Zach Charbonnet in the transfer portal
January 18th, 2021 at 4:48 PM ^
only michigan commit I've seen play in high school in person. that's a shame.
January 18th, 2021 at 4:49 PM ^
Sigh …
What did it? The stupid 4-back rotation? The fact that Haskins had clearly passed him?
January 18th, 2021 at 4:58 PM ^
Probably a little of both. Haskins has earned the title of lead back for me. That said, there's no reason Charbonnet shouldn't have been getting 10 touches per game. Our running back rotation the last couple years has been a joke. I'm much more in favor of having the traditional lead back with a backup. Give your lead guy his 18-20 touches per game and the second back his 5-10 touches. If you're third or fourth on the depth chart, too bad. Get better.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:15 PM ^
I agree, but perhaps Charbonnet had fallen to 3rd/4th and didn't want to be there. Corum has more upside as a receiver, Haskins is the clear #1, and you assume Edwards will get some carries as well as a freshman.
I don't love the rotation but mostly because I think Haskins should be getting the bulk of the carries, not because I think the 2nd or 3rd guy is being unnecessarily squeezed out of carries.
January 18th, 2021 at 8:11 PM ^
We seem to over recruit RB and WR and half of them leave, and under at DT and OT, and we're always hurting there.
Maybe with Hart we revert back to a one primary back and getting a stud RB every other year, and use the excess spots where it matters.
January 18th, 2021 at 8:26 PM ^
Scott Bell just had a tweet that sums up the problem with our RB rotation and resulting number of carries. Here is the carry share through the first 4 games of this season:
Joe Milton - 32
Hassan Haskins - 21
Blake Corum - 19
Zach Charbonnet - 13
Chris Evans - 11
Dumb doesn't even begin to describe the strategy behind our RB rotation.
January 18th, 2021 at 8:42 PM ^
To me the biggest problem is that Milton had the lion's share of the rushes there despite having few designed runs called. Some of those are simply due to sacks but the offense suffered immensely for any number of reasons beyond they split some carries amongst the backs. Nobody complained in the first game when UM split the carries between Haskins, Corum, and Charbonnet because they all were successful, but then the QB spot regressed, they lost a couple of linemen, and it all came crashing down. And toward the end of the year they had settled on Haskins being the top back and he played like that.
Honestly, my issues after the first couple of games is that they seemed to be force-feeding shared carries around too much. It should have been mostly Haskins's role and then sprinkle in Corum and Evans if you want an extra receiving threat out of the backfield. But regardless it was clear Charbonnet wasn't the top back and so it makes sense he'd move on. I don't blame him. But if they had just focused on Haskins (like they really should have after the end of last season when he started to emerge as the best overall back) Charbonnet likely would have left.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:51 PM ^
Why would Charbonnet be the backup if you're only playing two RBs? Someone less similar to Haskins opens up more of the playbook.
January 18th, 2021 at 6:03 PM ^
^This all day, I’ve said it all over the UoM FB page how unproductive our rotation is. These guys get hot out there and immediately find themselves benched.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:15 PM ^
This is gonna be more common going forward. Get used to it college football fans.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:18 PM ^
I would imagine that his best friend on the team, Ben Mason, leaving for the NFL also didn't help
January 18th, 2021 at 5:23 PM ^
Haskins AND Corum. Great move for Charbonnet because he won't get carries here. He has great speed but the wiggle and elusiveness aren't there. Charbonnet is good, but Corum is a difference maker.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:29 PM ^
It's one of those deals where if Corum doesn't exist Charbonnet might be your lead back because he's more well rounded than Haskins but since Corum is there, he's the change of pace guy and Haskins should be your 20 carry guy. He just didn't really fit the roster.
January 18th, 2021 at 4:49 PM ^
This is one I get but I think will be painful. It would not shock me to see him go to a big program and flourish. Wish the young man well, he had one hell of a freshmen year!
January 18th, 2021 at 6:08 PM ^
Watch him go to Stanford or Georgia now and tear it up.
THANK YOU, JOSH GATTIS!
January 18th, 2021 at 4:49 PM ^
Wish the young fella all the luck going forward.
January 18th, 2021 at 4:52 PM ^
Hope he doesn't transfer to a B1G school. Wish him the best
January 18th, 2021 at 4:50 PM ^
Looking forward to the knuckleheads who try to pin this on Mike Hart. I know you are out there....
January 18th, 2021 at 5:00 PM ^
Waiting for someone to pin it on Gattis (rightfully).
January 18th, 2021 at 5:12 PM ^
If they played the guys that deserved it, Haskins would have taken the job anyway. Good luck to him, but with Haskins and Corum and now Edwards we should be OK.
January 18th, 2021 at 6:06 PM ^
Harbaugh, the younger, imo.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:01 PM ^
On the contrary. I’m thinking about that time that Hart picked up Mallet’s fumble against MSU in 2007 and turned it into a tidy gain.
(I realize that once they’re in the portal it’s usually game over, but let me dream a bit.)
January 18th, 2021 at 4:50 PM ^
LOL. Another Harbaugh special?
January 18th, 2021 at 4:50 PM ^
That's a crowded RB room, but felt like ZC had a chance to be special. Sorry to see him leave
January 18th, 2021 at 5:45 PM ^
Yeah. Sucks to see him go. We haven’t had a “special” RB in way too long.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:51 PM ^
Not just RB. Michigan hasn’t had a special skill player anywhere on offense since Denard.
January 18th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
except jeremy gallon, or toussaint before the leg break, or funchess, jake butt
January 18th, 2021 at 11:10 PM ^
I get Desmond won the Heisman but Wheatley, Braylon, Manningham, Terrell. I'd agree they haven't really had the elite, game breaking skill player since Manningham.
January 18th, 2021 at 4:51 PM ^
he hasnt impressed me much to this point. haskins is better and should be the feature back.
January 18th, 2021 at 4:52 PM ^
lol set the Michigan freshmen RB record for TD's but he doesn't impress you much.
K.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:01 PM ^
how about you include his sophomore year too.. how does that look?
the eye test shows haskins is cleary better regardless of how many 1 yard gimme touchdowns they gave charbonnet his freshman year. people don't want to believe it because of the stars but haskins continually outplays charbonnet
January 18th, 2021 at 5:11 PM ^
Lets be real, none of these guys are that spectacular. And I place 90% of that on the coaches. Have high hopes for Corum, but had high hopes for Charbonnet too. Way too much rotation at the wrong times. Similar to the way we've used the wildcat the last few years "HEY! JUST LETTING YOU KNOW INSTEAD OF RUNNING WITH OUR QUARTERBACK WHO IS A MORE THAN CAPABLE RUNNER WE'RE GOING TO RUN THE BALL WITH THIS GUY WHO CANT THROW! WE'LL GIVE YOU A SECOND TO GET ALL YOUR GUYS UP TO THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE." This staff loves to cool off a guy just when he's getting hot.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:17 PM ^
I agree that Haskins has outperformed Charbonnet. I actually think Haskins could be a damn good back with his tough running style. I just wish he'd add some muscle mass. His profile says he's 6'1 220. No way in hell he's 220 lbs. If he added some mass and kept his running style he's got a chance to be an absolute grinder.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:51 PM ^
I agree with this. If you look at his social media posts, he doesn't look at all like a D1 RB to me. If he put on some muscle he could be a monster.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:18 PM ^
okay, you didn't bite, so i'll do it for you..
take out his 70 yard run and he got 3 yards per carry and had 1 TD
January 18th, 2021 at 5:31 PM ^
How about we include his sophomore year too? Fine, he led the team in yards per carry yet only got 19 attempts. Corum getting more carries than ZC will never make sense. Ever.
January 18th, 2021 at 6:34 PM ^
Take out his outlier 70 yard carry and his ypc drops down to 3. Yards per carry on a limited sample can have the results skewed by major outliers. Let’s not act like he was consistently getting the most out of his carries.
January 18th, 2021 at 6:40 PM ^
It was clear to me that Charbonnet lost his burst and the coaching staff probably wanted to keep the pipeline open to Corum's high school. 1+1=2.
January 19th, 2021 at 3:30 PM ^
Plus he was reliable in pass pro as a true You don’t see that every day
January 18th, 2021 at 5:13 PM ^
Ok Shania Twain
January 18th, 2021 at 5:43 PM ^
Excellent reference. Was going to point out the same but too late for this party.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:22 PM ^
People don’t want to admit it. ZC is anther Ty Isaac - a big high school recruit who ran over smaller younger kids and got overhyped. He’s fast but now blazing fast and isn’t particularly good at anything other than smashing into the line.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:56 PM ^
Pretty good comparison, Randall.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:25 PM ^
Maybe with more touches he would have had a chance to impress
January 18th, 2021 at 4:52 PM ^
Not surprised at all, just seems like the RB room was so mismanaged.
Good luck Zach. Hope you have a good landing spot.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:02 PM ^
He got ran into the ground year one. Getting 30 carries a game and played hurt.
His first run this year he ripped off a 70 yard run and was used sparingly ever since.
You think that's being mismanaged?
January 18th, 2021 at 5:07 PM ^
What? He didn’t get ran into the ground at all. And where do you get 30 carries a game?
He averaged 11.4 carries per game in his freshman season. He had 1 game with more than 18 carries and only 6 games where he had double digit carries.
January 18th, 2021 at 5:13 PM ^
Hey, you and your "facts" need to just take a seat. You're spoiling the narrative!
January 18th, 2021 at 5:14 PM ^
You get out of here with your facts and figures!
January 18th, 2021 at 5:15 PM ^
Right... I know Mike Hart is a bit of an exceptional case, and the game has changed a bit in the last 15 years, but Hart had almost twice as many carries as a freshman: 282 (!) vs. 149 for Charbonnet.