New Blue, Ty Isaac

Woooooowwww I've been waiting to write this one for a long time. This might ultimately be one of the most cathartic posts I write for this site, so bear with me.

Ty Isaac was a pretty big deal coming out of high school. The Illinois product was a five star back for most of his recruitment until late game shuffling had him in the upper tier four star range. None of that really matters anymore, as he's already stamped his game on some college film.

Speed!

Catching!

Wow look at that offensive line I mean good run by Isaac but jeeze

Lastly; I know that's Cal but damn girl

To this point, that's the extent of his collegiate workload. In his first year at USC, he played backup to the 3 headed monster that included JR Tre Madden, SR (and PSU transfer) Silas Redd and FR Justin Davis. During the season, SO RB Javorius Allen would end up working his way into the rotation en route to a 785 yard season. It should go without saying, then, that USC features one of the most talented backfields in the country. Still, Isaac proved himself enough of an asset in practice to warrant stripping him of his redshirt. He would finish his year with 40 rushes for 236 yards, averaging 5.9 per, although most of that came in garbage time (as I'm sure you can gather from the clips).

While the backs he'll be competing with at Michigan won't have the same productive pedigree, the talent is there. Former 5* RB Derrick Green, 4* RB Deveon Smith and 4* RB Justice Hayes will all be competing for carries this year, and it's no given that Isaac will beat any of them out (should he get his hardship waiver). However, I'm sure Nussmeier sold him on his desire to have multiple productive backs- while Green and Smith are cut from the same mold, Isaac can provide a bit more speed and burst to complement the other two. In fact, here's what I said about him back in March of 2012 (warning, don't read the whole post, it will give you a sad).

3. IL RB Ty Isaac. I'd like to pretend that he's a bit lower on the totem pole, but that simply isn't true. Isaac would be the most complete running back Michigan has landed in years, and likely the best system fit since Fitzgerald Toussaint committed.

I really, really like Derrick Green. But I've always been a Ty guy. Either way, Michigan is going to be fairly well off at the RB position for at least 2 more years. The onus is truly on the offensive line now- with one of the most physically talented RB groups in the B1G trying to run behind you, there's no excuse not to start churning in the running game.