When you began your career playing for Nick Saban at Alabama, it’s hard to imagine that any other head coach would ever measure up. Nobody is Saban, but for Michigan running back Justice Haynes, Sherrone Moore might be the closest thing.
“He really, truly reminds me of a younger Coach Saban,” the Alabama transfer said of his new head coach in an exclusive interview with GBMWolverine promoting his partnership with AT&T’s Clutch Calls campaign. “He has a lot of the same mindset and the way he goes about things. That mindset and that drive he has is similar to Coach Saban.”
“A younger Coach Saban”
Haynes would know as well as anyone. A former five-star recruit, Haynes’s true freshman season in Tuscaloosa was Saban’s final year, which ended in a College Football Playoff semifinal loss to Michigan. Even in Ann Arbor, after transferring from Alabama last offseason, Haynes still leans on his former coach.
“I’d like to say Coach Saban and I were pretty close,” Haynes said. “If I have questions I need advice on something, I’m always going to Saban. I still talk to him. When I got in the portal, I called him. I’m going to talk to him all the time.”
So does his current coach.
“He was talking to me a couple of weeks ago, and he was like, ‘I just got off the phone with Coach Saban,” Haynes said. “And you can see that. He’s talking to Coach Saban. He’s trying to learn from the GOAT. Trying to learn how to be like that. You can tell, and it translates.”
Saban’s teams were always able to rise to the occasion in the biggest games, and Moore will need his team to emulate that on Saturday against Michigan. The Wolverines have beaten the Buckeyes four years in a row, including last season’s shocking upset in Columbus, but to make it five, they’ll have to do it without their star running back.
Injury has derailed Haynes’ dominant first season at Michigan, but the Alabama transfer was one of college football’s breakout starts in 2025. The junior running back racked up 857 yards and 10 touchdowns through seven games before a foot injury late in the Wolverines’ Week 9 win over Michigan State sidelined him.
Connection changes everything
That breakout also made him a fan favorite, and the AT&T Clutch Calls campaign is giving fans an opportunity to connect with their favorite players and win a trip to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship in Miami. A win in Week 14 could open the door for Michigan to grab an at-large bid into the CFP.
It’s a fitting partnership for Haynes because a “connection” is what drove him to Ann Arbor. Not just the connection with running backs coach Tony Alford, who recruited Haynes out of high school when he was at Ohio State, but with the entire program.
“I was really just looking for a connected team. A team that was connected, a brotherhood where I knew I was going to be held accountable. Whether you are the best player on the team or the worst player on the team, you’re going to get pushed, and there’s a certain standard that you have to live up to. And that was everything that Michigan entailed.”
Much like at Alabama, that connection emanates from the head coach. “It starts from the top with Coach Moore. Just how he loves us and how he knows how to handle us,” Haynes said. “He takes the time to grow a connection with each player, and that turns into the team being connected, and the most connected team usually wins a lot of games.”
Michigan will need to lean on that bond against the reigning national champions and No. 1 team in the country on Saturday.