Michigan is not letting national championship hangover linger with transfer addition

Justice will be served in Ann Arbor next season — as in Justice Haynes will be served the football, one handoff after another. The former Alabama running back and son of Georgia legend Verron Haynes entered the transfer portal after this past season. Haynes was the top running back to enter the portal. While the timing of it all seemed a bit odd, he clearly had his eyes set on coming to Michigan.

With the Wolverines expected to lose both of its star running backs, Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings, to the 2025 NFL Draft, Sherrone Moore and his staff had to act swiftly in the transfer portal. If Haynes does indeed commit to Michigan after having just played for Alabama, he would be doing the Scott Satterfield of being on the other side of his former team in a non-New Year's Six bowl game.

For as long as Moore is the head coach of the Wolverines, their offensive attack will remain rather ground-centric. It became almost exclusively that last season after their former starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy turned pro. Michigan was unable to do much of anything in the passing game this past year, but Edwards and definitely Mullings got theirs on the ground. Haynes is looking to do the same.

247Sports' Matt Zenitz was the first to hint that Haynes was probably going to transfer to Michigan.

How important will it be to have a blue-chip player like Haynes coming to Michigan in the portal?

Alabama running back Justice Haynes expected to transfer to Michigan

I think what this potential transfer portal move does is continue developing Michigan's offensive identity around Moore. The Wolverines are always going to look to be a run-first operation with a former offensive lineman as their head coach and former play-caller. Moore may have deal with the limitations of his quarterbacks this past offseason, but again, running the football was never an issue.

To be quite frank, until Michigan gets back to have quality quarterback play, it is going to be hard to envision them winning another national championship any time soon. While I would not be the least bit surprised to see them back in the College Football Playoff next season after being out of it this year, the Wolverines are going to have a definite ceiling if they do not employ great quarterback play.

Overall, being able to land a player of Haynes' caliber in the transfer portal is a huge step in the right direction. Michigan continues to recruit well on both sides of the ball in the trenches. Defensively, they seem to be more ahead of the curve than on offense. Then again, having a running back the caliber of Haynes coming over can do wonders to take pressure off next year's starting quarterback.

Even if this was a down year for Michigan, that does not seem to be stopping them in the portal yet.