Will rushing yards improve this year?

Does the OLine improve this year? If not, probably no.

You are going off a pretty big number to start.  Lots of that got racked up, I expect, as we ran the ball in the second half of blowouts.  Be great to be well over 200 yards a game again.

numbers were the year before and after he was coaching.  

YES!!  I think Evans will be even better this year and hoping Kareem Walker will show us why he was one of the top backs in the country out of high school.  Greater home run threats with our speed so really looking forward to a more Michigan-like running game this year.  I have faith that our O Line will be better than average by mid season.

GO BLUE!!

I really hope so

Doubt it due to my low expecations for the line. Seems like Evans could be the best back we've had in a while though, so that could help.

It will be better. I think the line will be as good or better than last year and Evans will have a breakout season. 

Maybe.

I think the line will be better. Although there is less experience than last season, I think it will be a case of addition by subtraction. It also sounds like some of the guys in the lead for starting spots have better run blocking skills than pass blocking (Onwenu, Bredeson, Runyan).

Runyan alone makes the run game

Better

Rushing:

Yards per attempt

Yards in wins vs losses

Yards in 4 th quarter

Other ways to reflect whether run the ball better

Should probably wait for more comments to see the trend either positive or negative, but my prediction is are rushing yards go up. I think Evans is the real deal, but unlike some I think Issac is the one to have the beakout year. He needs to get more touches, but he is the type of back who can wear defenses down. If one of our QBs could get a better down field touch we really should destroy teams. Harbaugh runs play after play to set up the play action and then Speight misses it. You can see how pissed Harbaugh gets because it is there all day. Hit one in the Iowa game and season is different. I think we run the ball more this season because we have the line for it. Our offense will be better this year and the season will go as the defensive backfield goes IMO.

I mean they could be up or down depending on if Michigan chooses to run or throw for 1,000 yards against Rutgers.

I'm guessing the numbers are similar to last year if not down a bit. Not a whole lot of opportunity to go up from last year's 200+ yards per game unless they throw the ball fewer times per game. I'd expect more passing attempts with second year starter Air Wilton and his merry bunch of Tacopants-sized wideouts. 

New additions on our staff will make a difference!
Coaches Pep Hamilton and Frey will be a step forward
Coach Harbaugh's players now!
Go Blue!

improvement when we play good defenses. Our rushing game was garbage against Wisconsin, Iowa, OSU, and FSU last year. Basically anytime we played a defense with a pulse. 

The running game wasn't great against IU either. Smith broke a couple big ones and O'Korn had the 30 yard scramble to pump up the YPC. 

is by large a mirage. They weren't very good against good defense. They went under 100 yards against OSU, FSU and Iowa. They went over 100 yards against Wisconsin but their ypc is 3.0 which is awful. They struggled against UCF with under 3.0 ypc. Only good defensive team they did well was against Colorado which is over 4.0 ypc.

Most of their yardages were against bad defense especially Rutgers which they ran over 400 yards. Ran for over 200 yards against Indiana, Maryland, Hawaii and PSU. PSU was without 8 of their 11 starters(plus starting LB was ejected by a dumbass rule). Not exactly murder's row.

Yards goes down (already a high number), but efficiency will be up. Passing yards are going to go way up though. 

Yes, we will have more rushing yards.

1. This year's backs are better than last year. Deveon was solid runner and a great pass blocker, but he was not a home run threat. Evans, Higdon and Walker are better runners.

2. The wide receivers will be worse. We are losing two NFL wide receivers and are gaining very athletic freshmen. Freshmen WR are not great. I'm expecting there will be more running plays called to compensate for this.

3. The offensive line should be better than last years group. I'm hoping.

In summary, more yards per play + more running plays called = more season rushing yards.

There are a number of ways to improve rushing performance.  The most obvious is to improve O-line blocking.  Another way is to give more carries to a back who is able to create yardage.  Yet another way is a quick passing spread attack that keeps the linebackers off the line of scrimmage.  I am hopeful that we will see all three of these in 2017.  Obviously, we will have to see about the blocking (I am hopeful).  But more carries to Evans can only help (I like Higdon alot too), and an NFL spread passing scheme can really open up running lanes.  It will be interesting, for sure.

2ea - 1,000yd rushers

!

Absolutely. Gonna play 2 extra games this year

Can't believe we are already going into our 3rd season of HARBAUGH

we are a passing team now

Expect high variance.   I like Kugler from what I've seen, have a feeling we'll be asking why he didn't play last year.  Cole will be good and Bredeson average.  I'd expect better from left side runs, given improved RB potential.  Right side is going to be a mix of Onwenu pummeling and opening huge holes and missing his assignment or bouncing off his guy (or being late off the ball) and getting the play submarined.  RT is an unknown, but the expectation should be below average. A lot of the time the tackle's job is either blocking down or walling off the DE, which isn't that difficult against bad or mediocre teams. 

Similar high variance story - though for different reasons - for DBs, WRs, TEs.  

we'll be +337 yards over last year's production.

Sorry, I'm too busy to show my work.

This year we'll have more diversity in our running attack. Adjusting to what works or not, and keeping opponents off guard.

The only constant about this years team is opinions go from one end of the spectrum to the other. I read article after article and comments from the so called experts vary, but most assume Michigan cannot field a product as good as last years due to all of the starters lost and how young the new starters will be. They really have no idea about returning talent and how much experience they have. One thing is a given and that is we have more speed on both sides of the ball. If my opinion is biased so be it, but after the Florida game the secret will be out. I think our defense will basically shut down Florida's offense and we will flat out dominate this game. All of the naysayers will be backtracking and changing their opinions even if they want to hate. This team is way better than the team Michigan fielded in 2015. It looks like and with good reason the main concern among Michigan gurus and fans is the offensive line. Just watching the spring game alone this line is miles ahead of the line of 2015. Yes there was pressure, but it had to mostly be manufactured from the blitz. Also please remember that the o-line is going up against the first or second best d-line in the big ten. So what I am saying Michigan fans is the o-line will be quite good this year and that more than a few will have their eyes opened to the future of dominating Michigan offensive lines. The same goes for our d-line. I do not know what people who doubt this team are looking at, but this d-line may be better than last years. Yes they are that good and maybe they didnt always dominate in the spring game, but who were they playing against but Michigan's o-line. Will we rush for more yards=YES. Will we pass for more yards=YES. Will we have a top five defense= YES. This team is not starting any freshman unless they are outstanding at their position and beat out a really good player. Our o-line starts COLE=senior Bredeson=soph. Kugler=fifth year senior   Onwenu=soph.  Jbb=red shirt junior not as young as people think. D-line Winovich=red shirt junior  Mone= red shirt soph. Hurst= senior who would have been drafted round one Gary = all world soph.  We have a nice mix and mostly experienced players but a boatload of talent. I could go on and on but yes we are young in the secondary but I trust players like Hudson who was three star...Ya right. Washington is a red shirt soph. if he starts. I hope people across the country keep singing the praises of teams like penn state and wisconsin who in no way shape or form have the talent the wolverines have. I hope they keep saying this team cant possibly field a team with any talent after all the losses. I didn't mention osu because they have talent, but even they will be much more vulnerable in the d-backfield. If we can block them we can beat them and by then are young recievers will have a great deal of experience. I really hope that people like Dinardo on btn, who think this a down year for Michigan football just keep talking.  When they see what I believe, they better like crow and then just watch as the panic sets in when all of the so called experts see the product on the field with just five returning starters. Yes 2014 and 2015 classes were weak and everyone says it, so there is no way Michigan can be any good this year. Really cant wait for them to be disappointed. This is the most excited I have been in a long time to get the season going. You can laugh at me if you want, but I still feel that as the season goes on we will be favored in every game. I may be over confident for sure, but what if I am not. Of course we have to be undefeated going into the osu game and we have to be favored against Florida which I think we will be.

Enthusiasm unknown to mankind, war-dawg. Who the hell needs to hit return when the juice is flowing. I hope you are right on the team bro.  You keep this up and you could become a classic, just like THE KNOWLEDGE.

I sure hope so. I don't like speaking ill of people but I won't be sad that De'Veon Smith is gone. He was too slow to hit the hole and he went down on first contact. I wish him the best, but adios.

Yes.

Well Evans in good for about 2000 yards this year, so we just need 800 from the rest of the stable and it'll be a statistical improvement. Seriously Evans is going ham this year.

No. The schedule is brutal this year compared to last year's and the line is facing all kinds of major issues, like having no depth at LT and no talent at RT.

Honestly I care more about when we get the rushing yards rather than just looking at total outputs.

We desperately needed to rush for first downs and keep the clock moving against teams like Iowa, OSU and Florida State. 

I wouldn't be upset if our total rushing yards number goes down, as long as our 4th quarter rushing improves in tight games. 

One of the main reasons we were able to squeak out a win vs Indiana with O'Korn at QB was because Deveon went beast mode in the 2nd half and broke off two incredible runs. Would love to see our RB's improve as the game goes on. 

Still wonder how last season would have turned out just by eeking out a 1st down in the end of each of those losses...was it OL? RB's? play calling too conservative?

Seemed like it all started in the final 5 minutes or so of the State game, even though the game was put away.  We obviously saw this as well in the 2015 late October horror show.

Of course. Deveon Smith was a slow ass bum and now that he's gone we can finally get a consistent and reliable running game back. Not sure there was anything I hated more last season than Deveon as our starting RB.

Chris Evans will be great but I think Kareem Walker is going to give Evans a run for his money. Kareem's hungry and judging from some twitter posts he worked out a lot with Jabrill so he's defintely in good shape. I also want to see what O'Maury Samuels can do. Dudes more ripped than players in the NFL combine and he's not even in college yet and he's pretty damn fast too.

We will be better than we are given credit for.