Great story on Hassan Haskins recruitment in WaPost
Love the humility in the young man. Pulling for him to have a huge day, and a hurdle or two on Saturday. Apologies if this ends up behind Wash Post paywall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/12/03/hassan-haskins-michigan-football/
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:20 PM ^
Love me some Haskins...quiet, hard working, & humble!
December 3rd, 2021 at 2:20 PM ^
And our very own Jumpman.
If we are going to have a "Jumpman" on our football unis, then it should be a Michigan football player, not a UNC basketball player.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:21 PM ^
Sounds like Iowa didn’t even recruit Hassan despite being in a bordering state. I wonder if Hassan has any point he’d like to make on Saturday.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:49 PM ^
a Statement.... he'll want to make a statement.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:36 PM ^
Will he ask to speak to the supervisor?
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:38 PM ^
H2 likes to make the same angry point against everyone.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:24 PM ^
"Then in that early October, Sumner got either a call or text from Michigan running backs coach Jay Harbaugh. Sumner said to Wasson, “Oh my gosh, Jay Harbaugh’s coming down here to come take a look at Hassan.” Sumner said, “You had just hoped somebody’d see that in him. You just go, ‘Look at what this kid’s made of!’” He said, “It was just a sigh of relief, like, Gosh, somebody’s doing their homework like we’ve been begging people to do.”"
Jay Harbaugh does not get enough credit because his last name is Harbaugh. This program will miss him one day.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:26 PM ^
We'll only miss him until he comes back as head coach.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:10 PM ^
Jay is clearly a tremendous asset with TEs RBs and special teams.
December 3rd, 2021 at 5:30 PM ^
I'm too lazy to look it up right now but, although it feels like he has been here forever, I think he is still our youngest coach. Certainly has a bright future.
Must be nice to be born on 3rd base (I kid).
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:26 PM ^
I didn't think it merited its own thread but wondered if anyone has a compilation video of all of HH's hurdles?
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:34 PM ^
I think your wrong.....It would definitely deserve its own thread compared to some of the other threads we've seen this past week.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:58 PM ^
I'm just trying to preserve mgrowold's sanity.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:57 PM ^
Thank you!
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:04 PM ^
There should be a YAH stat.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
Trigger warning - Kenneth Walker is also discussed (including his game against Michigan)
Loved reading this though!
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:32 PM ^
Also, best part of the article for those you can't access it:
The whole scenario led to a hell of a one-liner Eureka assistant Tyler Wasson retold to Orion Sang of the Detroit Free Press in 2019: “We had a Big Ten school that comes in and watches him jump six-foot-seven and practice, and the guy told me, ‘Well, he can’t break sixty-yard runs. Maybe he’ll break a thirty.’ And I looked at him and said, ‘Well, give it to him twice.’”
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:45 PM ^
My favorite line as well.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:50 PM ^
That's such a great comeback. I loved it. Love Hassan and happy he found his way to AA. What a hell of player he's been for us.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:40 PM ^
Hassan Haskins long run on the season: 62 yards against Indiana. I hope whoever that unnamed coach is was fired.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:42 PM ^
This seems like the kind of unforced error Franklin would make.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:52 PM ^
"Coach, if you need one yard, I'll get you three yards. If you need five yards, I'll get you three yards." - Leroy Hoard
December 3rd, 2021 at 2:31 PM ^
What does "jump six-foot-seven" mean??
Olympic High Jump?
EDIT: To start I'm happy to see Haskins get the recognition he deserves (and for him to give the O-line the recognition they deserve).
But it's wild how inattentive writing/journo has become. Not just bizarre and clunky, but opaque and even ignorant:
"Some said he ran too “tall,” a reminder of the bizarre world in which they dwell."
“How about this: It was fun on the way up with the excitement,” Sumner said. “It was a bit longer going back.” (with zero elaboration)
"He saw all those things he always saw — “wonderful qualities and work ethic and skill set,” and “being that constant guy” — and he saw them featured in something that looked very much like a justice." ("like a "justice"??--judge? Elaborate or contextualize? Nope, nothing.)
"Then by last Saturday, Haskins had joined the foremost reasons Nov. 27, 2021, will live forever in Michigan football history." (Unreal clunky, doesn't even need to be it's own sentence, even sytlistically--just addend it to another sentence.)
I could go on and on, it looks like their was no editor, and I have to assume a word-minimum.
December 3rd, 2021 at 3:46 PM ^
I could go on and on, it looks like their was no editor, and I have to assume a word-minimum.
FYI - It’s “there”. As in “there was no editor”. Just saying…
December 3rd, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
lol
Wapo v. Mgo
[then again ol jeffy bezos could go float them for the next 35,000 years :^) ]
Do you know what "jump six-foot-seven" refers to?
December 4th, 2021 at 9:21 AM ^
I just took a look--yeah, the writing is pretty terrible. One thing about the "legacy" newspapers like NY Times and WaPo--whatever you think about the content, the writing and editing tend to be top-notch. I almost never find a typo in a NY Times story, which is pretty impressive. But this article--yikes. How about this sentence:
"And even while recruiting analysts tend to sort out inscrutable national puzzles with surprising accuracy, both these dignified men became those kinds of stories that inspire people and flatter the players who steadily create them: from the depths of the Friday night national star lists to the heights of the national fall Saturdays."
Talk about inscrutable!
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:33 PM ^
I truly hope he continues to have success off his hard work regardless of what he does. He's a shining example of what we don't see or have praised a lot any more. And that is HARD WORK.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:36 PM ^
Could he come back? We are sitting here in my office discussing the possibilities. Not sure if he would want to. Believe he still has another year.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
After reading that article I was going to ask something similar. I mean, Haskins is obviously a great college running back, but I wonder if the reason he was underrated as a college recruit would come back to hurt his draft status.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:34 PM ^
Don't need to be a home run threat to make it in the NFL if you're running for 3 then falling for another 1 or 2 yards after contact every rush
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:37 PM ^
The list of RB recruits that year is astounding - and not in a good way. I'm not exactly a recruitnik but I do follow college football enough that I figured I'd recognize the majority of players, but HELL NO - not even close. Of the top 25 there's only about 2 or 3 that I recognize and one of those is Christian Turner.
https://n.rivals.com/position_rankings/football/2018/RB
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:59 PM ^
You're right. Numbers 40-50 on that list (Hassan Haskins #40, Isaiah Bowser #44, and Isaih Pacheco #46) are arguably almost as good as the top 10.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:26 PM ^
Somewhere, Maizen weeps.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:48 PM ^
If we keep winning you will be familiar with Zamir White (number 1 on that list) very quickly; he is Georgia's de facto starter at RB though they have a stable of guys they use. Haskins would be at worst number 2 overall on this list upon re-rank. Well done Jaybaugh.
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:45 PM ^
I read a couple of the linked stories, as well - they were all pretty fun! Time to cap it off with a B1G Championship!
December 3rd, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
Hassan is definitely now one of my all-time favorites, and I go back to Tom Harmon stories around the dinner table in my Michigan family.
We get a lot of ideas for t-shirts around here, but make one with Haskins that says "Give it to him twice!" and I will buy a pile!
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:05 PM ^
Always love to hear good stories about Hassan, but my God, that's some of the clunkiest prose I've ever read. How does a guy like this get a writing job?
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
Reset my password in order to login just to agree with you. Unreal writing.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:10 PM ^
If Chris Evans didn’t get suspended, would Hassan have moved back to offense? I wonder what kind of linebacker he would have been if he stuck on the defensive side of the ball? I’m happy he moved back to running back, but his move back to offense was due to a lack of depth at running back at the time as opposed to some insight that he’d have arguably the first or second best running back performance against OSU during his career at Michigan. Funny how things work out, and he deserves all the praise for being a humble, team first player.
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:41 PM ^
Great article, thanks for posting! And...
God bless you, Jay Harbaugh!
December 3rd, 2021 at 1:58 PM ^
Great story about a great human being!
December 3rd, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
Hassan has cemented his name into Michigan history. My son had a choice to make at the beginning of the season… who’s jersey did he want to buy?
He made the right choice, 25!
December 3rd, 2021 at 2:47 PM ^
Nice article, although it'd be nice if it had a quote from Jay Harbaugh about what he saw in Haskins that other coaches didn't.
December 3rd, 2021 at 3:16 PM ^
Great story and great kid. Some NFL team is gonna get a hidden gem.
December 3rd, 2021 at 3:31 PM ^
Hassan Haskins is the manifestation of a RB from Jim Harbaugh's imagination.
Like one of Harbaugh's favorite players ever, Frank Gore, he takes away your will for 4 quarters.
He turns 2 yard gains into 5 yard gains.
Not only do DB's not want to tackle him by the 3rd quarter, LBs too start shying away from contact and making weak arm tackles.
December 3rd, 2021 at 3:58 PM ^
That is a rich style of writing by the author. Was a good read.
December 3rd, 2021 at 4:18 PM ^
Is this Clinksdale starting to pay dividends?
December 3rd, 2021 at 4:50 PM ^
Short, excellent read. Thanks OP.
I'm hoping I get to savor 3 more games in a Michigan uniform watching Hassan refuse to go down.
December 3rd, 2021 at 5:09 PM ^
Find a guy that fits, not fit a guy to the find.... i dunno, something.