One of VP's Favourite Players for 2025

Rising sophomore Jordan Marshall has already drawn comparisons to a legendary RB from his coaches; VP thinks he's in for a breakout year.

Be fearful when others are greedy & greedy when others are fearful.

- Warren Buffet, investor

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Last year, when I wrote about the Michigan backfield, I posited that the second runner—the one who wasn’t on the cover of the NCAA video game—Kalel Mullings, would be the lead back for the Wolverines in 2024.

While Mullings didn’t end up having a monstrous year, he was decidedly the better RB to have acquired in CFF drafts. This year, I find myself wondering about a similar pattern.

I should say that I like Justice Haynes a lot more than I liked Donovan Edwards. Edwards just didn't have any feel for the position (save for a few moments vs. Ohio State each season). Against opponents not named Ohio State, when Donny E wasn’t tripping over his own linemen, he was running straight into defenders half the time.

Haynes might not have demonstrated the big play potential Edwards had up to this point, but he does appear to have more of a feel for the position. In that sense, his floor is probably much higher, and I don’t see any version of this offence where Haynes is completely phased out of the game plan.

However, while most of the optimism within the CFF community seems to have gravitated towards the former Alabama transfer, I find myself feeling more excited about the second runner—rising sophomore Jordan Marshall.

Marshall, in his one start so far, had a better single game performance than anything Justice Haynes has done to this point. Ironically, in that game Marshall led the Wolverines with 23 carries for 100 yards to defeat the Tide. What caught my eye the most, however, was what his head coach said about him after the game:

I think he's got a bright future. Like I said, he reminds me so much of Blake [Corum], the way he approaches his business and what he does off the field to take care of his body, and you obviously saw how he runs. He's a physical runner, he can make people miss, he can run you over, he obviously has that burst.

He's going to be a special back. He's got a lot of ability, but he works really hard, so I think that's the piece that really makes him different.

As a refresher on Blake Corum’s career, one Michigan writer was so kind as to provide a summary of his accolades while donning the Maize and Blue:

Corum is arguably the greatest running back in Michigan football history. He set Michigan's single-season record for rushing touchdowns (27), total touchdowns (28) and points scored (168), which is also a Big Ten record, during his senior season, helping the Wolverines win the national championship in the process.

Corum finished his college career as Michigan's all-time leader in rushing touchdowns (58), total touchdowns (61) and points scored (366), and his 3,737 career rushing yards rank seventh in school history. He was a 2023 unanimous All-American, and adds three Big Ten championships and a Rose Bowl championship to his career resume.

Marshall was also rated #1 on a different Michigan writer’s ‘breakout candidate’ list for 2025 (and this was after the Haynes news):

Let's start with the most obvious. The true freshman battled injuries during his first year in Ann Arbor and didn't see the field much. But he got the start against Alabama and shined. Marshall rushed for 100 yards and was named the MVP of the game.

Entering Year 2, Marshall will be the 1A or 1B of the Wolverines' ground attack. Michigan went out and landed Alabama running back Justice Haynes, but he won't take away from what Marshall can do. Michigan won't go away from its running game, so expect big things from the former Mr. Ohio running back.

It should be noted that while many expect Haynes to be the RB1A of this duo, it could just as easily be Marshall who secures that role with Haynes still being heavily involved but as the second option.

The 2022 version of the Wolverine offence would be the ideal version of what you hope for in 2025. Corum finished with 1400 yards on 247 carries, and that tosser Donovan Edwards miraculously amassed 991 yards on 140 carries. In fact, Edwards’ efficiency far surpassed Corum that year at 7.1 compared to 5.9.

Of course, additional context that I don’t have would probably explain much of that; such as: Corum getting the ‘important’ carries when the team really needs yards, and Edwards getting more of the garbage time/easy carries vs. Rutgers and Purdue. But that’s just a best guess.

Either way, if that’s the kind of production and split that ends up materializing for Marshall/Haynes, that would be a win for the CFF community I think. The debate this offseason will be: which one is Blake Corum, and which one is Donny E?

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Coaching & System

RB1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 19.4 — OC: 17.02¹ (half ppr)

Sherrone Moore was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach last offseason when Jim Harbaugh bolted (pun intended) to the NFL. His latest hire, Chip Lindsey, comes over by way of UNC. The Tar Heels fielded one of the strongest running attacks this past season led by junior runner Omarion Hampton.

Hampton routinely saw exceptional rushing volume (60% carry share during the 2024 season in Table 1. below) this past season. He averaged over 23 carries per game, and he finished the year as one of the most productive RBs in CFB.

Table 1.

We know the Wolverines want to run the football. However, I’d expect that they will be tweaking the offence somewhat this offseason to feature the passing game a little bit more relative to the past several years. I don’t know… it’s just a feeling I have.

Nonetheless, I’d still expect a heavy dosage of run plays à la IHOP Saturday specials this upcoming season. Obviously, that would be good news for the RB position, but it only really matters if there’s one (or two) who see the lion’s share of carries.

With both coaches averaging around 45% carry share for their RB1s over the last handful of seasons, that notion feels likely. But it’s also hard to imagine one of Haynes or Marshall not being heavily involved next season also. Maybe Michigan runs it enough where one runner sees 250 carries, and the other closer to 150. Marshall is still a sophomore after all, so he’s got at least another year regardless.

Tendencies. The play calling tendencies of both coaches shouldn’t be surprising. Moore’s average since 2021 is a 60/40 split in favour of the ground game. Lindsey is more balanced, with a 52/48 split in the same direction.

Scheme. Michigan’s offence in 2024 under Moore’s direction was primarily a ‘Gap’ running scheme. Some of the most frequent types of vanilla run plays were inside zone, duo, and lead run plays. Michigan also heavily used alternative run schemes like end-arounds, direct snaps/QB runs. Lindsey’s UNC offence was more of a classic ‘Inside Zone’ scheme, where—perhaps unsurprisingly—many of the most frequent run plays overlapped with Michigan’s Gap scheme. Inside zone, zone counter, pitch, and lead were the flavours of choice for Lindsey’s Tar Heels in 2024.

For context, Alabama was also primarily a ‘Gap’ run scheme in 2024, so Justice Haynes should already fit Michigan’s run game. Both he and Marshall have proven that they can be effective in this scheme.

Pacing. The pacing of the offences is where these coaches differ quite a bit. Moore runs a slow, methodical system, averaging almost 29 seconds per play, which would put them among the lower third of the FBS in most seasons. Lindsey is on the opposite end of the spectrum. His offences at Auburn, Troy, UCF and UNC average closer to 23 seconds per play, which is on the faster end of the FBS spectrum. This will be an interesting tension to monitor in the offence for 2025.

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Jordan Marshall (5’10, 210)

2024 STATS: 31 - 120 - 0 (2.4 PPG)

Some may wonder how a four star RB out of Ohio could ever make his way up to Michigan, but that’s exactly what happened here with Marshall. Ohio State acquired a commitment from Texas four star James Peoples early on in the 2024 cycle, which may have lessened their focus on acquiring Marshall, and by extension paved the way for the Wolverines to come in and snag him.

Here’s what 247’s Allen Trieu had to say about Marshall coming out of high school:

Has been a star and highly productive against very good high school competition. Has an innate feel for the position, good vision and finds running lanes. Reads his blocks and shows good patience. Has balance and keeps his feet through contact.

Not used as much as a downfield receiver but shows good hands and natural pass-catching skills.

Has gone out to some events and been timed. Has good straight speed. He is not quite elite in terms of his measureables but they are good and then when you combine his intangibles and position skills into that, he is a no-brainer national back.

He should be a very reliable, productive college starter at a major program.

Trieu’s comp for Marshall was in fact, not Blake Corum, but one Damien Harris, formerly of the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Marshall only appeared in five games during the 2024 campaign due to injury. Outside of one notable performance vs. Alabama, he didn't do much this past season. He saw seven carries in a blowout vs. Northwestern, which was his regular season high in touches. However, he only managed 17 yards on those carries. Other than that he had one carry vs. Ohio State, and that was it for his touches in 2024.

We finally got to see what a healthy Marshall could do in the aforementioned Bowl performance vs. the Tide; however, that was enough to put me on notice.

This backfield will be one to watch closely over the spring to see what the quotes from coaches are. If both are receiving good reports and neither is announced as the outright starter, then I think I will find myself holding a lot of shares of Marshall in CFF drafts this offseason where others may draft Haynes higher.

I don’t know that there’s necessarily going to be a wrong option here though. It’s more of a question of who’s going to be the great CFF asset (if there is one) and who’s going to be just a solid one. ◾

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1. Sample from 2018-2024 excluding 2020.