In the history of Georgia football, few players—if any—have burst onto the scene, so to speak, quite like Verron Haynes did for his senior campaign as a Bulldog. After transferring from Western Kentucky, Haynes walked on at Georgia in 1998. In 1999 and 2000, he was utilized solely as a special-teams player and blocking back. Yet as a team captain in 2001, Haynes first grabbed the attention of UGA fans with his game-winning touchdown reception to upset Tennessee in Knoxville, 26-24. Then, having moved from fullback to tailback, and after having gained only just over 200 yards in nearly three seasons at Georgia, he rushed for a whopping 653 yards (5.6 avg.) and five touchdowns in his final four games as a Bulldog.
A fifth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2002 NFL Draft, Haynes played eight years in the pros. Since his retirement following the 2009 season, he has certainly kept himself busy in various endeavors, including his children’s activities. Notably, his youngest son, Justice, is currently a highly touted 2023 four-star running back at Blessed Trinity (Roswell, Ga.).
UGASports caught up with Haynes from his home in the Atlanta area.
UGASports: So, Verron, you were born in Trinidad, moved to the Bronx when you were young, then to Mount Vernon, New York, and finally to Georgia while you were in high school. When you started to attend North Springs High School in Atlanta, you had never played football, right?
Haynes: “Yes, and I didn’t initially want to play football. In fact, at first, I avoided getting my physical in order for me to play at North Springs. I only wanted to play basketball. And, at my first football practice, wearing every single pad known to man—even shin guards, which, as you know, football players don’t even wear—I legitimately got run over. I mean, my chest actually got stomped on that first day in pads. I was thinking, ‘Man, this sport just isn’t for me!’ But fast forward to my first junior varsity game, I rushed for over 300 yards. Still, there might have been a coach or two who was kind of skeptical because I wasn’t very physical. I'd just recently gotten my chest stomped on at practice. But I caught on quickly, realizing that you got to have more than just finesse when playing football.”
UGASports: How did you catch on so quickly?
Haynes: “The following night at the varsity game on Friday, I was eligible to play one quarter because I'd played in the junior varsity game. I get thrown in during the final quarter. On my first play, I rushed for a 63-yard touchdown. A week later, we were playing Creekside High School, and I had more than 20 tackles at linebacker and a key interception to help win the game [21-14]. I think, by that time, I'd caught onto the physicality of the sport. And the rest is history.”
UGASports: You signed with Western Kentucky as a 5-foot-11, 230-pound running back-linebacker. But you would transfer and walk on to Georgia just a year later. Why not walk on to Georgia right out of high school?
Haynes: “I had only a few scholarship offers, including to Western Kentucky—and I was grateful for that scholarship. In fact, I fell in love with Western Kentucky when I visited there. Also, I knew if I would have gone right from the start to Georgia, Florida State, or Florida—one of those major programs—it meant I would have had to immediately sit and wait for however long until I could play. And the one thing I couldn’t do is sit down when I had just started playing football only a few years before. I wanted to run the ball and challenge myself. My one season (1997) at Western Kentucky, I was able to immediately compete for playing time, including with ‘He Hate Me’ Rod Smart (playing in the XFL in 2001, Smart adopted the nickname, which he wore on the back of his jersey). Willie Taggart was our quarterback and Jack Harbaugh was our head coach. We reached the quarterfinals of the Division I-AA playoffs and finished with a 10-2 record.” (In 10 games that season, Haynes rushed for 305 yards on 59 carries and two touchdowns.)
UGASports: When and why did you decide to walk on at Georgia?
Haynes: “I wanted to challenge myself further—wanted to play against stiffer competition than what I competed against at Western Kentucky. As far as Georgia, it was simply close to home—and that was about it. I went through winter workouts [of 1998] at Western Kentucky, all the while thinking I was going to walk on at Georgia. And besides WKU’s winter workouts, I was training on my own as well. I knew once I got to Georgia, it was going to be a whole new level of competition—and I was going to have to ‘go get it.’ While at WKU, I communicated with Coach T (Joe Tereshinski), who was Georgia’s recruiting coordinator. I repeatedly called him on the phone. Coach T would tell me that I needed to make sure I was in shape, how many credit hours I needed to transfer, what kind of grades I needed, and stuff like that. He let me know how things would be once I got to Georgia.”
UGASports: At Georgia, head coach Jim Donnan eventually awarded you a scholarship. Was there a particular moment, you think, when you may have caught the Bulldog coaches’ attention?
Haynes: “By no means was it easy to get that scholarship—and I got it on my 21st birthday. I think what really helped was, I really put a block on one of the Luckie brothers (the Luckie triplets: Miles, Mike, and Dustin) in practice. I mean, we met in the hole, and I ran right through him! I won’t say which Luckie brother, but he played linebacker (laughing). Right after that play, Coach Donnan yelled out to me that I was no doubt a fullback and asked if I could do that every play. I said, ‘Yes, sir!’ From there, that was my role, as a blocking fullback—and I contributed a lot on special teams.”
UGASports: What’s your feedback regarding Jim Donnan?
Haynes: “I was a guy who pretty much showed up out of nowhere on Georgia’s doorstep, and the man took a chance on me. There are tons of players who just show up and walk on. But Coach Donnan was the one who gave me a shot. I'm so thankful for the opportunity he gave my family and me. He didn’t have to do that; those scholarships are limited. You only get 25 new ones per year to give out. And the fact he gave one of those to me, a walk-on, I owe him the world. Besides that, Coach Donnan was a very detail-oriented coach and really connected with the players. He knew the game really well—knew the nuances of the game like few others.”
UGASports: What was your experience with Georgia bringing in Mark Richt as its new head coach in 2001?
Haynes: “Coming out of Coach Richt’s first winter workouts, I was elected one of the team captains. I was a senior and considered a leader on the team—and that was so significant to me. But Coach Richt’s stance was, don’t tell me you’re a leader—be a leader. I was known for my strong work ethic, and that’s what Coach Richt was all about. Man, that 2001 team, we had a lot of guys who just busted their tails. We kind of had an old-school mentality of being on a mission not to let our fellow teammates down. And Coach Richt held us all accountable. He didn’t care what you'd accomplished in the past, or what you were capable of accomplishing. He was all about developing men of character. It didn’t matter which team we were about to play. If you did something wrong, you were going to immediately sit. Also, Coach Richt’s motto to ‘Finish the Drill’ was legit. Not just with football, but whatever someone wanted to do with their life, he wanted you to finish—finish the drill and don’t ever cut yourself short.”
UGASports: We’d be remiss if we didn't ask about the 2001 Tennessee game and your game-winning touchdown catch from freshman quarterback David Greene to give Georgia a 26-24 upset victory. It ranks up there as one of the Bulldogs’ greatest plays of all time.
Haynes: “What a time, right? Tennessee was ranked sixth in the nation and that program really had it going back then. It was Coach Richt’s first road game, we were a big underdog (11-point), and Georgia hadn’t won in Knoxville in 21 years. But what I always say made that play—that win—so much better was [radio play-by-play man] Larry Munson’s call (“Hobnail Boot”). Without Larry, it might be just another game-winning touchdown. But Larry put it in the history books.”
UGASports: Describe the leadup to that play and how “P-44 Haynes” was executed.
Haynes: “The play was introduced to us in spring ball, and we might have run it one or two times leading up to the season. But it wasn’t even in the playbook the week of the Tennessee game. [Trailing 24-20 with 10 seconds remaining] We called a timeout and were told, ‘Hey, we’re going to go with P-44 Haynes.’ We started to head back onto the field. Coach Richt called David [Greene] back and said, ‘Hey, Dave. You’ll know right away if it’s open because you’ll see quarters,’ meaning Tennessee would be using its cornerbacks and safeties to double-team our wide receivers. If he didn’t see quarters, Dave was to just throw it away because we’d still have enough time to run another play. During Dave’s cadence, he actually said, ‘Quarters, V.’ So, I knew the ball was coming to me—and I was shaking in my boots, man (laughing)! Plus, we had been running “44—Iso” (a running play with tailback Musa Smith) a lot with success. So, when Dave took the snap and faked it to Musa, the Tennessee linebacker came up thinking Musa might get the ball. So, in other words, I was wide open. There wasn’t anyone within a Tennessee mile in radius of me. And Dave’s pass seemed to hang up in the air forever before I caught it.”
UGASports: With Musa Smith being banged up, and Coach Richt and Jasper Sanks not seeing eye-to-eye, so to speak, you suddenly were Georgia’s starting tailback by the ninth game of the season at Ole Miss (after being a full-time fullback for the first four games, followed by a part-time fullback/part-time tailback for the next four games). And, simply, you went off!
Haynes: “But it didn’t start off that way! One thing we had in that 2001 running-back room was brutal honesty. All of us were very upfront with one another. We had a back, Kenny Bailey, who was talented but didn’t see the field a whole lot. The first series against Ole Miss didn’t go as we hoped (Haynes rushed twice for a combined five yards before Greene threw incomplete). I came off the field when we were forced to punt. Kenny came up to me and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re doing. But you better get something going, or you’re going to be standing over here on the sidelines with me.’ He was right, and he was just being brutally honest. I needed to get something going. From that point on, I started carrying the ball and just letting it all hang out.” (Haynes rushed for a touchdown on Georgia’s ensuing possession. In a 35-15 win, he finished with 192 rushing yards—the most by a Bulldog player in a single game since Garrison Hearst vs. Vanderbilt in 1992.)
UGASports: Simply put, how did it all transpire? How did you go from hardly running the ball over multiple seasons to having one of the better four-game rushing stints in the modern era of Georgia football?
Haynes: “Some people say luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Nothing had changed in my mind. Honestly, I was just always preparing myself. I was the guy doing sit-ups and pushups in the corner of a room during a house party. I was always up early in the morning, running by myself. I was the guy just waiting for my opportunity. And lo and behold, that opportunity came. I had no idea when my opportunity would come, if it was to ever come. But I was always prepared for that opportunity.”
UGASports: Although drafted by Pittsburgh, frankly, how did you make the Steelers team in 2002? Pittsburgh was loaded back then with running backs/fullbacks—guys like Jerome Bettis, Amos Zereoue, Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, Dan Kreider, and others.
Haynes: “And there was a point where I was like, ‘Man, there’s no way I’m making this team.’ This was especially the case because I was trying to learn both Pittsburgh’s tailback position and the fullback role, which was a very complicated and confusing position to learn in that system. I thought I was going home until our final exhibition game against Detroit when I showed out on special teams. And, you see, our head coach, Bill Cowher, was a special-teams guy. So, I made the team my first year mostly playing special teams. My second year, I came in having lost weight and in better shape, and I asked Coach Cowher if I could play more running back. And I did. That’s when I found my niche as a third-down running back. And that’s the role I played for pretty much the duration of my time in Pittsburgh.”
UGASports: What have you been doing professionally since you retired from the NFL?
Haynes: “So, I married up. Kudos to my wife, Karrie, for being the ‘brains.’ After I retired from the NFL, we got into real estate, and we currently own companies in property management and real estate. We have homes throughout the United States. In addition, I’m able to manage my own stock portfolio (Haynes degree from UGA is in Finance.). I also have my foundation, the Verron Haynes Foundation, which gives back to underprivileged kids and promotes breast cancer awareness. Plus, I’m a Mason. We give back to the community by feeding the homeless and granting college scholarships. But a major part of what I do involves my kids.”
UGASports: We’re certainly aware of your youngest son, Justice. The two of you are currently taking visits to college programs all over the country. Tell us about all of your children.
Haynes: “Karrie and I have five children—three boys and two girls—so there’s never a dull moment. Besides Justice, there’s Tyler, who is in school to be a chiropractor. Jayden works for an automotive company. Our oldest girl is Taylor, who attends NYU on a full academic scholarship. And, finally, our youngest is Trinity. She attends and plays volleyball at Buford High School.”
UGASports: Speaking of Justice, finally, how has recruiting changed since you were being recruited in the mid-1990s? And, as high school running backs, how are you and Justice different, and alike?
Haynes: “Recruiting was so much different back then. We didn’t have social media and we actually had to make a highlight tape and send it to the schools. And then, you had to wait for a letter to come in the mail. Now, there’s more of a business side to it. And it’s become so glorified. But you could argue that it should be glorified. I mean, these kids have worked extremely hard to get where they are.
“As far as Justice and me, we’re different in that he’s truly a pure running back, whereas I was a tweener. We’re alike in that he’s definitely got the work ethic, as well. Beginning at a young age, whether in the offseason toward the tail end of my NFL career, or when I coached him in Pop Warner football, he was always wanting to work out with me. Beginning then and ever since, he's had the hard work part down—absolutely.”
