{"id":2491,"date":"2025-08-28T09:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/tony-alford-pleased-with-michigan-versatile-football-running-backs\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:49:07","slug":"tony-alford-pleased-with-michigan-versatile-football-running-backs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/tony-alford-pleased-with-michigan-versatile-football-running-backs\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Alford pleased with Michigan versatile football running backs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>If Tony Alford had to categorize the Michigan football team\u2019s top two running backs into specific roles, he\u2019d probably designate sophomore Jordan Marshall as a powerful rusher built to break tackles, and junior Justice Haynes as someone with a big play potential. Perhaps, given Marshall\u2019s physicality and Haynes\u2019 quickness, the duo could even don the nickname \u2018Thunder and Lightning.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Luckily for the Wolverines\u2019 running back coach \u2014 and potentially for Michigan as well \u2014 any such distinction shouldn\u2019t be necessary this upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth guys are adept at doing (the) entire offense, complete, complete players,\u201d Alford said Wednesday. \u201cThey\u2019re both very talented dudes, but there\u2019s no defined roles, like, this guy\u2019s gonna do this, this guy\u2019s gonna do this. \u2026 If you said I had to pick someone to go for short yardage, I\u2019d probably go with (Marshall). He\u2019s more rugged in between the tackles a little bit. But to sit there and say that Justice couldn\u2019t go in short yardage or goal line, that\u2019d be a falsehood whatsoever. They\u2019re both capable of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are, of course, nuances that separate the two. While Haynes has been improving his effectiveness in pass protection, Marshall is still superior at executing blocks. Where Haynes is more comfortable out on the perimeter, Marshall is more experienced with the Wolverines\u2019 offensive system and structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cJordan might get mad at this,\u201d Alford prefaced before continuing, \u201cbut I\u2019d say that Justice probably has a little more top end speed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last season, Marshall didn\u2019t have much opportunity to showcase his speed, firmly third on the depth chart behind veterans Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings. It took nearly an entire season for Marshall to register his first collegiate start, trotting onto the field as RB1 for Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/michigan-beats-alabama-in-reliaquest-bowl-19-13-behind-first-quarter-outpouring-and-strong-defensive-performance\/\">Alabama<\/a>. The 100-yard performance earned Marshall ReliaQuest Bowl <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/jordan-marshall-breaks-through-to-earn-reliaquest-bowl-mvp-in-first-start\/\">MVP<\/a>, and it continues to be referenced in Marshall\u2019s journey to becoming the Wolverines\u2019 \u201c1-B\u201d running back.<\/p>\n<p>Haynes\u2019 path to Ann Arbor started in Tuscaloosa, but his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/justice-haynes-bringing-routine-and-experience-to-michigan\/\">work ethic<\/a> and pure speed quickly set him up to be Michigan\u2019s top back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even though Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore tagged Haynes and Marshall as \u201c1-A\u201d and \u201c1-B,\u201d respectively, Alford clarified that there\u2019s no definite decision on who will take the first snap against New Mexico on Saturday, and Michigan\u2019s rotations are far from set.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019ll play itself out,\u201d Alford said. \u201c\u2026 You look at Jordan, if you remember, in the bowl game, him and (then-sophomore running back) Ben Hall were kind of sharing carries and rotating. And then Jordan started getting hot, and so we just went with that hand. So I\u2019d assume it\u2019s going to continue to go the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Going with what\u2019s working worked for the Wolverines against the Crimson Tide, and mirrors the sentiment that several coaches on both sides of the ball have shared throughout fall camp. Simply put, the best players are going to play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey say it\u2019s kind of like that kid who\u2019s got all the toys, right?\u201d Alford said. \u201cAnd the more you have, the better. \u2026 It\u2019s good to have multiple guys that can go in and play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With two versatile, talented backs, Alford has a nice set of \u201ctoys.\u201d On Saturday against the Lobos \u2014 after a long couple of months of scrimmaging \u2014 Alford, Haynes and Marshall will finally have their chance to play.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If Tony Alford had to categorize the Michigan football team\u2019s top two running backs into specific roles, he\u2019d probably designate sophomore Jordan Marshall as a powerful rusher built to break tackles, and junior Justice Haynes as someone with a big play potential. Perhaps, given Marshall\u2019s physicality and Haynes\u2019 quickness, the duo could even don the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2692,2535,223,222,2693,2562,1356,1425],"class_list":{"0":"post-2491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alford","9":"tag-backs","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-michigan","12":"tag-pleased","13":"tag-running","14":"tag-tony","15":"tag-versatile"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2491\/revisions\/2493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}