hassan haskins and his arm of power

Hello, fan of an NFL team. MGoBlog excruciatingly scouts every Michigan play, and scores them to inform our coverage. Since mi atleta es su atleta now, here we share what we're sharing.

Quickly: Fools-hurdlin' thunderback who meets every moment, doesn't fumble, and always falls forward.

Draft Projection: 3rd round-caliber who'll probably drop to Day 3 because in 100 years like three NFL GMs total have learned not to say "You can't teach speed" when drafting a running back. I think Haskins will be a value pick in the 5th to 7th round because he's guaranteed to be valuable to his team (he'll play special teams until you need him), and John Harbaugh's nephew found and coached Haskins in the first place. Nevertheless, I'm bracing for Hassan to still be on the board when someone reaches for Isaih Pacheco. Someone will get a steal, fantasy types will think they've made a grand discovery when Haskins starts scoring TDs all over the place, and then everyone will shrug and say running backs really can come from anywhere/only the local fanboys can say they saw it coming. Like Joique Bell.

NFL Comp: LeGarrette Blount, but 230, slower, doesn't fumble, and a shining example of a human being.

What's his story? Friend, I don't care if your team is called the Columbus Trytosucks or the Detroit Lions. Get ready to BELIEVE!

Emerging from the bottom of the recruiting class rankings, in an era when the first and last thing anyone knew about Michigan was Ohio State gets to eat our lunch, Hassan Haskins defied the fanbase-wide notion that we cannot have good things.

very next play pic.twitter.com/PVhhYkU83B

— Due# (@JDue51) October 27, 2019

Michigan's coaches knew they had a gem and were terrified about exposing his recruiting story lest other teams pick up on it. He ran a 4.74 forty in high school. After a redshirt season in which they tried him at their hybrid linebacker job, Haskins emerged behind a crowded RB room that included a 5-star freshman Zach Charbonnet because all the others were fumbling away a well-in-hand game at Illinois. Though Michigan kept adding great backs, Haskins held onto RB#1 from the 2019 Illinois game because he never went down on first contact. He played special teams. He hurdled fools so often we made a thing out of it. When there was nobody else to stiffarm, juke, set up, or hurdle, Haskins ran for a while, then someone would catch up and there'd be a tussle for ten yards followed by a field goal try.

For this and many reasons, Haskins is a deeply personal favorite. It wasn't so long ago Michigan was coming off a 2-4 season and finding any cause for excitement in 2021 was work. It was then it struck me that Haskins was the way out of the black pit of negative expectations, or BPONE as the familiar put it. If your program is one that calls boring power runs that meet a safety at the line of scrimmage, Haskins is a reason to keep watching past what your brain's already concluded is the inevitable.

When the NIL dragon was unleashed last offseason I strongly recommended buying his jersey. I did so too, and had it hanging behind me in my office for all Coronavirus Zoom calls.

Positives: Very quick feet and acceleration make him an excellent runner behind power. Incredible balance. Always gets yards after contact, and fights for the extra 2 at the end of every run. Does not fumble. Became an excellent blocker over the course of his career.

Negatives: Has a long way to go as a stretch zone runner—Michigan didn't run it much and he often missed gap opportunities. Not fast, in case you hadn't heard.

Letters: I’ve taken to adding them (p=pass pro, y=YAC, c=catch, b=block for RBs) to pass event +/- since it’s included in the charting now. So Hayes(-1p) means he got a pass pro minus versus a run blocking minus.

Formation Notes: Penn State often swaps their SAM, #23 6’1”/230 Curtis Jacobs, for their nickel, #25 5’9/180 Daequan Hardy, but a) uses them exactly the same and b) is lying their asses off about Jacobs’s size since he’s looks 6’0”/205 at most. Since their numbers look alike on digital film, I think I labeled them incorrectly a few times before it hit me that the HSP looks like he’s shrunk. PFF says Jacobs got 43 snaps to Hardy’s 24, for what it’s worth.

They also use a lot of different formations with their base personnel I called this one “4-3 Over 4i” to denote the SDE is lined up inside the T’s shoulder (that’s Jacobs on the top).

And this is Nickel Odd Split:

Michigan added a pure tackle over formation (“T-Over”) that preserves that TE as an eligible receiver (their MSU version did not).

Substitution Notes: Cade the whole way, Haskins almost always with Edwards in for a few, another big chunk of Trente Jones, WRs went Johnson-Sainristil-Wilson most of the way, with Anthony, Baldwin, and Henning rotating in. Erick All was limited but in on crucial downs.  Snap counts are here.

Weather note: Heavy winds, sleet at times, and the ground got soaked and remained one big splooshy puddle of ploopiness, so adjust your expectations accordingly.

[After THE JUMP: I deserve that, Michigan deserved to win.]

BOOOOOOK: The Kickstarter for HTTV 2021 ends this week. This year you can customize which rewards you want. Also I had to write way more of it than usual, which means the Lord of the Rings references start on like Page 6. Consume!

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FORMATION NO—Wait, is this a joke?

No. Let’s get through it.

Why?

I needed the data for HTTV—both the UFR data and snap counts. Also completeness.

So you are going to UFR the defense against Penn State too?

Lol hell no.

FORMATION NOTES: I called this MSU’s 4-2-5 Eagle. They used it almost every 3rd and long. Note the FS is bailing at the snap—that happened a lot.

This was 4-2-5 Wide 9:

Because the DE is in a wide 9.

SUBSTITUTION NOTES: Line was Hayes-Filiaga-Vastardis-Stueber-Mayfield until they lost Mayfield at the beginning of the last drive and he was replaced by Barnhart. Honigford got 9 snaps as a TE—Eubanks returned and passed All after the latter had another drop. Mason was used as both tight end and fullback. Charbonnet got the most snaps of the RBs with Evans, Corum, and Haskins splitting the backup share, plays with 2 RBs and the Haskinscat they used twice in goal line situations. Cornelius Johnson and Roman Wilson got more time than Sainristil outside. Bell was in the slot when Jackson was not.

Also I accidentally uploaded a bunch of the clips without sound, sorry.

[After THE JUMP: When you refuse to run with your QB the WILL’s gonna have a good time.]