Michigan football TE expects ‘moderately pissed off’ response to Sherrone Moore suspension

ANN ARBOR – Michigan Wolverines junior tight end Zack Marshall was thrown into the fire last weekend at Oklahoma with senior captain Marlin Klein sidelined due to injury. Depth in the position group is a roster strength, but you still need to be ready when your number is called.

Marshall embodies that for the Wolverines and takes pride in doing whatever is asked of him during the week and on game day.

 One guy goes down, you want to be the guy who can literally do anything,” Marshall told reporters on Tuesday night. “Keep yourself versatile. You see Colston [Loveland] lining up in the backfield now for the Chicago Bears. You never know when people are going to ask you to do whatever. So I mean, you just want to be one of the next guys that can go in, whether playing in I-formation, if you have to play in an offset wing…you never know what you have to do. So be able to do it all.”

Michigan emphasizes cross-training its players in their position groups so they can do whatever is asked of them on the field. Marshall sees that woven into the program’s “all hands on deck” mentality.

 ”Intensity and versatility is one of the biggest things,” Marshall said. “We’re at this university because we can play darn good football, but [also] because we’re smart. We’re able to play multiple roles and able to be the person that Michigan needs you to be. That’s what we get told all the time.

“It’s not about anything other than the team, the team, the team. Be who Michigan needs you to be. So if Michigan needs me to be Max Bredeson‘s backup, Michigan needs me to be that. If it needs me to be Bryce Underwood‘s backup, darn it, I’ll play quarterback. I don’t care… I’ll go play defense if they ask me to do it.”

The program’s versatility and culture will be tested over the next two game days with Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore serving a two-game school-imposed suspenson as part of the advanced scouting sanctions with the NCAA. The first opponent, Central Michigan, should not provide a ton of resistance, but the Wolverines are going to treat it like it is the biggest game of the season.

And in a lot of ways, it is to this point.

 ”We’ve been told it matters,” Marshall said. “This game matters because it’s not just for us at this point. It’s for him. It’s a place that he coached at. It matters that much more because he’s not there. We know that it’s not going to feel right. So for us we have…I don’t want to say a fully angry mentality, but yeah, we’re not happy with it. We intend to have a moderately pissed off approach to this game.

“That’s what they’re going to get. Hopefully it translates to the scoreboard.”

Moore will be with Michigan this week before his suspension kicks in at midnight on Saturday and runs through midnight after the Nebraska game on Sept. 20. It will be a normal game week of preparation, but eventually they will turn things over to the coordinators and associate head coach Biff Poggi on Saturday’s wearing the main headset.

 ”We’ve have conversations in our meetings and offensive staff and tight end rooms,” Marshall said. “It’s something that we all feel. This isn’t going to be right when we run out of that tunnel. Right now it feels normal. We’re in the preparation stage, getting ready for the game. It’s going to all feel normal.

“The second that we get out on that field and you don’t see him do his pump up, you’re like, ‘Alright, that’s not right.’ The Big House doesn’t deserve not to have him there. We’re pretty angry about it.”

Once Moore is away from the program next week, prep will take on a different tone. But Marshall says the approach should stay as it has been.

 ”Preparation will be the same,” Marshall said. “We’re Michigan, we do things the same way with, without, or, I mean, we could have anybody as our head coach. Shoot, [a member of the media] could be our head coach and we’d do it the same way. We would prepare as hard as physically, as intensely as anyone.”