Michigan football: How Kalel Mullings is navigating late-season switch to running back
Michigan Wolverines football head coach Jim Harbaugh isn’t afraid to move players around from position to position or even have them play both ways. This entire calendar year — from spring ball to now — junior Kalel Mullings is a guy who’s shifted back and forth.
A linebacker by trade, Mullings played both on defense and at running back in the spring and during fall camp. Roughly 10 days into the latter, though, junior linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green went down with an injury, testing the Wolverines’ depth at the position. Mullings settled back in on defense.
Michigan saw graduate Michael Barrett emerge as the full-time starter next to sophomore Junior Colson this season, with Mullings stepping in for backup time. And once junior running back Blake Corum suffered a knee injury Nov. 19 against Illinois, Mullings began repping on offense again. A switch that late in the season with little time to prep wasn’t that big of an adjustment, Mullings said.
“For me personally, I’ve been doing it for pretty much my whole life,” he said. “Coming back to it now in college, I see how my knowing offense and playing running back again has helped my defense, and how playing defense for the past two-and-a-half years has helped my growing into running back again.
“It’s just little stuff, honestly. For example, pass protection, I can kind of tell the demeanor of different linebackers when they’re blitzing and stuff like that. Little things like coverages, where to sit down, stuff like that.”
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He joins defensive meetings to stay up to date with Michigan’s game plan on that side of the ball, but he’s all offense during practice as Michigan prepares to take on TCU in the College Football Playoff.
“Right now, it’s been pretty much all running back,” Mullings noted. “Not too much linebacker. It’s been a little while since I’ve played some linebacker.
“For me personally, I just want the team to be successful, so if I can help out at running back, I’m going to do that, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
Mullings has contributed with 9 carries for 26 yards and 2 touchdowns over the last two games. He also completed a halfback pass to graduate tight end Luke Schoonmaker for a key third-down pickup late in the third quarter during Michigan’s 45-23 win over Ohio State Nov. 26, perhaps the most memorable play of his career in a winged helmet.
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Mullings said he was confident coming into the play, knowing, as a linebacker, that the defense would crash down on him, allowing Schoonmaker to get open. The 6-2, 232-pounder getting stuffed on a third-and-short earlier in the game helped, as well.
The West Roxbury, Mass., native has become Michigan’s de-facto short-yardage back with Corum out and sophomore Donovan Edwards becoming the featured back. He feels his experience as a linebacker helps him take on that role.
“I feel like I definitely bring that linebacker mentality and that physicality,” the Michigan junior said.
“For me, these past couple weeks, it’s just been knocking the rust off, honestly, because it had been a little while since I ran the ball. So, I’ve just been gradually knocking that rust off, getting better and better and getting back to how I used to be able to run the ball and make cuts and do all these little things.
“I definitely do think that having played linebacker in college now and having that feel for the defensive side of the game, being able to bring that to the offense has helped me, as well.”
Mullings added that everyone in the running back room has been welcoming and helped him along over the last month. He’s even more confident now heading into the Wolverines’ next biggest game of the season, Dec. 31 against TCU in the Fiesta Bowl.
