something out of nothing was the only reason it was even close.
November 17th, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
Honestly all the RB's besides Corum have a reason to be pissed.
Haskins- has honestly probably run the best and still gets 2-3 carries a game
Charbonnet- essentially not even given a chance to be the lead back as expected so far
Evans- staff has unsurprisingly not used his versality at all and he is still not really involved in the passing game to a substantial degree.
Would not be shocked to see a couple of transfers. RB management is one of the many things the staff has done terribly this year.But yep definitely kudos to Evans for redeeming himself/battling his way back, just wish for his sake it was a better situation to come back to.
November 17th, 2020 at 9:28 PM ^
There's a few obvious solutions to improving the offense:
- Get Chris Evans at least 4 screen or slot passes
- Get backs/burners to the edge
- Feed Hassan Haskins
- Feed Ronnie Bell
- Run Tempo
- Throw the ball more than 20 yards downfield once every 8 downs
The only 1 of those I see being really difficult is "running tempo" and it's a long-running failure for this coaching staff (Harbs).
November 18th, 2020 at 8:09 AM ^
tempo??? what's that?
November 18th, 2020 at 8:46 AM ^
Tempo is when you punt after only using 30 seconds off the clock on your 3 and out rather than a minute 30.
November 17th, 2020 at 9:32 PM ^
Evans is definitely a good role model for our program and the university as a whole .