Sherrone Moore shuts down negative questions from media following disappointing loss to Indiana
Michigan's 2024 college football season obviously isn't going as well as anyone in or around the organization had hoped. The team still ranks outside the Top 100 in several critical offensive categories. The defense continues to give up far too many explosive plays. However, it's clear that the team has not quit on Sherrone Moore […]
Michigan's 2024 college football season obviously isn't going as well as anyone in or around the organization had hoped. The team still ranks outside the Top 100 in several critical offensive categories. The defense continues to give up far too many explosive plays. However, it's clear that the team has not quit on Sherrone Moore and his coaching staff despite taking their fourth loss of the season on Saturday.
Why might that be?
It's because Sherrone Moore clearly has his players' backs. And that showed up consistently throughout the post-game press conference following the 20-15 loss to the Hoosiers.
Unfortunately the majority of the on-site media members covering Michigan spent the post-game interview trying to get hugely negative responses out of Coach Moore, but he chose to to shut those down. He was asked multiple leading questions fishing for failures, but Moore just focused on the positives:
"Yeah, we're just going to keep working on it. We'll watch the film and continue firing away. I'm just proud of the way our guys fought. In a game like that you can easily lay down and our guys went to the last second to go fight. So, I'm proud of the team, and proud of what they did."
It wasn't all smiles and rainbows from Coach Moore, as he offered fair criticisms on several players, his quarterbacks included, but also made sure that every one of his players and media member understood that he believed in and was proud of his team.
The unnecessarily negative questions reached their peak when one media member asked if expectations were "set too high" for Michigan coming into the 2024 season. Moore stressed that he, his players, and coaches will always expect and strive for the same national championship standard set just a season ago:
"I think every year we're going to expect the same standard. And our job is to go try to meet it. We're Michigan. And we're going to continue to fight. We're going to continue grind, to get better. So yeah, the loss column is what it is right now and nobody likes it. Nobody likes it. We hate it. The kids don't like it. The coaches don't like it. And we work as much as anyone. Those [players] are hurting more than anybody in the world, so our job as coaches is to continue to lift them up. And continue their spirits. And make sure they're in the right place. And same thing with the coaches."
Sherrone Moore is most definitely imperfect in year one as a head coach. He made some questionable decisions down the stretch against Indiana on Saturday. He's made some odd personnel decisions (especially with his quarterbacks) throughout this season. But the one thing he absolutely does well is build relationships with his players.
This shows up in how his players talk about and with him in post-game and in-game environments. It shows up on the recruiting trail as Moore continues to find victories there despite lackluster on-field results. Moore is clearly fed up with negative discourse. He just wants to put his head down, get back to work, and continue improving a Michigan team that is still quite inexperienced under the wings of his leadership.
We'll see if Michigan continues to take the necessary and critical steps to improve overall, but Moore has clearly earned the undying respect of his team and staff. It might be time for us all to step back and just let him execute the rebuild strategy for Michigan's future as this season should have been perceived to be in the first place.
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