Taylor Tatum is off Michigan’s football roster, but this isn’t a case of a player getting run out of town.
The former Oklahoma running back has decided to step away from football and put his full attention on baseball, where he’ll work as an outfielder. Tatum arrived at Michigan as a two-sport athlete, planning to play both football and baseball, just as he did at Oklahoma. His move away from the football side comes seven months after transferring to Michigan and after he had already switched positions to safety.
The early reaction made it sound like Michigan had suddenly moved on from him before fall camp. Instead, Tatum appears to have made the call himself, and the baseball route was always part of the picture.
Even before the news, the signs were there. The chatter around Ann Arbor centered more on Tatum’s baseball future than his football outlook, and the position change on the football field suggested the Wolverines weren’t expecting him to make a major impact there. That’s a far cry from how he entered college, when he was the top running back in the 2024 recruiting class and a consensus four-star prospect out of Longview, Texas.
At Oklahoma, Tatum got on the field right away as a freshman and looked like a player with a future on the gridiron. In 11 games and three starts in 2024, he ran for 278 yards and three touchdowns, added a receiving score, and averaged 5.0 yards per carry.
But the backfield moved on around him. Classmate Xavier Robinson took over late in the year, and last season Tatum had just one carry while appearing in one game as Robinson and Tory Blaylock handled the load and return this season.
His baseball path has been quieter. Tatum did not appear in a game for Oklahoma’s baseball team in 2025 as a freshman, and after transferring in January, he was ineligible to play in this past baseball season. So two years after high school, he still hasn’t played a college baseball game.
If he had stayed at Oklahoma, the source notes, he would be a national champion now.
For Tatum, the football door looks closed after the move to another program and a new position. Baseball is now the lane he’s choosing, even with the uncertainty that comes with it. Michigan’s baseball team went 34-24 and missed the NCAA Tournament last season, which at least gives him a place where there may be more room to carve out a role if he can finally devote himself fully to one sport.
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