Everything Sherrone Moore said after Michigan's 24-10 win over Wisconsin

On Donaven McCulley’s performance and the overall state of the receiver room

Yeah, I think there’s been a big challenge in that room, right, to catch the ball. You know, the first thing I said when I came back from torture, I felt like, but it wasn’t torture. Learning experience, we really talked about catching the ball away from your body. That’s the first thing we talked about. And I thought he does that naturally. And we continue to emphasize that all throughout the week.

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And I thought him, obviously having the breakout game he did, six catches, 112 yards, a lot of great YAC along the 33, and a touchdown. It was an unbelievable job by him and signs that we’ve seen all along. So we’ll continue to emphasize that and put him in positions to do that along with Andrew Marsh. And both those guys had their best game. They had their best games with the Wolverines and really proud of their performance.

On Bryce Underwood’s growth

Yeah, just continue to get better and better and better and better and put more on his plate and give him more to do. And he just continues to learn, never satisfied with himself and his progression. So did a really nice job and still have things to work on.

You know, it’s not perfect. And he knows that, and we all know that, but he’s peaking at the right time for us. And what I’m really proud of is how he’s taking care of the football overall.

We had the loose ball there, but he’s not throwing it into traffic a lot. He’s putting it on the money where it needs to in those contested catches situations. So he continues to play at a really good level, and we’ll continue to help him and do that.

On Rod Moore’s impact in his first game back at Michigan Stadium

His impact is something you can’t really describe. You know, he’s a coach on the field. He’s a coach in the meeting room. And then you just feel his energy when he’s on the field. It’s, it’s different. It’s special.

You feel guys like him, just they don’t come along very much. He’s a guy that’s made plays here for a long time. Last time he had a pick in the Big House was against Ohio State in ’23.

And then he comes across the field like a laser beam and picks it off today and stops the reverse. So, so proud of him and what he’s done and how he continues to fight and what he’s done with his body and how he’s gotten better and feels like he’s faster now than he was before. So great to have him back.

On what McCulley brings to the locker room

Yeah, I mean, he’s a competitor. He’s a competitor off the field. He’s a competitor. When he got here in the spring, he would just compete, compete. He’d push the receiver. He’d push the receivers in the room. He’d push the DBs. He’d make plays. And guys would get mad.

Everybody would be talking and chirping. And when you’re getting into spring ball and fall camp, it gets hot. It gets, you know, it gets competitive, not combative, though. And that’s great to see. But he’s an outstanding human being, an outstanding kid that just cares about his teammates and cares about, you know, helping the team win in any way possible.

On how close to 100% Rod Moore is

Yeah, it feels like he’s at 100 percent. I remember talking to him right before the game. He’s like, I feel outstanding. I feel so good. Like, I feel better than I have felt in a long time. And so I think he’s there.

And I think there’s always going to be a little soreness, right, because you haven’t played football in a year and a half or whatever it is. But he just, to me, that looks pretty good. So he’s playing at a high level.

On what Andrew Marsh did to earn more playing time this week

I mean, I think just as a freshman, he’s continued to learn the playbook, learn what he’s supposed to do. But he’s just continued to make plays. We had that opportunity week and he was the guy that just kept standing out. He kept making plays. He kept making plays. And when a guy keeps making plays, it’s only fair to give him the opportunity.

And he did that. So he earned it, and he’s going to continue to earn it.

On McCulley making the big plays on Saturday

Yeah, a lot of big plays. You know, we’ll keep featuring him, keep doing different things to put him in position to be successful and make those big plays. But that goes to his hard work. He practiced his tail off this week. And he does every week. But there was like, you can see the spark in his eye.

And he said, Coach, I’m getting in the end zone. Because that was his first touchdown. You know, and he needs more of that. He’s going to have more of that. And I told him when he scored his first one, I’m like, that’s not going to be your last, bro. So I love your smile. I love how happy you are and how much energy you’ve got. But let’s save it, because we’re going to continue to do it more and more. So he’s peaking right now where we need to be.

On adjusting on defense after the first drive

Yeah. It was all about tackling. Wink did, first of all, shout out to Wink Martindale, defensive staff, the players. You know, after that first drive, we looked at it. It was tackling. It wasn’t the calls.

It was tackling. It was missing tackles. And after that, I think it was eight punts and an interception. And then a field goal at the end of the game. So pretty good. That’s what it came down to. And something we worked on all. We worked on it during opportunity week. We worked on it this past week, and you can see the emphasis of that, with tackling, that helped us be successful on defense.

On trying to build Semaj Morgan’s confidence up after more dropped passes

I think seeing the ball caught is the biggest thing. You know, seeing it all the way into the tuck, and I think the ones that happened today were your eyes were ahead of your hands. You know, your eyes were down the field.

Your eyes weren’t looking the ball into your hand. And it’s seeing that all the way in. So those are the things that you continue to emphasize. And, yeah, you want to build confidence, and part of that confidence is giving them chances to go do it again. They made plays after that happened. So that was good to see.

On subtle ways he sees improvement from Underwood

Yeah, first starts with all the stuff off the field, not just the studying but the leadership qualities and being able to tell guys, hey, this route needs to be here or make sure we have this split here or whatever it is to the offensive line in not a demeaning way but in a positive attitude way. He’s going to be effective as a leader and he has that power because he is a quarterback. So he continues to do that.

And then just the little things, different plays and being able to execute things that he maybe not was able to do week one, right, and put him in those positions to do that. So he continues to have a lot of growth through for, what, 270 this game? And there’s probably 30, 40 more yards, and it’s 300 yards easy. So he’s playing really well for us. Just keep taking the football and doing the things to be successful.

On whether Marsh’s performance was what he needed to see for him to break into the receiver room

I think when you are a freshman at any position, especially receiver or tight end, you’ve got to know where to line up. You’ve got to know where to go. You’ve got to know exactly what to do.

And those things were coming along. Those were being more consistent. And you saw that this past week, and he just continued to make plays.

He made plays in the spring, but was still trying to figure it out, right? And he made plays in fall camp, but it started to click. And when it starts to click with talent, then you start to play fast, and you stop thinking. He got to that point really more last week, but really this week for sure you could see it. So the opportunities are there. And we always say it’s open competition. So everybody’s got an opportunity. The depth chart is a living, flowing organism. It never just stays the same. So guys are always challenged, and that helps competition, and we just want the best players to play.

On the final drive of the game

Yeah, we could have scored, but we took the high road, so.

On the struggle to not pick up short yardage situations

I mean, you go back and watch them, their footwork. Footwork, hat placement, the things that you harp on, the little pieces that could make a play successful or unsuccessful. Those are really the things. It’s not the calls.

It’s those pieces, and we’ll get those cleaned up and fixed because you look at the week before, we got those things done. You know, we got those first downs, and maybe weren’t as many of those situations, but those are things you’ve got to do to get where you want to be. So we’ve got to continue to harp on the little things, the little things.

This has been about the how. It hasn’t been about the what. It’s been about the how, how we do it, how we execute plays, so we’ll continue to harp on that as a unit and a team.

On his assessment of the offensive line

Yeah, I mean, I think the same thing, just there’s got to be things you’ve got to clean up. But you look at our total offense. We had 445 yards in total offense, and like when you have those days, you’re usually pretty good.

If we score in the red zone twice, it’s a completely different look at the win, right? And you won the game, so you’re extremely happy about that. You rushed for 175 yards, which is pretty good in the Big Ten, but our standard is a certain way, so we’re going to attack what we need to attack to clean everything up and challenge guys that need to be challenged and go from there.

On running trick plays to spark the offense

No, I mean, I just think, one, it’s part of football. On offense, you like to have fun. You guys have seen me call plays.

It’s got them all over the place. There’s a whole bunch of them, and Chip’s the same way, and just wants to keep the juices flowing and keep guys going in the offense and just let them know, hey, we’re not – there’s certain plays that we’re always running. We have different ways to do it, and it keeps people off balance, so you got to be able to have that in your offense.

On what he learns from watching Rod Moore go through his journey back to the field

I learn a lot, man. I hope a lot of young kids — they go through a lot of things and people just want to quit and people just want to stop, and he could have easily did it after the first setback. He had a setback initially that held him back. What’s up, fellas? Look at him. There he is. What up, baby? He could have easily, in that time, in that first setback, said, I’m done, and I don’t want to deal with it, but to watch a guy, yeah, I’m talking about you, to watch a guy like this, and with the same last name, which is pretty cool, to do what he’s done, just continue to never give up, never quit, push, support his teammates at a high level. He’s the first guy. Last year, I remember having him on the sideline, and I heard somebody yelling at the defense, just going off.

Maybe it was the Ohio State game. I don’t know when it was. It was all of them, but he was losing his mind. I said, damn, what coach is that? And it was Rod, just ripping the whole defense, and everybody’s laser-focused on exactly what he’s saying. So to watch him and his journey and what he’s done, his family’s here.

I couldn’t be more proud of this young man and have him a part of our football team. And for me, as a person, to learn from him as a leader and what he’s done and how he leads, because he not only leads on the field, he leads off the field, he just does everything you want. He does it the right way, and he’s special. He’s really special, and he’s going to help us win a lot of games, and then whatever team in the NFL that gets to draft him, they’re going to be very lucky to have this man on their roster.