Michigan football: Donovan Edwards is 'what a five-star player is supposed to look like'

Donovan Edwards arrived in Ann Arbor as a former blue-chip prospect who was recruited by programs across the nation.

So far, he seems to be living up to that pedigree.

“You look out there on the field,” said Michigan football offensive coordinator Josh Gattis, “and you say, well, that's what a five-star player is supposed to look like.”

Technically, Edwards wasn't a five-star prospect. But he was close: According to 247Sports' composite rankings, Edwards finished as the No. 42 overall recruit — seven spots behind the final five-star.

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The 6-foot, 202-pound running back enrolled early at Michigan soon after winning a state title with West Bloomfield. That gave him the chance to go through spring practices with the Wolverines.

“He made a tremendous impact,” Gattis said. “Coach (Mike) Hart did a tremendous job of teaching him the offense and growing him because the challenge with Donovan was he was just coming off a high school football season in the spring, so they just finished late in January. Then you have to turn around and start spring ball at the end of February, so he didn't even have what, three weeks, to get his body right, to get his mind right from that standpoint, and coach Hart has done a tremendous job with him.”

Edwards seems poised to earn carries as a true freshman, even with the presence of Hassan Haskins and Blake Corum (the team's leading rushers in 2020). At Big Ten media days, coach Jim Harbaugh mentioned all three running backs would form a rotation, with Haskins and Corum atop the depth chart and Edwards behind them. Michigan has typically employed a three-back rotation under Harbaugh, which means Edwards will likely still see the field even as the third back on the depth chart.

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“Donovan’s going to be really good,” Harbaugh said July 22. “There’s such a competitive part about him. And the thing that Donovan understands is that it takes the whole team. It takes a whole team to win a championship. Nobody’s winning any championships unless it’s the team. He speaks that team language as good as anybody I’ve been around. He’s like a blessing that way.

“He won a championship, he won one at West Bloomfield, so he knows. He’s going to be in the mix. You’ll be seeing Donovan Edwards Game 1. ... Donovan’s got the ability to really hit the big ones. So do Blake and Hassan, but Donovan, got a vision of it being extremely good.”

And Harbaugh's praise was echoed by Gattis on Thursday, the day before the Wolverines opened fall camp.

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“Donovan's a special talent,” Gattis said. “He's a combination of a lot of things — he's got speed, he's got power, he's got agility and vision and quickness. When you look at what he brings to our offense and what he brings to our room, he's going to be a special player and he's going to have a very bright future here at University of Michigan for a long time.

“We feel just as good about him as we do about Blake Corum and Hassan Haskins, those three guys and even Tavierre Dunlap. We feel great about that running back room, and Donovan will play Week 1. There's no secret in this building the type of talent that he is.”

Contact Orion Sang at osang@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's Donovan Edwards could play early — and often