Through the first two games, senior offensive lineman Stephen Schilling spent a lot of time watching the back of quarterback Denard Robinson’s No. 16 jersey, as he sped off for long run after long run.

But in the Wolverines’ 42-37 victory over Massachusetts on Saturday, Schilling welcomed the presence of another jersey— No. 20 — in his sights, sprinting downfield.

“I mean, I saw (junior running back Mike Shaw’s) back a lot,” Schilling said after the game with a grin. “We wanted to get some other guys going. We know they can play and we have some weapons back there.”

Shaw finished with a career performance against the Minutemen, tallying 126 yards on just 12 carries to accompany his three touchdowns on the ground. His breakout was a highlight for a team that relied on Robinson for 94 percent of its offense in its win over Notre Dame the previous week.

After Robinson carried the ball 29 and 28 times in the first two games, respectively, he only had to carry the ball 16 times against Massachusetts. That decrease can almost entirely be credited to Shaw and fellow running back Vincent Smith, who accounted for 45 yards on 11 carries.

“That was part of the plan to be quite honest with you,” offensive coordinator Calvin Magee said. “We went into it since game one, the plan was to run Denard in the first two games, and this game, the plan was to run the tailback a little more.

“We kind of kept feeding them, feeding them, and I'm glad (they) did okay.”

Running backs coach Fred Jackson said much of Shaw's and Smith’s previous struggles in the run game had to do with the ballcarrier’s impatience after receiving the handoff. Instead of waiting for their blocks, Shaw and Smith often darted straight into the hole, which led to a lot of tackles in the backfield.

Against the Minutemen, however, Shaw made sure to hesitate and see his blocks. And with a brief stutter on a handoff in the third quarter, Shaw’s patience paid off as he took it to the house for a 34-yard touchdown.

Jackson said a running back’s patience with those handoffs is something that comes with experience, which Shaw and Smith may get less of than most since Robinson calls his own number fairly often.

But Shaw especially, in his best performance in a Michigan jersey, showed his maturity and development in the run game.

“A lot of times, young backs are impatient on reads, and he stayed with his reads longer and that helps,” Jackson said. “A couple of his long runs came after hesitation — you have to have patience as a running back to be effective.”

Opposing defenses will likely spend the rest of the season trying to key on Robinson or force him to throw, just like the Minutemen did on Saturday. So an effective run game outside of Robinson, which the Wolverines showed for the first time with Shaw and Smith’s performance, will be increasingly important as Michigan faces bigger, faster and stronger front sevens in Big Ten competition.

“(Massachusetts) really keyed in on Denard and it just opened up for the running backs,” Smith said. “We got Denard's back whenever they're keying on him .We're going to pick up the torch from there.”