While Michigan football maintains its undecided quarterback spot, it might not matter who the QB is if U-M can't get more production from its running game.
The Wolverines had a season-worst 57 yards on 42 rushes Saturday, Oct. 24, in its 13-6 OT loss to Indiana. That's an average of just 1.4 per carry. Neither Jordan Marshall (12 carries for 26 yards) or Savion Hiter (10 carries for 15 yards) had a run of more than 6 yards.
While this was a particularly down week against the defending College Football Playoff champions, who feature one of the nation's top defenses, U-M's ground game has struggled all year. The Wolverines' 134.7 yards per game rank No. 101 out of 138 FBS-level teams this season. On Monday, coach Kyle Whittingham was asked if Michigan
might consider a different strategy at the position: keeping one player in for longer, as opposed to constantly rotating the backs.
"Fair argument, fair question," he said. "If we would have a back clearly separate himself from the rest of the pack, then I think that would be something that we would have done by now. But no one's really just, 'Hey, I'm RB1, and there's no question about it, and I've got the hot hand.'
"It's kind of been by committee. Not kind of — it has been by committee pretty much all season long because of that, because nobody's really taken the lead and just run away with the yards per carry and the production."
Marshall, who topped 60 yards rushing in each of his final six games last year, hasn't hit that mark once this season. Hiter, a true freshman considering the top recruit at his position out of high school, has had 15 yards or fewer in four of seven games.
The Wolverines have just two rushes of 20 yards or more by running backs, with both coming in the second half of their win over Penn State on Oct. 17; the only back averaging even 4 yards per carry is third-stringer Bryson Kuzdzal, who broke off a 43-yard run against the Nittany Lions in a game in which he had two of his 15 attempts this season.
The entire attack has been stunningly ineffective, and Whittingham said there's blame to go around.
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"There's not a lot of creases up front.," he said. "We haven't had the movement. I continue to talk about physicality and getting knockoff, knocking people off the ball, and we just haven't been able to do that with any consistency.
"Then, in fairness to the line, there has been some blocked yards that we haven't taken advantage of at times."
Michigan is open to the idea of somebody taking over the lead running back role, but as November approaches, nobody has been able to assert themselves as the most effective option to garner the bulk of the carries.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football still waiting for 'hot hand' in rushing game
