christian turner

Junior running back Christian Turner took to Twitter this afternoon to announce he's putting his name into the transfer portal:

“Celebrate endings—for they precede new beginnings.” #Goblue pic.twitter.com/NUIfahcyE3

— CT. (@_ChrisTurner28) December 19, 2020

Turner's departure doesn't come as a huge surprise. After totaling a combined 64 rushes over his first two years, he didn't see any action at running back in 2020 and appeared in only one game on special teams.

While Turner had a couple promising flashes early in his time at Michigan, he ended up stuck behind Zach Charbonnet, Hassan Haskins, and Tru Wilson on the depth chart last year, then Charbonnet, Haskins, Blake Corum, and Chris Evans this season. With only Evans slated to depart and two freshman backs signed for 2021, including All-American Donovan Edwards, it's unlikely Turner was going to see much more time on the field.

The Georgia native was a well-regarded three-star recruit whose decision came down to Michigan and Notre Dame. He should pick up a decent amount of interest in the portal. He's the third Wolverine to announce the intention to transfer in the last couple weeks, joining center Zach Carpenter and punter Will Hart.

There is no content after the jump.

Previously:  The Story. Podcast 12.4A, 12.4B, 12.4C. Quarterback.

[Bolded player rules: not necessarily returning starter, but someone we've seen enough of that I'm no longer talking about their recruiting profile (much, anyway). Extant contributor.]

Michigan entered last season choosing between a walk-on and a true freshman at the top of the depth chart. The walk-on seemed pretty all right and the freshman was a dude, but there was some trepidation. Then came a spate of fumbles that caused us to once again relitigate the nature of high-impact, low-frequency events with little year to year correlation:

We had the Mathlete run the numbers on Michigan's fumble rate and ahyup this is an absurd outlier. Here's a graph of fumbles lost on run plays during his D-1 college career (ie, Stanford and Michigan):

Over the years in his database the average teams fumble on 2.2% of plays and lose those 1.1% of the time; Harbaugh has been at 1.8% and 0.9%; this year it's 4.5% and 2.2%. So: Harbaugh teams generally fumble a little less than average and while that's probably just luck it is also luck, of the very bad and hair-pulling variety, that Michigan's losing fumbles at double the rate of an average team out of nowhere.

The running backs immediately stopped fumbling and Michigan's rate fell back to normal levels. When that dust had cleared, a previously obscure fellow had established himself and the dude absorbed the walk-on's spooky pass protection powers. Now they're all back. So is the outstanding jitterbug who missed last season. This is the deepest spot on the team.

[After THE JUMP: two different Mike Hart comparisons]

SPONSOR NOTE: Upon Further Review is sponsored by HomeSure Lending and Matt Demorest. Rates are the lowest they've been in three years so it can't hurt to check whether you can save money on a refinance. Or you could buy a house in Ann Arbor! Good luck with that!

Matt's relocated the bus to Pioneer this year, BTW, and invites everyone to stop by and say hi. There's beer. I mean, obviously. Matt. Matt and beer: a good pairing.

FORMATION NOTES: All gun or pistol until some goal line snaps on which Michigan went under center. Rutgers ran every front known to man.

That's definitely a thing! Whatever it is! I may have been less than diligent at sussing out what every front actually was.

Short yardage featured three tight ends and sometimes Erick All would motion back to fullback. All gets after it as a blocker but I mean… Michigan has fullbacks on the roster.

Michigan had the usual mix of 3 WR, 1 TE and 2 WR, 2 TE snaps. McKeon's injury meant it slid a little bit more towards the former. A couple of two-RB snaps saw Michigan with a slot guy in the backfield.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: OL the usual Runyan/Bredeson/Ruiz/Onwenu/Mayfield. No Hayes rotation until very late. Spanellis got a few late snaps so he's most or all of the way back from injury.

QB went Patterson, Milton, Sessa with McCaffrey out. Slightly odd they didn't spend one of McNamara's games here.

RB was a near-even rotation between Turner, Charbonnet, Wilson, and Haskins. Turner and Charbonnet got almost all the early snaps; Haskins got in late and is probably going to be a backup option in more competitive games.

WR also a near even rotation with Bell, DPJ, Black, and Collins all getting about half the snaps. Jackson and Sainristil each had about 10, some of them with the first team but mostly on the second team. TE saw Eubanks get more snaps than any other skill guy; Erick All and Schoonmaker filled in for McKeon, mostly All. Muhammad got in late.

[After THE JUMP: an oasis in the desert! Possibly the mirage of one!]