Michigan football injury report: Rod Moore expected back this week (again), the OL, more

Michigan safety Rod Moore was “probable” against CMU Saturday, head coach Sherrone Moore reported last Monday, but he didn’t play. This week, interim head coach Biff Poggi gave an update on the grad senior safety.

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“Rod is really progressing well and could have played this past week, but I really think you’ll see Rod this week in Nebraska,” Poggi said, joking he and his player were “going to arm wrestle after this” about the decision to hold him out.

The big question — how effective can he be given he’s been off for over a year? Poggi believes the intangibles alone will provide a huge boost.

“Rod has maybe one of the highest football IQs in the building,” he praised. “Now, of course there’s rust to knock off, right? But we’ll try not to put him in situations where we’ll manage reps and all those kinds of things because listen — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We don’t ever want to put him in a situation that’s bad for him, certainly, physically or emotionally or mentally.

“But I’ve got to tell you something. If you had to take a guy that hadn’t played a while and throw him in a game, it’d be that dude.”

As for the Michigan offensive guards, some good news, some not so good. Starting left guard Giovanni El-Hadi is “going to be a little bit longer, but will return … a couple weeks,” Poggi said, but better news on right guard Brady Norton.

“We think there’s a real good chance Brady will be back and practicing this week,” he said.

He and Michigan left guard Nathan Efobi will have competition from redshirt frosh Jake Guarnera, who played well in his first start at right guard. Poggi confirmed there would be three guys essentially battling for two spots that were interchangeable.

“He played awesome,” Poggi said. “He’s a strong, smart, physical kid and he played really well. The guards can play all the guard positions. We’ll have to wait and see how practice goes for who’s going to be starting, but Jake played very well.

“I think the offensive line played well [overall], and It’s going to be obviously a much tougher test. I’m sure you guys got a chance to look at the film, but they’ve got a bunch of guys. But yes, we’re going to stick with that and figure out probably Thursday or so who’s going to be able to start there.”

Finally, Michigan senior edge TJ Guy is healthy and didn’t play simply because of the matchup Saturday, Poggi insisted. He’ll play Saturday at Nebraska.