Michigan Wolverines football released its 2026 roster on the first day of fall camp Tuesday, and two scholarship players were left off: Both graduate wide receiver C.J. Charleston and junior safety Taylor Tatum are no longer on the team, a U-M spokesman told The Wolverine.
Charleston was denied another year of eligibility. Tatum will focus on baseball instead; it was his plan to join the U-M team on the diamond in 2027.
Tatum transferred to Michigan from Oklahoma in January, and ahead of spring practices switched from running back to defensive back. He played safety during the Wolverines’ spring game, making a pair of plays on the football in the end zone to show that he had acclimated to his new position.
The 5-foot-10, 212-pound Oklahoma transfer has three years of eligibility remaining, He played 11 games as a freshman before redshirting due to multiple injuries in 2025. Safeties coach Tyler Stockton said this summer that Tatum was taking to defense.
“The first thing is what’s best for the team? We thought that Taylor Tatum had a unique skill set from an explosive standpoint, a ball skills standpoint, because he’s also a baseball player, as well,” Stockton said on the ‘In The Trenches’ podcast, noting that Tatum is slated to begin practicing and playing with the U-M baseball team in 2027, as The Wolverine first reported in January.
Stockton added that Tatum has only gotten better on the defensive side since arriving to Michigan.
“He’s just scratching the surface,” he said. “This was his first time ever backpedaling. It fires me up because you’ve got a piece of clay that you can just fine-tune and make him into a great player.
“He does a good job getting better every day. The first time he took a rep, he lost. Who wouldn’t, if you’ve never done it? Then, all of the sudden, toward the end of spring ball, he’s going toward our better wide receivers competing his tail off.
“The physicality piece is there. It’s more of some of the technique stuff that he’s not used to. He’s always been used to going forward. Now he has to get used to going backwards at times.
“But the cool thing what you’ll see from him is when he goes forward, he’s explosive. It’s exciting to see that.”
Charleston, meanwhile, spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons at Michigan, after transferring in from Youngstown State. He registered 33 catches for 467 yards and 4 touchdowns for the Penguins in 2023, before playing a significant role for the Wolverines, before going down with an injury in 2024. He appeared in 10 games with two starts, hauling in a 22-yard pass and recovering one fumble on special teams.
Charleston had already been on college football teams for seven seasons, so it was unclear if he had any eligibility, but he was listed on Michigan’s spring roster.