Everything Michigan HC Sherrone Moore said during his pre-Wisconsin press conference

On things identified during the bye week he wanted to correct

Yeah, the things that, obviously, internally, the self-scout, from what we do, I’m not going to speak on those. But fundamentally, we just want to get better as a football team. Hey, Jason. We just want to get better as a football team. Really worked on fundamentals. We had a team tackling circuit. We had a team ball security circuit. And really, that was offense and defense. That was to emphasize ball security on defense just as much as offense. Emphasize tackling because so much carries over with tackling and blocking. And to watch guys do it because that involves special teams. So, going back to the roots of the basics. You always talk about reset. And we always talk about recommitting to your why and recommitting to the process. But, like, why do that after a loss when you can do that after a win and when you’re on a bye week? So, we just focused on getting better offensively, really focused on the drops and wanting to attack that, creating competition in the receiver room, and really working on the fundamentals of how to catch the football and doing that at a high level and making that a priority. Whether that’s ball placement by the quarterback and hand placement by the receiver, tight end, or whoever’s catching the football. Defensively, continue to emphasize tackling and being physical with hand placement and eyes. We know this week’s going to be a great challenge for us, with their offense and shifts and motions and formations. You’ve got to be great with your eye discipline. So those are things we worked on as a special teams, being the best tackling special teams in the country, working on doing that and continue to do that at a high level.

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On team health heading into the Wisconsin game

Yeah, I feel really good about where we are. We wanted to – that was the number one goal this week, was to make – get guys healthy, get guys back. I feel like Gio’s in a good place. I feel like Brady’s in a good place. Hogan’s in a good place. We’ll see how he’s doing as we go through the week because it’s all – you know, I don’t ever predict it, but I feel like we’re trending in the right direction with all those guys, and the same with Jyaire.

On whether Hogan Hansen’s injury was the same or different to what he had previously

A different one.

On whether Gio El-Hadi’s job is secure when he comes back from injury

Geo’s a guy that, you know, his job’s secure. He’s earned it from his time he’s played already. Training camp, what he did, he was – he stamped his job. Brady played really well too, but it’ll be an open competition because we feel like now you’ve got four guys inside that can go play with Efobi and Jake Guarnera. So, he’s got to go back and he’s got to go take his job, but he’ll play for sure as we go through the season.

On what he’s seen from the offensive line improvement

You know what, I thought we just played harder. I thought we played – and there were some times in the Oklahoma game you watched, like, oh, man, we’re moving the guys off the ball. But it was consistent and they played with better technique consistently. They played better, nasty, consistently. I think that’s a credit to the kids, credit to Coach Newsome and the kids of what they’ve done to this point to get there. And they just continue to push and push. Yesterday we came back and we were in spiders and helmets, but it was just as physical from a hand placement, eyes, pad level standpoint. And that’s where it’s got to keep going.

On his expectations for Derrick Moore the rest of the season

Continue to be him, what he’s done already. And he’s affected the game maybe not with the stats that he’s wanted, but he’s affected the game with pressures and the leadership and the want-to that he has. So continue to do that on the field, and then just be an alpha off the field. He’s done the right thing. I saw him just walk in here. We talked about PRN, prehab, rehab, nutrition, taking care of your body, recovery. And he’s doing that at a high level. And he continues to push the young guys and teach the young guys how to do the same thing.

On the discussions with Greg Crippen last year and where he’s seen him grow

Oh, yeah. And I would say I’ve known Greg for a long time. And he’s been through a bunch. He’s a great example of what college football is really all about and what staying the course is and going and attacking the process. People always talk about that, but what does that really mean? He’s been through, he’s here as a true freshman, Andrew Vastardis, brought in Oluwatimi, brought in Drake Nugent, and a lot of guys would have chucked their deuces and left. And he didn’t. He stayed the course, became the starter last year, and played his best game last week, his best game. So credit to Greg because a lot of kids in this day and age would not do that. And he’s an example of what you want. So credit to him, credit to his parents for trusting it and trusting the process, but really proud of him and what he’s done to this point.

On the thought process of adding Juan Castillo and Soup Campbell to the program

Juan, experience, obviously, guys that have done it. But guys that I have familiarity with, I’ve known Juan since 2019, I believe. So got to know him and know his background and what he’s done. And then Soup, I’ve just gotten to know through the years and known his allegiance to Michigan, known that he played here, coached here, and all the people that have known him, and the respect that I have for him. So that was the reason, bringing guys that have experience, that love this place, that love our kids, that want to take care of our kids and help them at a high level.

On bye week practices aiding the younger players and who stood out

Yeah, on offense, I’ll start, I think the guy that — there’s two guys really in the receiver room, Andrew Marsh, Jamar Browder, those guys really stood out, made some plays. Jasper Parker’s another guy. You know, obviously, he’s got Jordan and Justice in front of him, but he made some plays as well in that time. And then on defense, it’s a bevy of guys because a lot of those guys have played, but like Elijah Dotson, he’s played, he made some plays. The guy that stood out on defense probably the most is Nate Owusu, and he’s back and he’s feeling good. He was just in the backfield half the days, and it was good to see him moving around and pushing around, and that just adds to that linebacker room, which I already think is the best one in the country. So you got Jaishawn, who’s moving around. You got Ernest. You got Jimmy Rolder. You got Cole Sullivan. You got Chase Taylor. And now you got Nate Owusu. So you got a group of guys that can play and move around and put in different positions, and I’ll let the wizard up there, Wink, just figure out where to put the puzzle pieces every week. So it’s fun to watch.

On Jake Guarnera’s recent play and why he earned playing time

Yeah, the way he practiced, and really not just the way he practiced in fall camp, but it started in spring, and you saw the evolution of him changing his body, changing his mentality of, hey, I’m not just a redshirt freshman. I’m a guy that needs to be ready to go play. He did that in fall camp. It just gave me confidence that he could do it. It gave us all confidence. And, we as offensive, defensive, special team staff all said that, yeah, this guy can help us go win games. And you’ve just seen the same Jake. He’s been preparing the same.

On whether he celebrated with Biff Poggi and his thoughts on how he managed the program

Won the game. So that’s all I care about is winning the game, and our kids are happy. That’s what I wanted. That’s all I needed, and it wasn’t my celebration. It was just because I’m already ready for this next one. So you got 24 hours. You know, got 48 or 72. So you got 24 hours, and there was the congratulations. There was the text. There was the, when we saw each other again, he was like, I’m just ready. Thank you. You’re back. I appreciate it. I can’t take it anymore. So, I mean, that was it. But, no, just appreciate him greatly for handling it the way he did.

On whether the younger players could move up the depth chart with WR drop issues

I mean, there’s always competition. So we’re going to continue the competition through the week and see who the starters are by the end of the week.

On how he’s looking at the wide receiver competition this week

Yeah, there’s no – everybody’s leash is the same. You got to go practice well. You got to go make plays in the passing game. You got to run block. You got to make plays in the passing game. You got to do that equally as good. So we’ll just see by the end of the week who the best guys are. You know, that’s Channing, that’s Fred, that’s Andrew Marsh, that’s Donaven McCulley, that’s Semaj, that’s all those guys, Kendrick Bell. So we’re going to continue to see who has the best week and go from there.

On the spirit of the program right now

They’re good. You know, they’re great. They always understand that we always talk about from the beginning of the year, we don’t control the depth chart. The depth chart is a living, flowing organism, and it continues to change week by week. And this is a long season. This is game four. So we just had game four. We’re into game five. So we’re in the second quarter of the season, and all we can do is worry about this game. So worry about today’s practice, go out and compete in this practice, and we’ll go from there.

On how the program can work on drops

It’s all where your eyes are when you catch the football. Seeing the ball all the way to the tuck versus having your eyes look — trying to make a move before you catch the football. That’s mainly where all the drops came from. And so continue to work on that. Those kids have done a really good job. They did a really good job in the bye week, and it’ll just continue to be a focus as we go through the week. You watch college football, all the drops are usually that. It’s not something special. There’s no magic potion for it. And the worst coaching point you can tell a kid is catch the ball. Yeah, he knows he’s supposed to catch the ball. Catch the ball, catch the ball. It irks me when I hear that. You got to catch the ball. Well, duh. You think he wants to drop the ball? No, he doesn’t. So you got to tell him how to catch it. And there’s different ways to do that. Whether that’s above your chest, thumb to thumb, below your navel, pinky to pinky, see the ball all the way to the tuck.vSo all those things are pieces of it that you have to coach and teach. And those guys have done a really good job this week.

On Wisconsin’s run defense

They’re number one in the country. So they’re stout. They’re big and stout up front. They’ve got guys that have played a lot of football, and they’ve got hard edges. They’ve got a transfer from Louisville, number 22, who’s really good, really good pass rusher. They’ve got another edge guy who we actually recruited, Sebastian Cheeks, number 15, who transferred from UNC, who was a linebacker that now is on the edge. They’ve got two guys in the middle that are about 6’4″, 235, stout run guys, and the safeties and corners all hit. It’s a typical Mike Tressel defense. Plays physical, plays downhill. On normal downs, it’s going to be open cover four quarters, go to cover three, play cover one on third down, and give you a whole bunch of different looks. So we’ve got to be sound, and we’ve got to be able to go execute our game plan the way I think we can.

On how much OL success is focused on the technique vs. the mental aspect of it

Yeah, I mean, there is some of it is the what, but we always talk about it’s the how. It’s how you do it, because you can miss your hands and run your feet as fast as you can and be lower than the guy and want it more than him and make the block. So it’s about the how, and especially O-line, it’s a mentality, and you can feel the physicality breeding back and that mentality breeding back into those guys, and part of that is confidence, so they’ve got to have confidence. And when you do it together in a great atmosphere like they did last game and have that success, it usually carries over. So I just want to keep that going as we go into this week.

On what stands out about the Badgers

On offense, Coach Grimes does a really good job, and he’s done a great job. Kansas, BYU, watched him, actually took plays from him, took a trick play from him. Unbalanced, shifts, motions, all those to get your defense off balance and get them not aligned. He’ll change up the tempos, mostly huddle, but they’ll change up the tempos on what they do. And then obviously, Billy’s an experienced kid that’s played a lot of football, and he can make plays with his legs. He can make plays in the air. And then O’Neal is a kid that he was a starter at San Diego State last year and came in here, and now he’s playing for them now. So you’ve got to prepare for both of them, and you’ve got to be ready for either one of them that’s in the game. They’ll be hyped up to come in here. Whenever you play Michigan, that’s what it is. We’ll be ready for it as well. So our guys are just preparing for whatever we’ve seen on film and however we think they’re going to attack us, but we’ve just got to go play our type of game.

On whether the bye week focus for Bryce Underwood is any different

No, I mean, same thing. You still want to give him some time to take a deep breath mentally, physically, but still play some football. But health is great. He’s in a great place spiritually, mentally, physically. I want to continue to do that, but still control, honing on the little things, his footwork, his fundamentals, his ball placement, making sure it’s completely accurate, touch of balls, all those things. So focus was the same.

On whether Andrew Babalola has had surgery

Yeah, he did. It was super successful. So excited for him to start recovering and get back. But, yeah, he’s in a great place.

On whether Jake Guarnera has locked down a starting spot and if he can be the starting center in the future

Yeah, absolutely. He can play both. He’s just done everything the right way. He played at a really high level, played fearless, kind of like we talked about with Bryce and Jayden Sanders, because he’s a freshman, he’s a redshirt freshman, just never flinched in that position. Got thrown in and became a starter and just went in there and played his tail off. So we’ve just seen a guy that’s played physical, played with the right technique, played the right way and continued to train.So as far as being solidified, the starter, we’ll see as the week goes. But they’re all going to be back there competing. But he’s done a good job, and he’ll definitely play.

On using the jugs machine more or working with Underwood to help receiver drops in practice

Both. When the quarterbacks are there, you want the quarterbacks to throw, get the reps. And then when they’re not there, I know guys are in here like 6 in the morning. You got jugs, you got the Monarch, got all types of jugs in here. So it’s like a play land. A play land, you can do whatever you want in there. So guys are in there all the time working, so they’re definitely getting better.

On Wisconsin’s number one rush defense forcing Michigan to have a different run game and Bryce Underwood’s game prep using his legs

I mean, you just have to scheme up their defense. Nebraska was the number five rushing defense in the country, so they made 287 yards. So I think it’s whatever you see on film, you’ve got to attack that structurally. You have to structurally figure out where the weaknesses in the defense are from a personnel standpoint, and you have to attack that. And that’s run or pass. So we’ve got to figure those out, and our staff has done a really good job to this point doing that last week, and they’ll refine that all this week. And then we’ll just go out there and execute.