Though Michigan football didn’t live up to expectations in 2025, there was no question about the strongest position on the team.
That was the running backs under coach Tony Alford, led by the two-headed monster of Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall. The two largely split carries and appeared in 18 combined games (both dealt with injuries at various points in the year), yet together, they ran 271 times for 1,789 yards (6.6 yards per carry) and 20 touchdowns.
Haynes, who opened the year as the starter and was one of the most explosive ball carriers in college football, left in the offseason for Georgia Tech, yet the prospect of what the room can achieve in 2026 remains unchanged.
How? Well, the return of Marshall, who finished as the team’s leading rusher a year ago and now enters his junior season as the expected starter, is a major factor. But not far behind him is the addition of Savion Hiter, a five-star recruit out of Mineral, Virginia (Louisa County), who hasn’t stopped turning heads from the moment he stepped on campus.
“What hasn’t impressed me about Savion?” Kyle Whittingham said rhetorically in a recent conversation with the Free Press. “He’s got outstanding size, six feet, about 220, maybe just shy of that. Looks like an NFL running back right now coming in. He just got here in January, and he looks the part.
“Quick, top-end speed is there, great hands out of the backfield, picks up blitzes, contact balance is exceptional. He can run inside, he can run outside − he’s the whole package.”
Hiter’s first unofficial action as a running back at U-M came in the spring game. His final stat line was pedestrian − 10 carries for 44 yards − but the vigor with which he ran stood out to coaches and on-lookers alike.
On one particular run, Hiter was hit for what appeared to be a loss in the backfield, only to break the tackle, stick his leg in the ground and make another defender miss, then drive a third tackler backwardvas he fell forward for a 4-yard gain.
Not all 4-yard runs are created equal, and this was one of the sort that showed what Michigan expects him to be. That’s why while coaches will often downplay the expected impact of a freshman − the leap from high school can often be a big one and there’s little benefit to adding outside expectation − nobody in Ann Arbor is hiding behind platitudes when it comes to Hiter.
“I mean, you can see why he was, I guess, in a lot of publications. He’s the Number 1 back coming out of high school last year,” Whittingham said. “And rightfully so. Definitely, he’ll play a major role this year.”
Alford has a saying in his room called “competitive excellence.” The essence behind it is he wants all his players to believe they are the best in the room and the only reason the fans or the greater college football sphere doesn’t believe so is because they haven’t seen it yet.
Then, when Alford taps them on the shoulder on the sideline for their turn in the game, it’s time to shine. Alford said he learned from what happened in 2025, too. While Marshall finished the season with four straight games of at least 110 yards and a touchdown (not counting Ohio State, when he played just two series yet still racked up 61 yards), his season started much slower.
Marshall had 70 yards or more in just one of his first six games, and Alford later realized he felt that the sophomore was pressing a bit when he came in for his carries. That’s something he’s planning to discuss with Hiter in the coming months, to ensure he’s not trying to do everything all at once, but rather take what comes to him.
“One of the things that we try to preach the best we can is that it’s a process,” Alford recently told the Free Press. “Respect the process, work the process. Everyone will get theirs in time.”
But make no mistake, there’s no plan to put Hiter on the back burner. Alford likes to utilize multiple running backs to prevent against wear and tear. For example, in 2025, Marshall never had back-to-back weeks with 20 or more runs, and Haynes carried the ball more than 20 times just once all season.
Michigan is planning to use balance in its attack, which will start with its ground game. While Marshall is the leader of the room, Hiter’s skills have him lined up to see a major role, which will start in the season opener against Western Michigan on Sept. 5 (7:30 p.m., NBC).
“Yes, 100%,” Alford said of Hiter seeing the field right away. “Knock on wood, Savion Hiter is going to play a lot of football here, quickly. I’d be shocked − something would have to come off the rails for that not to happen.”
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Expect Michigan freshman RB Savion Hiter to play ‘major role’ in 2026
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
