Michigan landed the No. 1 RB in the transfer portal, Justice Haynes, earlier this offseason. Seven Big Ten teams had portal players lead their team in rushing yards in 2025. Here’s what their stats could tell us about Haynes’ 2025 season:
In 2024, seven Big Ten teams had players who came from the transfer portal lead their team in rushing yards. Several others played key roles and finished second on the roster in production at the position. The Michigan Wolverines will likely be well on their way to a similar situation in 2025 thanks to the addition of Justice Haynes, the No. 1 running back that entered the transfer portal this winter.
As Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards depart Ann Arbor, there are plenty of touches to fill, and Haynes will very likely be one of the guys to do it alongside Jordan Marshall and Benjamin Hall.
Today, we take a look at how some of the highest level transfer portal backs fared in the Big Ten this season to try and set expectations for Haynes in 2025.
Indiana: Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton
Two fifth-year running backs were members of one of the best offenses in the country. Justice Ellison came in from Wake Forest and had a breakout season with 848 yards and 10 touchdowns on 159 carries, and another 13 catches for 90 yards. His one season at Indiana accounted for one-third of his rushing yards in five seasons of action.
The other was Ty Son Lawton, who followed Curt Cignetti from James Madison to Indiana. Lawton rushed for 4.7 yards per carry in 2024. In total, he had 792 total yards and 12 touchdowns in his lone Big Ten season.
Ohio State: Quinshon Judkins
Judkins is likely a more comparable player to Haynes than the two Indiana backs in some ways. Both were ranked the No. 1 running back in the transfer portal in their respective classes, were also both top-100 recruits out of high school, and are the same size at 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds.
Undoubtedly, Judkins is the more proven player and prospect. He had 2,725 rushing yards and 34 total touchdowns in his first two seasons at Ole Miss . Haynes was nowhere near as productive, playing behind impressive Alabama players the last two seasons.
A season like Judkins had at Ohio State this year will likely be Haynes’ ceiling. Judkins split carries with another top running back, TreVeyon Henderson, and despite that, Judkins still had more than 1,000 total yards and 13 touchdowns with the National Championship still to play.
As Haynes is expected to split carries with Marshall, a season like Judkins had in 2024 would be considered a massive success.
USC: Woody Marks
Woody Marks is another SEC back who came to the Big Ten in 2024 and found success. He had consecutive seasons at Mississippi State rushing for less than 600 yards, but was also a merchant in the passing game, catching 83 passes in 2021 and another 48 in 2022.
He did more of that same at USC, but also saw a much higher workload in the running game. He was spectacular for the Trojans, accumulating 1,133 yards on the ground and ninr touchdowns with another 47 catches for 321 receiving yards. Overall, Marks averaged 5.9 yards per touch.
While it’s unlikely Haynes has that many catches, he is a threat out of the backfield in the passing game. He had 17 receptions last year for 99 yards. And, in his career, Haynes averages about 5.9 yards per touch. If he sees a high workload and keeps up that kind of production, Michigan will be in amazing shape in 2025.
Washington: Jonah Coleman
Jedd Fisch moved from Arizona to Washington in 2024, and Jonah Coleman was one of the players he brought with him.
Coleman had more than 1,000 total yards in 2023 with the Wildcats with a highly productive 7.5 yards per touch. His numbers at Washington were slightly higher — 1,053 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns — but he was not as efficient with 60 more touches at 5.7 yards per touch.
Haynes was a far superior recruit out of high school and the portal in comparison to Coleman. It’s unlikely Haynes will get more than 200 touches, but if he can produce at that same yards per touch metric, Michigan fans will be very happy.
Other 2024 Big Ten team rushing leaders who were transfer backs
- Wisconsin’s Tawee Walker – 190 carries, 864 yards, 10 touchdowns
- Michigan State ’s Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams – 133 carries, 649 yards, 2 touchdowns
- Nebraska’s Dante Dowdell – 143 carries, 614 yards, 12 touchdowns
On average, the eight running backs mentioned had 180 carries for 986 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns, which would equate to about 5.5 yards per carry. In 2024, Michigan’s top two running backs ran the ball 313 times for 4.9 yards per carry in what was an extremely one-dimensional offense. Expecting a little more balance in the offense under new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, carries being split among multiple backs, and a potential mobile quarterback with Bryce Underwood adds some complications to these projections.
More than 1,000 total yards like Judkins seems unlikely, especially given the number of games he has played. Let’s say Haynes hits that average of 5.5 yards per carry — if he’s the lead back, I could see him getting about 180 carries, which would leave him just shy of that 1,000-yard mark at 990 rushing yards. If he is RB2 — that last two seasons had been right around 120 carries for Edwards — that would get him around 660 yards. Somewhere between there is the sweet spot for Haynes unless he has a Blake Corum-like workload where these numbers could be much higher.
A safe number would be 145 carries for 800 yards and six touchdowns in his first full season. Numbers like this would put him on pace with his counterparts and other transfers who led teams and were expected to play key roles in the Big Ten in 2024. The high-water mark would be he is the bonafide RB1 and racks up Judkins-like stats, and the lower end would likely be right around the 700-yard mark as RB2.