Difference between Haskins and Charbonnet
You could say that both running backs ended up splitting the year as co-starters. Some games Charbonnet would get the nod, while Haskins would in others.
Regardless of the return of Evans, they should likely remain the focal point of the run game, especially given that they now both have a full year of experience under their belt.
That said, how does Harbaugh envision them? What are they best at?
“I would say that Hassan, his dominant trait as a football player is he plays with an unbelievable amount of force and violence,” Harbaugh said. “He has an uncanny ability of getting same foot, same shoulder on the ground in contact. He’s always delivering the blow. Very rare is he on the receiving end of a hit. That type of running is really valuable and is probably underappreciated by the fans, because it’s not quite as sexy, but it shows up in short yardage and goal line, when you’re coming out on your own one-yard line, two-yard line. Having a guy that you just know that he’s going to find a way to fall forward and get two-three-four yards, that’s really, really huge.
“Zach on the other hand, he still brings some of those things, but just has a little bit more smoothness to him, a little bit more big-play ability. He’s really, really disciplined with his reads and he does some of his best work at the second-level. You think of the stiffarm he had on No. 15 from Alabama in the Citrus Bowl. Plays like that where, just that really smooth natural transition from the line of scrimmage to second-level and third-level. That’s gonna be an area where he’s gonna really explode in terms of his improvement. And, hopefully, a lot of those six-seven yard runs turn into 16-20 yard runs next year.”