hassan haskins fools hurdled counter

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.

Label Notes: Reminder that I’m combining all scores (except QB) in the charting. p=pass pro, y=YAC, c=catch, b=block for RBs, and route=route. It might be more than one or an odd number, in which case the higher one goes first, so if you see something like “Wilson(+3croute) that means Wilson got a +2 for a difficult catch and +1 for running a good route. Capital letters in the formations refer to skill positions: R=RB or tailback, S=superback (2nd RB), Y=inline TE, F=off-line TE, X=split end (WR on weak side), Z=flanker (WR on strong side), H=Slot.

Formation Notes: Michigan spent much of its day in Gun Wk Z Tight, which is just Twins but a WR tight to the line instead of a tight end, then mostly ran to the backside of this. As you can see in the same clip, Ohio State broke out a Bear front that I called Hurricane in the charting. The number after is how many safeties they left high, e.g. Hurricane 1:

Substitution Notes: Trueblueintexas had the snap counts. Six McCarthy snaps. Line was Hayes-Keegan-Vastardis-Zinter-Stueber the whole way (no Filiaga). All got the most important snaps but was still a little lame and Schoonmaker closed it out with Honigford and two Selzer snaps.

[After THE JUMP: Anyone who tries to make you feel bad about reveling in this is a sad person who never has to be listened to ever again.]

Scoring Note: Brian did things differently but I’m going to start counting pass events in the chart because people never read the run chart as a running game chart no matter how often they’re reminded. I’ll still have the other charts, and note pass pro things, but the charts are going to be cumulative from here on out. That includes pass pro minuses and receiver routes.

Formation Notes: Indiana kept their 4-2-5 personnel on the field almost all the time but they changed up formations a ton. They even used a 404 Tite, which predictably obliterated the “zone reads” Michigan brought back to torture me.

On passing downs they went to a 3-2-6 dime that lifted a DT for a CB. If you stuck around to the end things got goofy. I won’t show them all but this is what I labeled Nickel Wide I because they have the LBs lined up in a I-formation.

Substitution Notes: Lots of injuries so the rotations were thinner than usual. Erick All didn’t play which meant lots of time for Schoonmaker, Honigford, and Carter Selzer. WRs went Johnson, Anthony (until he went out), Baldwin, Wilson, and Sainristil then Henning (until he went out) in the slot. Line returned Zinter and Keegan at the guard spots, and all five went all the way, with Trente Jones often out there wearing #80 as a sixth. Corum’s ankle injury was early and Donovan Edwards has been hurt (he didn’t travel vs MSU) so Hassan Haskins was still carrying the ball in garbage time, with Leon Franklin getting in first then Tavierre Dunlap getting a drive. Quarterback was McNamara (46/70 chartable snaps) most of the way. McCarthy got a few third and long situations after Michigan was up two scores, and got the second drive of the second half plus garbage time. Michigan’s clearly trying to give him some experience. He also clearly needs it. Wait, that’s for the next part.

[After THE JUMP: Tom Allen is very good at this; he just doesn’t have the weapons]