Everything Sherrone Moore said on Inside Michigan Football pre-Wisconsin

On the improvements he saw from the team during the bye week

Yeah, the first thing we try to do is just get healthy, and I think we did that. We got a lot of guys that were dealing with little things and banged up, so try to give the older guys that played a lot of football in these four games some time and still practice football, still getting better at it, still doing things fundamentally, but try to get them healthy, get their legs back underneath them, and saw yesterday in practice that you felt that pop, you felt that energy to them.

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And then offensively, talked about run game, continuing to improve that and be really good at that. Physically, make sure pad level, hands, eyes, those little things we work on. Catching the football was a huge emphasis, and how you’re catching the football, what we’re doing to get better to do it, and then competition within the groups, competition to do that, and defensively, trying to continue to climb to be a top defense in the country, because as we’ve seen these past couple games, that these guys have the ability to be really dominant, and we want to continue to do that.

On what the OL rotation will look like upon Gio El-Hadi and Brady Norton’s return

Yeah, we’ll see. I mean, we’re on good track to have everybody back, only time will tell as we go through the week, but it looks like we’ll have everybody back as we go through the week, and the starters will be the starters when we get to the game, and obviously Gio’s a starter, and then let those guys battle it out, and see how many guys we rotate throughout the game to keep guys fresh, but now we know we have four guys on the inside that can go play and win a football game in the Big Ten.

On how much better Nathan Efobi and Jake Guarnera are for having the in-game experience

Yeah, I mean, there’s no substitution for it to play a game, especially in that environment, one of the most hostile ones in the Big Ten, so for those guys to do that, and play at the level that they did, proved to us, proved to themselves that they can do it, and we already knew that they could, but I think for confidence you need as a young kid, his right is to go and do it, and those guys did that.

On how the team is different from fall camp until now

More experience, playing in big time games, and understanding what it takes to win at home, and win on the road, those are huge pieces. You talk about it, you practice it, you practice with the crowd noise, but you practice with the, talk about the environments, but to actually go do it is a completely different thing, and those guys did a great job, especially at Nebraska, going to execute. You saw a team, what it feels like in adversity, because there was adversity in all the games, at some point, Central Michigan was a little bit different, but especially in this last game, there was adversity, and those guys really responded, and you wanna see your team do that, and they have.

On how Blake Frazier fits into the mix at OL

I think he’s continuing competing, continuing pushing Evan and Sprague to be a certain tackle, but he’ll continue to have that role, and play as an extra lineman when we need him to, when we call upon him to, and he’s done a really good job in that role.

On younger players pushing for more reps at WR

The guy that stands out the most of that phase is Andrew Marsh. He’s a guy that’s — he had his touchdown, his first touchdown in the Central game, had his first catch, I think, then, and made plays throughout that, so I look forward to seeing what he does the rest of the week, and really challenging him and pushing him, because he’s a younger guy with a lot of talent, but you got to go do it on the practice field.

On how long it typically takes for a young receiver to pick up the nuances of an offense

Yeah, I mean, it changes by guy. He’s been here since spring, so it’s helped that he’s had the time, where there’s guys that have been here in the summertime, and what I’ve seen in my experience is guys on defense, it’s always guys that are farther away from the ball that play earlier. The ones that play early that are close to the ball are pretty special.

Those are usually guys that are here for three years and gone. But the guys that play farther from the ball usually get a chance to play earlier because of their skill set. You’re fast, you’re fast.

You can go catch it, you can catch it. You can get separation, you get separation. So for a guy like him, it’s taken a little time.

He’s had spring, summer, and now fall camp in the season. So it takes some time. We always say like week six or seven’s that sweet spot of when the freshmen start peaking, but he’s starting to do that right now, so I’m going to go see what he does this week.

On the expectations for the older receivers coming out of the bye week

Yeah, I’m expecting for those guys to play at a high level. And we’re just continuing to compete. And especially Donaven, I think there’s some things we can do to continue to get him, put him in position to make some plays.

And when those plays are presented, he’s got to go do it, and I think he will. So we’ll see as we go through this week.

On whether he’s hopeful to see more production from the TE position

Yeah, and I think the ball finds guys in different ways, and coverage dictates where the ball goes. You know, you can scheme guys open, but coverage definitely dictates that. But I look forward to seeing Marlin produce more, Hogan, all those guys.

So we’ll see as we go through the week.

On the different ways to use a player like Max Bredeson on offense

Yeah, multiple ways. Obviously in the run game, but he helps us in protection as well. And then also in the passing game, doing things that, you know, off of plays that we’ve ran with him as a blocker.

So we’ve continued to explore that, continue to do more of that, and you’ll see more of that this week.

On his expectations for Bryce Underwood

Yeah, to just keep getting better. The kid just is constantly working, constantly striving to get better. And he’s going to continue to do that.

And we’re going to let him play, and play free, and play loose, and have fun, you know, have fun doing it. And he does that. When he touches the football field or gets in the facility, there’s always a smile on his face.

There’s always that glimmer in his eye of him wanting to be really good at football. And he’s starting to do that even more and more. And he’s got immense talent.

And just excited for him to show it as we go through the season.

On how much of the playbook is open to Underwood

Yeah, I think the biggest thing as we look at as a staff is you want to win. So we got to do everything we can in each game playing to win. And if sometimes it’s running them, we’ll run them.

If it’s drop back pass and doing this and play action pass and naked, whatever that recipe is for that game, we know we got to go do the goal in the game.

On the potential of the defense

I learned that we’re deep. That we have guys that can play multiple positions and play at an extremely high level. Thought that our linebacker group might be one of the best groups in the country.

Especially with four guys that can play and with more guys coming on that we think that are gonna help us throughout the season. Thought that the DBs have played a really good game for the matriculation of guys getting hurt. And I think, again, that bodes well to coach Morgan.

What he’s done with that back end, coach Stokes, coach Hawkins, moving guys around again at corner to play a true freshman at corner on the road is pretty difficult. And they did that and he played extremely well. So those guys are really, really coming on at the right time.

The defense, they just practice so hard. They practice so physical. Wink has done an unbelievable job schematically doing everything and putting guys in position.

And it’s all about putting the best 11 on the field. And they’ve done that and they continue to do that. So every week we just get better and it’s fun to watch.

On how much quicker it makes you better on offense having to face the defense in practice

Yeah, you have no choice. You’re just gonna get your head beat in. So every single day during training camp and spring ball, Chip would come up to me like, hey, I don’t know what these guys are doing on this side of the ball.

I don’t know if it’s cover one, cover two, cover three. So they just do so many good things and give the quarterback an opportunity to see different things that you might see in what our team does in a whole spring ball. You don’t see that in a whole season.

So being able to see those things in practice is huge for our quarterbacks, huge for our offense.

On Rod Moore seeing game action and whether he will see an expanded role

Yeah, for sure you will. Feels good. He’s just, I mean, he’s just the OG Rod, just taking care of his body, doing what he needs to do.

But he’s out there, practiced yesterday, and running around, moving around, feels great. And I’m sure there’s gonna be a little soreness and things because you haven’t played football and you haven’t hit people in a while. But I mean, he’s eager to keep getting more and more and more, and he will.

On Rod Moore’s defensive knowledge helping the team on the field

Yeah, he’s a fixer. He understands the defense from the balcony view. He sees the front, he sees the linebackers, he sees the coverage, he understand how it all pieces together, and he understands the adjustments that things happen.

When you hear him talk, he talks like a coach. He talks exactly how we would say it, and you wish all the players would do that, but that’s not how it works. That’s not how it works in football.

But he does, and to have Rod back on the field is, I mean, it’s priceless. And he just does everything the way you want it done.

On Jyaire Hill’s progress

I feel like Sug’s playing at a really high level. He just continues to get better.

He’s playing physical. He’s playing decisive and playing within the system and playing to his skillset. He’s extremely fast, he can run, but he’s also playing with great eyes and great ability.

On Jayden Sanders’ production as a freshman

Yeah, it’s been huge, man. And I remember me and Wink, it was maybe the fifth or sixth day of training camp, saying, like, Wink coming over, he’s like, that guy’s going to help us this year. I was like, I think so.

And it came to fruition. And so having him, having Sug, I think we’ll get Zeke back. Big chance we’ll get Caleb Anderson back, too.

So that’ll be huge. He’s been out for a little bit. And to get that guy back and all those guys back is just going to add the depth and what we need for that room.

On Jimmy Rolder and Cole Sullivan’s development allows the defense to be creative with other players

It’s been awesome. It’s been priceless to see, to watch the evolution, one of Cole Sullivan from where he was last year. You could see the skillset.

You could see the ability. But to watch him in spring and fall camp and know like, oh yeah, this guy’s going to be a dude. And now I’m going to do it on the field, leads the team in picks, you know, getting sacks.

To watch him do it now, it’s been awesome. And then Jimmy Rolder is just really carrying on for what we saw at the end of the year last year into the spring, into the fall. And it’s been immensely valuable for us to be able to do that and put Jay Sean all over the field.

On next steps for Jaishawn Barham as an edge rusher

Yeah, to just go be dominant every play. I think he continues to refine his pass rush because he’s got ability to speed to power. He’s got ability to beat you at speed.

And he plays the run like an edge player. He doesn’t play it soft. He doesn’t shy away from contact.

He loves it. He loves contact. He craves it.

So for him, it’s to keep doing that, keep playing it, keep getting those reps because you only get better by doing it.

On whether he expects more pressure from the edge coming out of the bye week

Yeah, absolutely. And I think those guys just continue to work. They did a great job in the bye week of getting their bodies right.

And mentally, when they were practicing and doing things, being completely engaged to get better and really working on their weaknesses. We really talked about this week, that choosing difficult, right? That you can choose the path of easy or you can choose worth it.

And you know, when you look back 10 years from now, did you choose easy and just go through the motions, or on that day that you didn’t feel like it, did you choose what’s worth it to get better? And those guys last week chose the worth it path and we just gotta keep doing it as we go through this week.

On the impact of the interior defensive line

Yeah, they’re guys that they do all the dirty work, like you’re saying, you know, Trey Pierce, Damon Payne, Rayshawn Benny, Enow Etta, Tre Williams, and all of them play within the 28 to 38 reps a game. So they all play, and they all play a lot. They all provide depth.

They all provide value. They all play really good, and it’s hard to run the ball against them. You know, they’re all big bodies, all over 300 something pounds, and they all play physical.

So it’s been great. And then I think we’ll slowly get Ike Iwunnah back is gonna help too. So that’s gonna give us six guys in the middle that we can continue to, you know, stuff the middle with.

On Dominic Zvada connecting on field goals

The confidence is back. He’s completely back in his bag, and you can see it the way he walks around.

And like I said, I don’t really talk to Dom if he misses a kick. I’m never really ever gonna talk to a kicker. I don’t know what to say besides make the kick.

So I don’t think that coaching point’s gonna be very good. So I stay away from coaching the kicker, but he’s locked in and from practice he’s been doing the same thing.

On Zvada’s track record impact his decision making

Yeah, no, I fully trust him. Understanding those moments that he’s gonna do, you know, make the balls, make the kicks for the team. So there’s no second thought on anything there.

On whether anyone has been emerging at returner

Yeah, Jamar Browder’s a guy, he’s a bigger guy, but he’s got really long speed and he hits it really hard. So we’ve also got Jordan Marshall there, but he’s so valuable as the other running back. But Jamar’s a guy that we’ve done that with.

But in the punt return game, it’s been Samaj and Andrew Marsh.

On what concerns him about Wisconsin

I mean, the tradition of the program, physical, they’re always physical, they’re always tough, hard nose. You start on offense with the quarterback, Billy. It could be Billy, it could be the O’Neal kid, and both those guys are good players.

You know, Billy’s more of the drop-back passer that can scramble and run. I know he’s been banged up, but I’m sure he’ll be healthy and ready to go. They’ve got a really good receiver that, unfortunately, he came from that other school down South.

But he’s a good player. Ballard, he’s a really good player. He makes plays for them.

And the run game is the run game of Wisconsin. They always want to be big and physical up front. So they’re going to try to control the clock, shift motion, create different formations to get eye candy, to really confuse you.

So we’ve got to do a great job with eye discipline. And then defensively, just a sound defense that plays physical up front. And then the back end, they got a corner Hillman, who, I think two years ago, led the country in picks.

So a really good player. And as a team, they play really good sound defense. So we just got to do a really good job and be us and play physical.

On how to light the fire coming off a bye week

You know what, what I’ve learned here is that when you’re at Michigan, you are everybody’s biggest game. And if you have to get up to go play at home, if there’s got to be a pump up speech, which I got a bunch, and I’ll definitely be hyped up by the time we get to that. But like, if you don’t understand what the goals and all the things that are out in front of us, you’re 1-0 in the Big 10.

You’re in a great place. You have everything in front of you. You know, my job right now is to make sure that we’re healthy, playing it out right, get us mentally ready to go.

But there’s not much else you got to say. I think we have great leaders. Our captains are so good of policing the team and understanding what we have to do, but our kids just understand what the goals are at hand.

And I don’t know what the team meetings were when Biff was there, but I heard they were wild. We had a good one, my first one back. So we’ll just continue to pound in the fact of attacking the difficult.

You know, don’t choose the easy path, choose what’s worth it, so that we can be successful at the end of the year.