Georgia Tech running back: ‘Y’all will get the full Jamal Haynes this year’
Credit: AP
Jamal Haynes is coming.
“Probably the best I’ve ever felt,” he said this week. “Y’all will get the full Jamal Haynes this year. I feel great. Healthy. Physically and mentally, I’m in a great space right now.”
Haynes (5-foot-9, 190 pounds) goes into his final season as Georgia Tech’s top running back, focused on capping an impressive career at running back. He enters the 2025 season 18th in Tech history with 2,003 career rushing yards (needing 363 to enter the top 10). His 5.84 yards per carry is sixth all-time at Tech.
Those numbers may have been even greater, but Haynes spent much of the 2024 season fighting through nagging injuries. And to add insult to those injuries, many of his mates in the backfield also succumbed to injuries, leaving Tech’s depth at the position less than slim.
But that shouldn’t be the case in 2025.
Tech added Malachi Hosley (5-10, 205), the Ivy League player of the year at Pennsylvania, through the transfer portal and signed two freshmen in J.P. Powell (5-10, 200) of Miller County High School and Shane Marshall (5-11, 205) of Irwin County High School. Trelain Maddox (6-1, 215) from Parkview High School is expected to play a larger role in his second season with the program.
Veterans Daylon Gordon and Chad Alexander (expected to be back perhaps as early as September because of a knee injury in the offseason) give Tech even more depth behind Haynes.
“We go back at the end of the season, and we look, ‘OK, how can we get to where Jamal’s at his best?’” Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said. “One thing is, is when Jamal’s fresh, in our eyes, when he’s going into a game fresh, he’s had over 100 yards in, I think, nine of those games or eight of those games or whatever that number was where we felt really good going into the game. That’s big for us.”
Added Haynes: “I can truthfully say it’s probably the best running back room we’ve had at Georgia Tech in a good little long time. Just as far each person in there, talent-wise, how we push each other, each and every day, it’s great to have. Then just me, on the part of staying healthy, it gives everyone else a chance to get some touches, but on top of that keep me fresh and make sure I’m good to go.”
Tech’s offense has rushed for at least 2,400 yards in each of the past two seasons, the first time the program has done that in the post-option era. Haynes is the first Tech running back to rush for at least 900 yards in back-to-back seasons since Jonathan Dwyer did so in 2008 and 2009.
Third-year running backs coach Norval McKenzie is expecting those trends to continue with a group he feels is deeper than any in recent memory.
“Aw man, it’s exciting,” McKenzie said Friday after Tech’s fourth practice of the preseason. “Last year, went through a lot of lulls in terms of highs and lows with injuries and what not. Now we feel like we got a stable of guys. Very confident in those guys. We have true depth. We haven’t had true depth since we’ve been here, and I feel like through the recruiting process and going into year three we’re able to add some pieces and now we got a really talented room.”
Haynes, who came to Tech to play wide receiver, said he graduated from Tech in May with a degree in business, and this month will begin a master’s degree program in marketing. He made Tech’s dean’s list with a 4.0 GPA in the spring.
He said his mission next spring is to have that master’s degree completed and then to hear his name called in the 2026 NFL draft. That mission will likely become a reality by capping his already remarkable career.
“Wherever I’ve always been, I’ve just always been that guy, so just coming in here, just being able to shadow him has been great,” Hosley said of Haynes. “He’s already a pro, I can already tell he’s gonna get drafted. So just being able to follow his footsteps has been great.”
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