Michigan Wolverines

Michigan Football: De'Veon Smith Is Starter, But Look Out

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

One game isn’t enough to say De’Veon Smith is in line to lose his starting job at running back, but Michigan football has no shortage of talent back there.

It was disappointing to see running back De’Veon Smith get only six carries into the 2016 Michigan football season before leaving the game with an apparent rib injury, but that opened the door for a few other backs to step in and prove their worth.

One of the benefactors was true freshman Chris Evans, who led the Wolverines with 112 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries in the Wolverines’ thrashing of Hawaii. He showed a combination of power, patience and speed to move the Michigan offense down the field, and it’s no wonder Jim Harbaugh was raving about him.

To say Evans is now officially in position to overtake Smith as the starting running back on Saturday against UCF is probably a stretch, but he certainly did enough to warrant more carries in an offense that loves moving the ball on the ground. These next two weeks—against UCF and Colorado—may act as a sort of audition for Evans before the Wolverines hit the Big Ten portion of the schedule.

“I knew Chris Evans was special,” Harbaugh said after the game. “What you saw today is what we’ve seen in practice for the last month. He’s a special football player. You didn’t see everything he can do. He can catch it out of the backfield, he can line up as a receiver and you’ll see that at times.

“He can be a punt returner, a kick returner. He’s a very special player.”

I don’t want to leap to too large of assumptions, but this sounds eerily similar to the way we often talk about Jabrill Peppers.

Evans wasn’t the only back who looked impressive against Hawaii on Saturday. Ty Isaac was running harder than we ever saw last season, and Karan Higdon ran well later in the game. Neither were up with Evans, but one thing we clearly learned in Week 1 is that the running back position is deep and diverse.

Until Evans proves this is something he can do consistently, and against better defenses, I’m extremely hesitant to say there’s a controversy at running back. It’s still Smith, even if by less than we maybe thought.

More from GBMWolverine

This article originally appeared on

share

Get more from Michigan Wolverines Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Michigan Wolverines