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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The talk of the town after Saturday’s Week 1 blowout win has been Blake Corum and rightfully so. But the Wolverines have several high-end backs on the roster, and one could soon be nipping at Corum’s and Hassan Haskins’ heels.
True freshman and former five-star Donovan Edwards made his collegiate debut on Saturday, having come into the game in the third quarter and rushed 6 times for 27 yards. While he didn’t explode onto the scene in Week 1, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is confident that Edwards will quite soon be an impact player.
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The way Harbaugh sees it, Edwards is still learning to play within the confines of an offense rather than relying exclusively on having superior talent. At the college level, the talent is more abundant than the high school level, so Harbaugh and the coaching staff are teaching Edwards how to run in between the tackles more than bouncing outside and trying to outrun everyone.
And even with the new constrictions, Harbaugh is seeing the improvement.
“He just had the feel that the way he was running the ball, breaking tackles, driving through — he was doing a really good job of going north and south,” Harbaugh said. “That’s been a big coaching emphasis. Been used to just trying to run everything around everybody all the time. That’s been a steady process. It’s all nothing but north and south out of Donovan. It’s gonna be a matter of time before he breaks one, just have that feeling on the sideline. Same thing after watching the tape. He just wants it so bad, he’s one of those types of players. Yeah, we’ll be seeing more of Donovan Edwards.”
Of course, while Edwards is one of Michigan’s most talented players on paper in some time, he’ll have to wait his turn to some degree if Haskins and Corum continue to showcase their formidable one-two punch.
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