Sherrone Moore focused on the future after brutal Ohio State loss, but can he keep all his young Michigan Wolverines together?
Sherrone Moore just wants Michigan to get to 10 wins, then have his young players like Bryce Underwood, Andrew Marsh, Jordan Marshall, and more to work together to get better
The Michigan Wolverines’ unlikely streak of four wins against the Ohio State Buckeyes has come to an end. A 27-9 loss at home stings for Michigan fans, the players, and coaches. Head coach Sherrone Moore owned up to some of the many mistakes that his team made that led to such a brutal loss, but tried his best to focus on the bright future ahead with such a young team in place. However, in this modern era of college football where players often leave when the grass looks greener, can he keep all his young developing stars together?
Sherrone Moore focused on getting to 10 wins for Michigan and bright future
It’s not what fans likely want to hear right now, but Sherrone Moore tried to stay positive after the extremely disappointing loss to Ohio State on Saturday. When asked about what the team could learn from such a disastrous showing, this is what coach Moore had to say:
“We’ll look at this film and see [what we have to learn], but you know you don’t want this feeling again. 364 days a year, working, figuring out ways to win this game, along with all the other games we’re going to play, but we’ve got another game we’ve got to play after this. We’ve got to regroup and try to get 10 wins. That will be a huge success for this team to get 10 wins with such a young team. Starting six freshman. True freshman quarterback. Redshirt freshman running back. Three redshirt freshman offensive linemen. so we’ve got to regroup as a team and make sure we do that.”
Coach Moore was clearly emotional throughout his press conference. He — along with the entire Michigan fan base and players — never want to have this feeling again. And it’s true, Michigan has an extremely young core of players to lean on, and getting to 10 wins (and beyond) all begins and ends with quarterback Bryce Underwood moving forward. Moore was asked about what he wants his young quarterback to take away from the loss:
“I just want [Bryce Underwood] to feel the feeling he has right now. That’s really the biggest thing. That will motivate him enough to be as good as he can be. That stinging feeling he has, as well as all the players and coaches, embrace that feeling that you have of that loss and it’ll motivate you throughout the year.”
Underwood and many players were obviously devastated before they even got off the field on Saturday, but Moore wants to focus on taking that energy and diverting it towards getting better, and coming together, not pointing fingers right now when it would be easy to do so:
“Ending with nine wins is obviously better than we were last year, but we already know our goals, right? 9 wins is great a lot of places, but we want to be better. But really, to [the players, my message] was to stay together because it’s so easy for you to get pulled apart. We’re not going to point fingers. We’re going to figure out what we need to fix, what we need to attack, and we’re going to do it together.”
The problem in this modern era of college football is actually just simply staying together. Michigan has done a much better job than most programs of keeping their rosters together, but can coach Moore and company actually do that now? The focus now until the end of the transfer portal window in January needs to be about retaining quarterback Bryce Underwood, despite the embarrassing offensive game plans and development this season. If Underwood stays, then the rest are obviously much more likely to hold.
Still, there will be teams that come tampering. Underwood was clearly the most talented freshman quarterback in the country. Andrew Marsh was obviously the most talented freshman wide receiver in the country seeing as he’s broken out for over 650 yards and four scores since the beginning of October alone. Jordan Marshall is all in with Michigan as a young leader of the team, so his voice should be an impactful one in making sure the young offensive line and other underclassmen all stay together and focused on a brighter future — fans don’t have to worry about him going anywhere.
Hopefully Underwood, Marsh, and Marshall all come together and lead Michigan towards a brighter future together, but Wolverines fans need to monitor their young core closely over the next several weeks. This season’s offensive showing — and frankly entire game plan — was absolutely embarrassing for much of the season still. Yes, they were better than the abysmal 2024 season, but ranking outside the top 50 in EPA and yards per drop back among many other stats with as much talent as they have was certainly disappointing. Hopefully young players don’t look to leave for greener offensive grass.
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