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Michigan coach Sherrone Moore explains several decisions in 20-15 loss to IU

Chris Balasby: Chris Balas11/10/24Balas_Wolverine
Michigan Wolverines football head coach Sherone Moore is the second-youngest head coach in the Big Ten. (Photo by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Michigan Wolverines football head coach Sherone Moore is the second-youngest head coach in the Big Ten. (Photo by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Michigan missed several opportunities offensively in a 20-15 loss at Indiana, the Wolverines’ fifth of the year against five wins, finishing with only 206 total yards. They had a chance to cut a 17-3 lead to 17-10 after Zeke Berry’s early third quarter interception inside the 10 but had to settle for a short Dominic Zvada field goal after some questionable play calling.

The Wolverines ran reserve Benjamin Hall into the pile for no gain on first down, Donovan Edwards for four on second, and Alex Orji for no gain on third to set up the chip shot. He opted against going for the score to cut it to a one-touchdown game, keeping it a two-score edge.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to go execute. We didn’t execute at a high level,” Moore sai. “There were some twists, some movements, some zone runs that we didn’t pick up. It was one guy here, one guy there, but that was the story when you look back at the iPad … that’s what it was. We’ve got to be better.”

So, too, do the play callers. The Wolverines scored only one touchdown, settling for field goals on two other drives. Twice they had it first and goal from the 7 in. Both times, they wasted a down with Hall. 

The Michigan play callers also went to the Orji package a few times with no rhyme nor reason, when everyone knew he’d run or after one of Davis Warren’s decent plays. One resulted in a first down fumble near midfield when the Wolverines had momentum. Though it was obvious, Moore challenged anyway. Some believed he was looking for a targeting call, but that wasn’t it.

“I had gotten the word buzzing down that possibly the knee would have been down,” he said. “I wanted to challenge … again, fighting for my kids. That’s what that was.”

What it became was a wasted timeout. Replay showed immediately the ball came out before he was down, and the Michigan defense took the field.

Finally, Moore wasted at least 20 seconds at the end of the game when he still had three timeouts left but let the clock run after IU’s first down running play. It went down to 53 seconds before he finally used it … it was moot point, regardless, since the Hoosiers picked up a first down on the next play. 

Still, he was asked about the lack of awareness on the series. 

“[I was] just talking about conversations of what the play call was going to be; what we were going to do,” Moore said. “That’s where that all came from.”

Michigan has a bye week before hosting Northwestern Nov. 23.

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