Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore took to the podium at Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon and discussed the Wolverines and their upcoming 2025 season.
Here’s everything Moore said.
SHERRONE MOORE: Extremely excited to represent the University of Michigan here in Las Vegas at this great venue. The hospitality has been amazing, so really appreciate it.
I would first like to thank Commissioner Petitti for all the work he’s done for us as coaches and keeping us aligned. A special shout-out
to A.J. Edds and what he has done behind the scenes. Not enough credit goes for him and what he does to support us as coaches.
Next, I thank our athletic director, Warde Manuel. Been here, University of Michigan, eight years, and the vision, the alignment, the things he’s done for me personally, our program, our student-athletes, and continues to do for me as the head coach in our program in this second year has been outstanding.
Our coaches, our staff at the University of Michigan, so blessed to have you guys. Appreciate all the hard work you’ve done for us and you continue to do every single day.
Last, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the most important people in our program, our players. You guys know how much I care about you and love you. Thank you for all the hard work you guys do, all the things you do for our program, for the university, and continue to do for our program.
Special shout-out to the three young men that we brought here. First, starting off with returning captain Max Bredeson, full-back, utility, heartbeat of our football team, tone-setter for our football team. Continues to do that on and off the field for us.
Next Derrick Moore, edge rusher, No. 8. Been an impact player since the day he stepped on campus. Continues to be a leader on and off the field.
Then, lastly, Earnest Hausmann, linebacker, No. 15. Talk about a selfless, disciplined young man that exemplifies everything we talk about when we talk about “team over me.”
I want to thank our players’ families, our coaches’ families. We’re very blessed to have the support of people in our program to help us on a day-to-day basis to make sure that we’re super successful not only physically, but mentally. Appreciate everything they’ve done for us.
We roll by this theory, “Don’t let a speed bump become a roadblock.” Last year we hit a couple of speed bumps, but he didn’t allow those to become roadblocks. We overcame a lot of adversity and had a successful end to the year, but really we’re not living on that. We know that’s done. We know that’s passed us, and our jobs now are to write a new story for what the University of Michigan and Team 146 is all about.
We’re really thrilled to be in the phase we’re at right now with our student-athletes. Ending our summer conditioning phase tomorrow morning. We fly tonight. Tomorrow morning we get there; 6:00 a.m. we have a conditioning test with our football team. They’re all going to pass it with flying colors, I know. Really excited for them and what they’ve done.
They’ve done a tremendous job changing their bodies, building a true team this offseason. Like I said, “team over me” has been our theme. Everything we’ve done is for the team, and the world we live in now with NIL and revenue sharing and the transfer portal and recruiting, it’s very easy to look at yourself and think about yourself and not think about the team.
I thought Bo said it the best, the team, the team, the team. We’ve really exemplified that in everything we’ve done this offseason. The work that our student-athletes have put in with Justin Tress, our strength staff and his staff. And from a nutrition standpoint, Abigail O’Connor and her staff and what they’ve done has been outstanding.
The poundage has been the greatest — not just how much they’ve gained but you talk about lean mass and fat mass they’ve lost is outstanding, and really excited to see that, put that on display here on the football field come next week.
We’re going to continue to push ourselves to reach the standard of who we are. When you come to the University of Michigan, it’s not just about being a great football player. It’s about being a great person, a great man, great athlete, great student.
We push ourselves. We hold ourselves to a high standard when it comes to academics, and we’ll continue to do that. Our student-athletes have done that at an elite rate. Not only in football, but in all sports. I get the chance to sit alongside some of my great colleagues like Dusty May and Kim Barnes Arico, Brandon Naurato, Sean Bormet, a couple of our head coaches in our program. It just talks about what the University of Michigan is all about, and super proud to be a part of this great university.
We’re in a new stage. Team 146 is excited and ready to go. We’re geared up. Like I said, we got the conditioning test tomorrow. Next Wednesday we kick off camp, and we’re ready to put on a show.
Excited to take any questions.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. What are some of the hardest and most meaningful lessons you learned from last season going into this season, and how have you used that to hold a certain standard for the quarterback room going into this year?
SHERRONE MOORE: Yeah, I think lessons is the right word. We talked about that as a team continually that not losses but lessons. Take everything with a grain of salt. Make sure you attack every moment, but really it’s just stay in the moment. You can’t worry about what happened yesterday, and tomorrow is not owed to you. So everything we do is what we can do to get better now.
It’s not just the quarterback room. It’s every room. We’re a team. There’s not one person that wins or loses a game. It’s a team. For us we’ve done a really good job of being a cohesive unit, and like I said, “team over me” and gaining trust with each other and being arm-in-arm in this battle. I think as a team we just couldn’t be a better team this year.
Q. You’re going to be playing Oklahoma. Those two blue bloods have only met one time. What would that game mean for your team early in the season?
SHERRONE MOORE: Yeah, I think it’s going to be a game that’s going to be fun. It’s going to be our first away game for our team, so it’s going to be a test to see where we are, when we can overcome some adversity when we’re not in a comfortable environment.
It’s going to test us. It’s going to test the willpower of who we are and what we’re going to be, but it’s going to be a lot because it’s going to be the next game.
Hopefully you win the first game, and you can get that. That means you would be 2-0, and that’s really what it would mean for the team.
Q. Just wanted to get your thoughts on Bryce Underwood. What do you see in his development, and how do you see him being acclimated to the season coming up?
SHERRONE MOORE: Yeah, I think he’s grown every single day since he’s been on campus. He’s been with us since December. Continues to do everything he can to be, one, the best teammate he can be; two, to be the best student he can be; and then, three, to be the best football player that he can be and quarterback that he can be for our football team.
He does everything the right way. He makes sure that he attacks everything the best way. And I literally just got off the phone with him, calling me, asking me what time he has to be at the team meeting on Tuesday. So he wants to make sure he’s on time to do everything right.
He’s a great teammate, great kid, great young man. Jay and Beverly, his parents, have done an outstanding job raising him. I could say that for all our student-athletes at Michigan.
Q. You have a tight end go first round top 10. That’s pretty incredible. How do you look at that receiver room, and how have they met the standards this offseason?
SHERRONE MOORE: Yeah, I think, one, in the retention of our good players, but two, in the recruitment of players like Donaven McCulley, out of the transfer portal, who we think is going to be a great weapon for us, Andrew Marsh, a young guy who we think is going to be super dynamic, Jamar Browder, who is on campus, a big, tall, explosive, long receiver, and Jacob Washington in recruitment.
The retention of guys like Fred Moore and Semaj Morgan, I’Marion Stewart, Channing Goodwin, Kendrick Bell — the list keeps going — Peyton O’Leary, guys that have made plays for us. They’ve done a really good job of changing the mentality of that room and making sure what the standard is supposed to look like and continuing to raise it.
They had a great example in a guy like Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson. We feel really good about that room and continuing to work to make sure we take the standard to the next level.
Q. Back to the quarterback room, you talked about Bryce a second ago, but Mikey Keene has been a pretty productive quarterback. We’ve seen a lot of him at Fresno and UCF before that. I know he was hurt a little bit in spring. Tell us about the room. Keene, how viable is that if you have to go to him? Also, Chip Lindsey is your new offensive coordinator and what we might expect from him?
SHERRONE MOORE: Overall the room is awesome. I love those guys in the room as young men, first of all. You talk about Mikey, who did a study about snaps in college football, and he leads the team with 2,029 snaps in college football. That’s a lot of snaps in the game. So he’s a guy that’s done it, that has experienced it at a high level.
Bringing in Chip has been awesome. He’s an outstanding human being, a phenomenal coach, a great leader of men, and the guys want to play for him. From a knowledge standpoint and the things that he is going to give our offense and already has given our offense, it’s been outstanding and the things he’s given me. He’s a former head coach. He’s done it. He’s been through it. He’s seen it.
To be in that position and to be able to lean on somebody that’s been in my position before in college football has been huge for me.
