ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It’s an odd thing in college football nowadays, with the transfer portal being unfettered, meaning if you can’t beat them, join them. That’s certainly not the mentality of most college athletes, but a player on one team could end up with their opponent the next year.
Such is the case for junior running back Justice Haynes, the former five-star who played for two years at Alabama.
Haynes saw his Crimson Tide take on the Wolverines for two straight years in the postseason, and he played in one of those games — the College Football Playoff semifinal in the Rose Bowl. Meeting with the media for the first time now wearing maize and blue, Haynes recalled preparing for that Michigan football team that ultimately ousted Bama from national championship contention in overtime. With that, he remembers seeing how ferocious the Wolverine defense was.
“Tremendous amount of respect,” Haynes said. “First thing, I’m on offense, so the defensive end and D-line was special. I remember when we were getting ready for them — Mason, Kenneth, the boys, D-Moore, Josaiah, like all those boys that were out there playing then, like that was a special D-line group, as we saw in that game. But that whole defense was special. They had a special team. You could tell that they played physical, ran the football, and that they’re all about — the brotherhood, and you could tell that they really went out there and played for each other.”
But that’s not the only time in a calendar year that Alabama and Michigan faced off.
The Big Ten-SEC ‘rivals’ met for a second time within a year, and the third time within five, in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa on New Year’s Eve, bookending 2024 with matchups against each other. However, this time, Haynes had already departed Tuscaloosa, having committed to the Wolverines just days before the…
Source link : https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/wolverines/football/2025/03/26/justice-haynes-impressions-of-michigan-football-before-he-left-alabama/82675485007/
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Publish date : 2025-03-26 19:05:00
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