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| Derrick Green |
My thoughts are pretty clear from these guys' commitment posts and the general attitude toward these players that Green would be my choice as the top running back in the 2013 class. Green has steadily improved throughout his high school career, going from guard to eventually being one of the top few backs in the class. He has the size, speed, and attitude to carry that success into college. I don't think he'll be the greatest back in the history of college football or anything, but I do think he will have a good career in the winged helmet.
DeVeon Smith - 17%
Smith is a guy who's a little smaller than Green, and while he runs with an attitude, he lacks some big-play capability because of a lack of speed. Big runs out of Smith are going to have to come on the heels of several broken tackles. Some people like to compare Smith to Mike Hart, but Hart had to break a lot of tackles to become Michigan's all-time leading rusher because of a lack of explosive speed; if Smith lacks some of the vision and toughness that Hart had, he's going to struggle to become the lead guy.
Wyatt Shallman - 3%
Shallman had been insistent that he was recruited to be a tailback, but as time has gone on, it seems more and more clear that he will end up as a fullback or H-back, or maybe somewhere else entirely; after all, he did play defensive end as a high schooler. Shallman has a chance to be an effective player, but chances are slim that his career will surpass either of the aforementioned backs'.
Are the people who voted for Wyatt Shallman just trying to be smartasses?
ReplyDeleteShallman will most likely not be a singular "RB" so this topic is a little mis-directed in regards to him. If you listen to what Hoke said about him on signing day; something to the effect of "can line up in the I and run down hill, can run the belly as a FB, can catch, run inside zone, etc then it seems that they have him as a bit of everything in the backfield which is a very good fit. They had to recruit him as a position and Jackson called it RB - how they use him is the key. While as a pure runner, he won't be like Green or Smith - I would say that they are not as versatile as he is positionally which is a very good thing for the offense. Hope they all get significant quality time and we have a nice foundation of players going forward.
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