Sherrone Moore dismisses concern about postgame incident vs. Ohio State after 2024

There aren’t many rivalries as intense as The Game. Those tensions boiled over a season ago when a fight broke out on the field postgame in 2024, which quickly became part of the story of that Michigan win over Ohio State.

Whenever a game becomes emotional, that type of postgame incident is possible. However, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore recently dismissed the idea that it could happen this season.

“We talked about that at the beginning of the year,” Sherrone Moore said. “And we’ve been pretty good about any postgame interactions. When we win a game or when you’re in the game, we’re going to go to our student section and go to our band and shake hands, cordial ending, and be done with it. And that’s it. So, our guys have been good about that, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Michigan upset Ohio State in 2024 in Columbus. While celebrating, Wolverines players went to plant a flag at midfield. Naturally, several Buckeyes took issue with that, and a fight broke out. In the effort to separate the two sides, it appeared that pepper spray was used on players.

At the time, there were several emotionally charged responses to the brawl. For his part, though, Sherrone Moore called out his own players for their part in the fight, looking to hold some accountability.

“It was emotions on both sides,” Moore said a year ago. “And our guys, I did see they had the flag and guys were waving it around and their guys charged us. So it’s emotion on both sides, it can’t happen. So rivalry games get heated, especially this one, it’s the biggest one in the country, so we’ve got to handle that better.”

Naturally, a year later, there is some concern that Ohio State and Michigan could end up in another brawl. It’s also not unheard of that Michigan Stadium has had fights in it, particularly because of the one tunnel that both teams share to get onto the field. In fact, a few years ago, against Michigan State, a fight broke out in the tunnel that led to several Spartans players facing charges.

Regardless, it’s going to be an intense environment. With the Big House packed, Moore and the Wolverines are hoping to ride the momentum it creates.

“Just the way this place is built, what Michigan is all about, the intensity, the intentionality of how we practice, how we prepare, that’s what we want. We want it like that. We want that physical battle. We want the toughness. We want the violence. That’s what we want, so it fits us, but I mean, they’re playing really well. They’re playing physical as well, so we’ve got to match it, and they’ve got to match us.”

Ohio State enters The Game looking to snap a four-game losing streak to Michigan and cap off an undefeated regular season. Michigan, meanwhile, wants to grab its 10th win and cement a College Football Playoff resume. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EST on Saturday.