Sherrone Moore’s message to Michigan football after Texas bludgeoning
Michigan coach Sherrone Moore shared his message to the Wolverines after 31-12 blowout loss to Texas on Sept. 7, 2024 at Michigan Stadium.
The sting of defeat had yet to subside by the time Sherrone Moore met with reporters Monday and faced a 14-minute inquisition about Michigan football’s lopsided 31-12 loss to No. 3 Texas. The evidence gathered from that game revealed Moore’s team was both overmatched and outwitted by a far superior opponent. But less than 48 hours after the Longhorns ran roughshod over his Wolverines, Moore seemed to be in denial about the state of his faltering program.
He even insisted No. 16 Michigan was “not far” from being at the same level as the Longhorns, who held the lead the final 49 minutes of regulation and outgained the reigning national champions by 221 yards through three quarters. It left some in his audience wondering what he saw that would lead him to draw such a baffling conclusion, becoming the latest instance where the judgment of Moore and his staff could be questioned.
Go back to Michigan’s April 20 spring game and there was coordinator Kirk Campbell claiming the current roster featured “players that are more explosive than we have had in the past.”
It seemed an absurd declaration to make at the time, considering the Wolverines just bid farewell to a generational quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, and a dynamic receiver, Roman Wilson, who averaged 16.4 yards per catch.
It now looks even more ludicrous after seeing Campbell’s languishing offense in action through the first two games. The Wolverines rank 122nd in the country in scrimmage plays that have netted 10 or more yards, producing fewer than Iowa and rival Michigan State.
The futility really isn’t that surprising considering U-M is starting 10 new players on that side of the ball, including a former walk-on, Davis Warren, at the most important position. Warren won the competition to replace McCarthy, beating out four other unproven candidates. Moore and Campbell determined him to be the best among a pool of dubious options, which is why so many following the program couldn’t quite fathom why Michigan didn’t try to snag a transfer.
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“That is not part of our thought process right now,” Campbell said in April at the end of spring practice. “It’s not something that we’re looking at.”
By that point, Michigan missed its chance to land a quality passer. All the top choices had already selected their next school before Jim Harbaugh left Michigan and Moore was elevated as his successor in late January. A former member of Harbaugh’s staff told the Free Press the program had neglected the portal in the December window as it pursued the national title.
“We didn’t have the time and we were committed to winning,” the source said. “And we got left behind a little bit.”
Still, there never seemed to be much urgency to seek any alternatives, which seems negligent in retrospect considering that Moore and Campbell had agency to do so while serving in the most influential roles on Harbaugh’s offensive staff. Now, months later, the Wolverines are saddled with a deficient passing attack. Warren has thrown for just 161 yards per game, ranking dead last among the 18 Big Ten starters. Backup Alex Orji, meanwhile, has produced only 34 yards of total offense as a Wildcat specialist after spending most of this offseason as the presumed frontrunner in the battle to succeed McCarthy.
“The quarterbacks that we had here, we felt comfortable with, and those guys performed well in the spring and did a good job,” Moore said Monday. “And then things happen in the portal, where guys go different places and all that. So, we had a good beat on who we wanted to get and what we wanted to do. It was, for us, to be successful and keep our culture and keep our team the right way.”
Maintaining the status quo was the path of least resistance. So, Moore didn’t do much other than adding reinforcements at receiver and defensive back following spring practice. But Michigan’s uneven performance at the start of this season reveals that the Wolverines probably should have addressed other areas as well. There are vulnerabilities at the center and right tackle spots, which were both unsettled for months. Across the line of scrimmage, the depth at defensive tackle is shockingly shallow. Even though these shortcomings were foreseen, Moore insisted everything was fine for the longest time.
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When addressing the status of his rebuilt offensive line in August, he boasted, “As long as I am here, we’re going to be good up front.”
Minutes later, he brushed aside questions about the sustainability of a starting defense that would have to play more snaps over the course of a schedule far tougher than the one it faced last year during its championship run.
“We’ll always be in good shape,” Moore asserted.
But against the Longhorns, the potential issues he downplayed in the preseason emerged throughout the loss. The Wolverines struggled to generate any push against Texas’ defense, rushing for only 39 yards and cobbling together only one drive that lasted longer than two minutes during the decisive first half. That led to Michigan’s defense being further exposed by the Quinn Ewers-led Longhorns, who dragged Wink Martindale’s unit across the field on three scoring drives of 10 or more plays.
By the end of a loss that featured multiple breakdowns, defensive tackles Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham logged a combined total of 118 snaps – 35 more than they played in any game last season. While Graham shared in a tackle for loss and pressured Ewers four times, Grant was largely ineffective.
Still, no one performed worse than inside linebacker Jaishawn Barham, according to Pro Football Focus. Barham proved a liability in pass coverage and was often caught out of position as he chased Ewers. The Maryland transfer looked nothing like the player Michigan coaches raved about during the leadup to the opener. Offensive line coach Grant Newsome even went so far as to compare him to former Michigan All-American Devin Bush and proclaim that Barham was the “most physically gifted second-level player we’ve had here in my time.”
“He’s unbelievable,” Newsome added.
Yet, Barham has generated little impact thus far, which only raises more doubts about the ability of Moore and his staff to make honest evaluations as they critically assess their own team. Moore rejected that notion, pushing back against the idea that their appraisal of Michigan’s available talent was irrationally exuberant.
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“I don’t think we felt overconfident,” he said.
It sure that looks that way in retrospect. Campbell’s suggestion that Michigan’s offense would still be “extremely explosive” after losing 10 starters always seemed implausible. Moore coming away from the loss Saturday thinking the Wolverines are “not far” from playing at the same level as Texas is borderline delusional given the limitations they have at quarterback and receiver. The Longhorns provided Michigan with a reality check. The Wolverines should heed it.
As Moore said, “It was a good lesson for us to learn.”
“We know where we’re at. We know what we’ve got to do.”
Perhaps. But after failing to see what was right in front of him during his first 7½ months in charge, it remains uncertain if he can truly recognize the path forward for his fallen Wolverines.
Contact Rainer Sabin at [email protected]. Follow him @RainerSabin.
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Publish date : 2024-09-09 23:09:00
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