College football’s opening Thursday wasted no time turning heads, and one of the biggest takeaways had nothing to do with Michigan’s own game.
The Wolverines open the regular season Saturday night against Western Michigan, a 10-win MAC team from last year that brings back the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year in Broc Lowry. If Thursday was any warning, Michigan can’t afford to treat anyone casually.
UMass already stunned Rutgers, and Colorado had to survive Georgia Tech. Week 1 came out swinging.
It also offered an early look at former Michigan back Justice Haynes, and that debut only sharpened the sense that the Wolverines made the right move by letting him go.
Haynes, the former Alabama five-star, had a huge year in Michigan’s 2025 backfield. He played in seven games, handled 121 carries for 857 yards, and finished with a ridiculous 7.1 yards per carry, tops in the Big Ten.
He was electric every time he touched the ball. When he entered the transfer portal this offseason, plenty of people wondered whether Michigan would regret it.
But the numbers behind Jordan Marshall made the decision easier to understand. Marshall had four 100-yard games in Big Ten play and averaged 6.9 yards per attempt in the conference.
If he can carry that level of production across an entire season, he looks like the kind of back who can push into Heisman territory. Blake Corum’s 2022 season is the kind of standard that comes to mind.
Then came Thursday night.
Playing for Georgia Tech against Colorado, Haynes ran 19 times for 64 yards, with a long gain of 11. That came out to 3.4 yards per carry against a Colorado defense that has been giving up 5.2 yards per rush in 2025.
One game doesn’t define a season, and Haynes may still be settling in. Still, it was a far more ordinary outing than Michigan fans got used to seeing.
And there’s another layer here: keeping Haynes and Marshall together might have meant losing five-star freshman Savion Hiter. That would have been a much tougher price to pay. Michigan keeping Marshall and Hiter, while moving on from Haynes, already looks like the cleaner long-term play.
Thursday didn’t settle the debate completely, but it did give Michigan a pretty strong reason to feel good about how that backfield turned out.
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Illinois Suddenly Have A Frontcourt Concern Fans Need To Watch
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The concern is bigger because the broader 2027 NBA Draft picture is already starting to shift around injuries, with several prospects facing setbacks that could affect their stock. Michigan recruit Brandon McCoy will miss the 2026-27 season because of an ACL injury, while Iowa States Killyan Toure is expected back in January after shoulder surgery, leaving Illinois with one more frontcourt situation worth monitoring closely. [Read more 🡒]