Everything Sherrone Moore, Bryce Underwood said after Michigan's 34-17 win over New Mexico

On what Underwood saw on the third and 14 play and his touchdown

UNDERWOOD: The first play that you’re talking about, we prepare for this play every single day of practice, you know. Going over this play continuously, and the moment it came for this play to be ran, so the next thing was to do was execute, so that’s what happened.

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On what he saw on his touchdown pass

UNDERWOOD: We, just like I said for the first one, just a lot of preparation went into this, so just executed.

On where his block ranks for him on his list of favorite moments

UNDERWOOD: Honestly, I’d say it’s insane, really. This is for sure number one on my list, honestly. That was a surreal feeling, being in the Big House. I’ve been coming to the games since I was eight, nine years old, so it’s just a surreal feeling to have the Block M on my chest and to score a touchdown on the block.

On Moore assessing the offensive line

MOORE: Yeah, I thought the offensive line overall, the consistency that I saw throughout the game was really good. There’s always the, hey, you could have made this block, you could have did this, but when you rush for over 200 yards, you feel pretty happy about that. I know we had some explosive plays in there, but there’s also some four- or five-yard gains, some three-yard gains that turned into those big plays. I think that’s super important to put on there. I think the progression that they’ve taken, especially even from the bowl game to now and having new guys in there, it’s been really good. It’s been fun to watch.

On the difficulty of facing a team who gets the ball out quickly

MOORE: Yeah, I mean, that’s what you’ve got to deal with when you’ve got a good D-line and you’ve got a good pass rush. The guys are going to get the ball out as fast as possible. So I thought our guys did a really good job of tackling for the most part. We had a couple of missed tackles, but not very much. And you see in week one of college football, there’s a lot of missed tackles. I did a study, there’s like an average of 15 to 20 that people have during a game, and I thought we limited those on special teams and on defense. And when you do that, you’re going to play winning football.

On the play of the linebackers after Jaishawn Barham’s ejection

MOORE: Yeah, I mean, that group is elite. They’re four deep. We feel very strongly about that group. You know that. We’re going to talk about the ejection when we get to that point with the Big Ten and handling that because we don’t agree. And we’ll handle it from there. But overall, Ernest, Jimmy, Cole, those guys, we look at as starters as well. You know, we play them every single day, and those guys are moving fast. And Cole Sullivan is putting in a lot of work. And I said this in Big Ten Media Days of how I thought he would really step up. And it wasn’t really a surprise to watch him do what he did today. And to watch Jimmy play like he did wasn’t a surprise either. So we got a really good group of linebackers.

On his overall thoughts on the game

Yeah, I think overall, you know, the real thing that we wanted to do, we didn’t want turnovers. We had one on special teams. I think he learned from that. It was a young freshman, and he was down about it. He was still down after the game. You know, at the end of the day, these guys are kids. They’re young men that we have to teach these lessons, and we got to help them through these lessons. So at least things are going to happen. And he’s going to learn from it, and he’s going to get better from it. So I think that piece from it. We didn’t want to miss a lot of tackles on special teams and defense. And I wanted consistent energy throughout the game. And I felt like there was consistent energy from snap one all the way to the end. It didn’t matter who was in there. Guys played physical. Guys played fast. And, yeah, there’s things we got to clean up, we got to get better at. And we know that. And the best part about it is our kids know that. They understand the standard of Michigan football. And they’re as disappointed at times than anybody else. You know, they’re more disappointed because they’re the ones putting in the work. And our coaches are the ones putting in the work. So they know the standards that they want to uphold, and we know what we want to uphold. So we’re going to work to get better. And for this young man, I thought he played really well. And he’s going to be very critical of himself when he watches film. He was critical of himself during the game. And he has a high standard for himself, and we have a high standard for us as an offense. But it’s not just him. It’s everybody on offense together pulling on one string. So to play the way he did, not turn the ball over, throw touchdown passes, and go down on that two-minute drive, you know, I couldn’t do that as a freshman. So that was impressive.

On stepping up as a leader as a freshman

UNDERWOOD: Honestly, coming in, of course, as a freshman in December at the time, was very tough for me to be a vocal leader because I feel like I’m too young at the moment. Then time overcame, of course, and we got to the moment where I feel like it’s time for me to step up. It’s time for me to use my voice and be able to feel like I know what I’m talking about as well.

On whether he cringes seeing Underwood’s block on the touchdown

MOORE: A little bit, yeah. But he, I mean, he loves it. He loves the game. He loves football. He loves the physicality. He’s the first one when we’re having our nine-on-seven drill tackling, he’s over there getting hype, rocking his hair, music. So it does make you cringe when you don’t want your quarterback doing that, but it kind of perks you up a little bit, understanding and knowing he loves that part of the game.

On whether Tate Forcier reaches out to him and having the most yardage in a Michigan debut for a true freshman QB

UNDERWOOD: We’re going to start with the record question. I didn’t know that, of course. So I’m happy. I’m excited for it, of course. I don’t think so.

On how Underwood handled himself in his debut

MOORE: Yeah, really well. To go down there on that two-minute drive and throw that third-and-fourteen pass and then to go down and throw the touchdown. As far as poise, he’s really good. And he’s just going to keep getting better and better because he’s going to be in those situations. And we try to put him in difficult situations in practice. And going against our defense and putting him in different things is what we got to do to prepare him. But held it well. But I think also the players around him help a lot, too. You’ve got older linemen that are there to keep him poised. You’ve got guys in the backfield that have played, receivers that have played. So it’s a collective effort for sure.

On the explanation of Jaishawn Barham’s ejection

I kind of blacked out on the explanation. It really wasn’t really that detailed of an explanation. So we’ll go with the process. And I’ll reach out to whoever I need to reach out to in the Big Ten and go from there.

On whether he let the moment sink in

UNDERWOOD: Of course, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, that’s when the moment actually sunk in a little bit. My mindset going through this game is really just to do as well as I can as a freshman. Because that’s what people are going to see me as, and I want to change the narrative, of course.

On what he wants to be seen as

UNDERWOOD: I’m a quarterback for the University of Michigan.

On balancing coaching Underwood and keeping him confident

MOORE: I think whenever you have a quarterback, when you’re the quarterback at Michigan, you’re going to be critical of yourself, but it’s our job. One, yeah, he can do that, but we’ve also got to bring him back and understand that. Just play to your capabilities, play to your strengths, and us help him as a coaching staff, too. There’s always a fair balance of that, but I think any competitor in sports, especially football and as a quarterback, you’re going to be critical of yourself any mistake you make. But then it’s our job as coaches and the players around them to help you and make sure that you’re successful.

On the confidence he had in Underwood to make the throw on third and 14

MOORE: Yeah, I mean, a lot of confidence. Again, Bryce said it’s something we execute a lot and that we practiced a lot. When you have plays in the playbook that you’ve repped from spring ball to in the summer and training camp and you understand where people are going to be in spots, then you have confidence to make those calls. So that’s what they went out and did. He did it. Channing made a great catch and had a great run.

On assessing Justice Haynes’ night

MOORE: I mean, 16 carries, 159 yards, three touchdowns, pretty electric. Most yards since 1970 in a debut, so that kind of explains it. It’s really good. It’s something we’ve seen since spring. It’s something we’ve seen this summer and we saw in fall camp. I think I said it to the staff on Thursday. I’m like, I don’t know when it’s going to be, but he’s going to break a 50-yard run and he’s going to be gone, and it was early in the game. So I’m not surprised by it, but excited to see how it continues to build.

On how he would grade himself today

UNDERWOOD: A C-plus today. (Moore) I knew you would say that.

On why the grade is so low

UNDERWOOD: It’s a lot of things I got to work on and also the team as well. So if we go back to the drawing board, we’ll come back better next week.

On his thoughts on the Oklahoma game

MOORE: We’ll be ready. Yeah, we’ll be ready for it. Got to prepare our tails off. Been preparing for it. So we’ll be ready for it. I’ll give you more on Monday. Let us enjoy this one.