Savion Hiter arrived in Ann Arbor with the kind of billing that usually comes with instant pressure. A five-star freshman, the top player in Virginia and the No. 2 running back in his class, he entered Michigan’s 2026 recruiting class with the highest profile of anyone in that group. Even with all that attention, the early story on Hiter has been less about fireworks than steady growth.
Michigan had plenty of reason to chase him. Hiter drew 29 Division I offers, but running backs coach Tony Alford made the biggest impression, and that relationship held even after the coaching change that can often shake loose high-level recruits. That connection helped keep Hiter in Ann Arbor.
At 6-foot and 210 pounds, Hiter already looks like someone who belongs in a Big Ten backfield. He was also an early enrollee at 17, and the first real glimpse came in the 2026 Spring Game.
The numbers were solid rather than splashy: 10 carries for 44 yards. Still, the tape showed what Michigan likes about him.
He ran with contact balance, bounced off tackles and kept driving for extra yards.
“(Hiter’s) got great balance,” graduate linebacker Aisea Moa said April 18. “He’s not someone you can just arm tackle, you can’t just hit him. You’ve got to really wrap him up and drive your feet.”
The hype only grew when a summer clip of Hiter destroying a tackling sled started making the rounds. Inside the program, though, the focus stayed on the parts of the position he still had to build.
Hiter came from a high school offense that didn’t ask him to do a lot of the subtle work that comes with playing running back in college - protection, mesh points and the rest of the job description. His film was heavy on the kind of plays where he could simply run through people.
What has stood out to Michigan is how quickly he absorbs coaching.
“When he showed up you knew off the film he has a lot of talent, a lot of ability, but what I’ve been impressed with is just how hard he goes and competes in everything all the time,” Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck said in March. “… He’s in there, and he’s going as hard as you can go, whether he’s right or wrong, he’s just going. And that’s a great skill set to have when you just get out there and compete full speed, because you can coach up and get better at everything, but that effort and intensity will allow him to have an impact.”
By the time Hiter returned to campus after the offseason, he was ready to push for real snaps in a backfield that was supposed to be one of the best in the country. Through the first two games, though, the production lagged behind the expectation.
He got limited work against Western Michigan in a rough opener for Michigan, then against Oklahoma he kept the ball on a zone-read play when sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood probably had a first down available. Underwood’s frustration showed, and the coaches took their shot publicly.
“We should’ve had a few more (quarterback runs),” Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham said after Week 2. “We had some zone reads that weren’t poor reads, but a young running back is clamping down on the ball so Bryce couldn’t get it out of there.”
Hiter had only 21 yards through two games, and the fast-start script plenty of fans imagined never quite materialized. But Michigan’s rushing game has struggled across the board, and Hiter kept working instead of forcing the issue. On Tuesday, he talked about his blitz pickup and said Jordan Marshall, the junior running back, has been helping him sharpen that part of his game.
The patience started to show up on the field. Against Texas El Paso, Hiter scored twice.
Then against Penn State, he ripped off a 41-yard run that helped Michigan get out from near its own end zone. That still doesn’t make him the offense’s answer just yet, but neither has anyone else in the Wolverines’ attack.
“I think it’s a little premature to say he turned a corner,” Alford said Wednesday. “I don’t know what that corner is exactly, but he had a really nice run. … I know he hasn’t had a bunch of huge runs and things of that nature this year, but he’s a damn-good football player and continually getting better.”
Hiter came into the season as the most hyped newcomer on campus. He hasn’t turned Michigan’s run game around, but his approach has stayed the same: keep learning, keep grinding and let the process take him where the talent says he can go.
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