Sherrone Moore wears blue-collar jacket to press conference again: 'I guess it worked, huh?'

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Sherrone Moore made a statement in his press conference last Monday, coming off a 31-13 loss to USC. He wore a blue-collar jacket with his name, ‘Sherrone,’ on it — one customary for Michigan football coaches and players since early in the Jim Harbaugh days — to show his team that it’s time to get “back to work.”

Stepping up to the podium Monday morning, following a 24-7 win over Washington, Moore felt validated in his message to the team and outside world. Michigan went back to work and picked up one of the biggest victories of his 20-game tenure, using big plays in the second half to surge past the Huskies.

“We’re back,” Moore said before his press conference began, tapping his jacket. “I guess it worked, huh?”

College football fans had fun with Moore’s attempt to match his outfit to his message. Among the memes created using AI-generated photos were pictures of Moore at a press conference wearing an astronaut’s suit and chef’s whites.

“As a program, we have to take small steps before we can make giant leaps,” the astronaut photo captain read.

“That’s why I am wearing chef whites, to remind the team and fans to just keep calm and let me cook,” the caption with the chef costume read.

Moore claimed he didn’t see any of the memes.

“No, I heard about them [though],” the Michigan coach said. “That’s pretty funny. It’s all good.

“I’m just concerned with winning, so it doesn’t matter.”

Michigan did just that against the Huskies and still has its sights set on the College Football Playoff with a 5-2 record heading into this weekend’s game at Michigan State.

Moore said he doesn’t derive satisfaction from proving the “doubters” wrong.

“Nah, I really don’t care about the critics,” Moore said. “But it is kind of cold outside, so having a jacket is nice when it does get cold, because I get here pretty early, about 5, 5:30 in the morning. Real feel was 43, so it’s really nice to have a jacket.”

Michigan is heading to East Lansing to play the Spartans in what is the home team’s biggest game of the season every year. There are extra curriculars that often happen in this series, including unprovoked MSU players ‘assaulting’ Michigan defensive backs Ja’Den McBurrows and Gemon Green in the tunnel after the game in 2022, but Moore said his team has to keep its eye on the prize — winning and keeping the Paul Bunyan Trophy in Ann Arbor for the fifth straight year.

“None of that helps you win the game,” Moore said. “It actually takes away the energy from you winning the game. All we have to do is rinse, repeat.

“But urgency is the key word right now — urgency in everything we do. Urgency in the detail, urgency in us going to class, making sure everything’s aligned perfectly for us to win this game. We can’t worry about the past, but we can learn from it and learn about those things. So, we’re just going to continue to harp on that all of that stuff doesn’t matter and just continue to work on the things we need to do to win the game.”

That’s Michigan’s message going forward, too, regardless of opponent.

“The whole year, every game we go into … complacency will take away your edge,” The Michigan coach said. “And if you get complacent, you get happy … you can be happy about the win, but you can’t be complacent about it, you can’t be satisfied with it. We’ve got to stay hungry, we’ve got to stay starving throughout this process — and that’s what we’re going to do.”