Jim Harbaugh calls for more consistency from Michigan's running game

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, whose absence from the sideline ends after Michigan plays Bowling Green this Saturday, is still looking for some more out of his teams run game. Specifically, he wants to see more “efficient” runs.

To Harbaugh, anything between from 4-to-9 yards is an efficient run. Go for 10-plus yards, and that’s explosive. And 3 yards or less, or a loss, are inefficient to “super inefficient.”

“Run game, the thing I’m looking at is being efficient, inefficient plays they’re out-numbering the efficient runs. The efficient runs, to me, are 4 to 9. Explosives are 10-plus and non-efficient runs are 0 to 3. And we have far too many of those,” Harbaugh said.

Through two games against East Carolina and UNLV, Michigan has rushed on 63 plays. Of those 63, 10 have been explosive, 14 have been efficient, and 39 have been inefficient or super inefficient.

The fix, Harbaugh said, isn’t singular. But the issues aren’t running so deep that they aren’t fixable, either. It’s a matter of one lineman making a better first step, a receiver getting up to a safety, or a running back seeing a cutback lane on any given play.

In a carefully-orchestrated run game, just one piece a little out of place can make the whole operation grind. That’s what Harbaugh has seen so far.

“Tight end are really playing well. Offensive line, yeah, we’re missing a guy here, it’s one guy on a play. Guys are coming off the second level and making plays. And running backs, when I say a guy here a guy there, it’s missed cut here, it’s a missed cut there. But it’s something that we’re very focus on and emphasize,” Harbaugh said.

And Harbaugh, who won’t be on the sideline on Saturday as he serves the final game of his three-game school mandated suspension, will be handing the head coaching keys to offensive coordinator and line coach Sherrone Moore. If there’s a coach beside Harbaugh to demand, and get, a fine-tuned run game out of the Wolverines, it might be Moore.

“Emphasizing it all and excited to go to work on it with my esteemed associate Sherrone Moore, who will be the head coach of this game, and will be coming out right after me, right? So there he is right there. He can expand further. But yeah, that is an emphasis for us this week,” Harbaugh said.