Michigan RB Justice Haynes entering transfer portal

Jake TrotterJan 9, 2026, 12:59 PM ET

CloseJake Trotter is a senior writer at ESPN. Trotter covers college football. He also writes about other college sports, including men’s and women’s basketball. Trotter resides in the Cleveland area with his wife and three kids and is a fan of his hometown Oklahoma City Thunder. He covered the Cleveland Browns and NFL for ESPN for five years, moving back to college football in 2024. Previously, Trotter worked for the Middletown (Ohio) Journal, Austin American-Statesman and Oklahoman newspapers before joining ESPN in 2011. He’s a 2004 graduate of Washington and Lee University. You can reach out to Trotter at jake.trotter@espn.com and follow him on X at @Jake_Trotter.

Michigan running back Justice Haynes is returning to college for another year but will enter the transfer portal for a second time, he announced on social media Friday.

“Michigan will always be a special part of my story,” Haynes wrote in a statement. “I’m deeply thankful for everything this chapter has given me.”

Haynes, who transferred to Michigan from Alabama last offseason, was leading the Big Ten in rushing before suffering a foot injury in October that required surgery and sidelined him for the rest of the year.