Michigan running back Zach Charbonnet enters the transfer portal

Michigan Wolverines running back Zach Charbonnet has officially put his name into the NCAA transfer portal, which was first pointed out by Angelique Chengelis of The Detroit News.

Charbonnet earned the starting gig as a true freshman in the 2019 season, but lost favor to Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum in 2020. He set the Michigan record for the most rushing touchdowns for a freshman scoring 11 times in his first year with the program. He led the team in both rushing yards and carries with 726 yards on 149 attempts.

The hype for Charbonnet was as high as ever entering his second year, especially after a 70-yard touchdown run in the 2020 season opener against Minnesota. That run wound up being his longest on the year by quite a margin, in fact, his next longest carry was only 14 yards. The 70-yard house call also accounted for more than half of his rushing yard in his five games this season. Charbonnet finished the year with just 124 yards and the one touchdown on 19 carries. He saw only 25 total touches on the season, tied for the third-most at the position with Chris Evans.

Some shuffling of the deck was expected as the Michigan running back room is as deep as ever. The 2020 rushing leader Haskins will be back along with a second season from Blake Corum, who saw significant playing time as a freshman. Incoming top-100 recruit Donovan Edwards also enters the fold in 2021 and is anticipated to play a role on the roster.

Last week, Michigan named Mike Hart their next running backs coach taking over for Jay Harbaugh who played a key role in Charbonnet’s recruitment. With a new man leading the running back room, there certainly could have been a lot of question marks where Charbonnet would have been put in the depth chart entering his junior season.

The former 4-star recruit was the most highly anticipated running back of Jim Harbaugh’s first five years with an impressive combo of size and speed. Now, he will enter the transfer portal as one of the more coveted running backs looking for a new home and will likely be recruited as such.