Hayes reopens his recruitment
Grand Blanc (Mich.) four-star running back Justice Hayes made his commitment to Notre Dame on July and reiterated the strength of that commitment as recently as earlier this month. In the last two weeks, however, the situation has changed for the 5-10, 185-pound back.
"Last weekend when I went to the [Notre Dame] game I was just uncomfortable with a couple of situations," Hayes said. "Me and my family ultimately decided to open back up my recruiting process.
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"It was very tough because I have been strong with them for almost six, seven months now. It's a great school and I had some great times with them, there were just some things that we were uncomfortable with."
Hayes committed to Notre Dame over offers from the likes of Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Now that he has made the decision to move on from his Notre Dame commitment, he will look at his recruitment anew and decide what is next.
"I'm not going to go too much in detail, but I pretty much have a school I'm thinking about," Hayes said. "There's just a couple things I've got to see and think about it more with my family, but I pretty much know the second place I want to go to."
Ranked as the nation's No. 84 overall prospect and No. 3 all-purpose back, Hayes' senior season was cut short when he broke his wrist in his team's third game. His time since has been spent rehabilitating the injury and trying to get back on the football field.
"I get the cast off and they take the pins out on Tuesday," Hayes reported. "I'm playing in the Offense-Defense down in South Carolina. I'm going to be down there regardless, but depending on where my wrist is we'll see if I am comfortable playing on it."
Although he has reopened his recruitment, Hayes has not scheduled any additional official visits nor made another commitment to a different school at this time.