Everything Michigan HC Sherrone Moore said during his pre-Oklahoma press conference

On his thoughts on the Oklahoma game

Yeah, I mean, really good football team, complete football team in all three phases. Return game, they’re dangerous. Offensively, obviously, it all starts with Mateer, the quarterback, and what he does. And they’ve got a bevy of running backs, and Burks on the outside that plays extremely well. They move the tight end, who was that, linebacker, Kanek, to tight end, number 12. And he can find space, he can find areas, and they do a good job of spreading the field and playing with a little tempo, playing not with tempo. So really good. And defensively, they’re fast. I know Brent, I’ve known Brent, obviously, for a long time. And much respect to a lot of people on their staff. You know, Brent was my defensive coordinator. Kevin Wilson’s on their staff now. He was my offensive coordinator. Joe Jon Finley’s the tight end coach. He was the tight end when I was playing there. DeMarco Murray was the running back when I was there, and he’s a running back coach. So a lot of people that I know on the staff and have a lot of respect for. It’s a great town, great place, but this is about the kids. It’s not about me. It’s not about any return to home for me. It’s about the players on our football team going to go try to win a game.

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On Marlin Klein’s aggressiveness

Yeah. I think Marlin has just worked himself into the position that he is in now. He’s been in a room with guys like Luke Schoonmaker, Eric All, Joel Honigford, you know, Colston Loveland. He’s been in the room with some NFL tight ends and guys that have done it at a high level. So he’s watched it, even including Max. He’s watched the work, watched how you’re supposed to do it, and he’s just gotten better and better, and really proud of what he’s done, especially improving his ability as a pass catcher. We knew he could block, and he’s still got stuff to work on in that phase. You don’t want to ask Coach Casula about that right now. He’s grinding on them on that, but there’s a standard and level you want, but he’s still played really well in the run game. So to watch him perform the way he did on Saturday is what we expected, you know, what we expected for him to do and how he wanted to perform on Saturday.

On the play action when backed up in their own end

Sweet play, right? That’s it. Just the way we want to call it, you know, and when you have those looks in certain areas of the field and you can do that and it’s just the defense gives you those looks, then you can run those type of plays. So great play design by Chip and the staff, and that’s who to call it.

On the timeline for Jaishawn Barham’s appeal

Yeah, literally just heard about it. So it was upheld, and we don’t agree with it. Tony (Petitti) doesn’t agree with it. A.J. doesn’t agree with it. But it’s a rule we have to get changed, and we have to look at in college football just for the caudillo, the game, you know, the toughness of the game and how you want to teach tackling and how you want to teach guys that are 6’3″, tackling a guy that’s 5’8″. He lowers his head, and it might be even worse. He tried to duck it to the side, and the guy spins, he misses. So there’s a way that we have to teach guys how to tackle and what to do. And there was a clear shot earlier in the game where we had a clear shot, and he saw it right through the guy and avoided it. He took one step, and that’s what happened. So that was the ruling, and we’ll continue to work and fight for the game, but completely disagree with it, as did Tony and A.J. with the Big Ten. But we got to move on. So we got the first half without him, and those guys will step up. Ernie played a heck of a game, so it was fun to watch Ernie. He had eight tackles, and he was all over the field, a leader on the team. And when Jimmy Rolder came in, it was as violent as that, and he played physical and fast. And then, obviously, Cole Sullivan came in and made an impact. So there’s three guys there that we feel really good about, along with Troy Bowles and Chase Taylor. So it’s a deep room, and we’re happy we got those guys. But, obviously, Jaishawn’s an impact guy that we’ll have ready for the second half.

On the last time being back in Norman

Yeah, it’s about my players. So there’s no, like, emotional attachment to it. But I’m emotionally attached to the players that are at Michigan. They’re my kids. I see Gio back there. I’ve known him since he was, like, 15 years old, even though he looks 30. And, yeah, Gio. I’m talking about Gio. But, like, he’s like one of my kids. So these guys are who I’m emotionally attached to more than anything. And it’s going to be an awesome atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great town. And, obviously, I got my degree from there, and there’s a love there. But, like, these kids are what’s special to me. So that’s all I’m worried about. I’m worried about our players getting our team ready to go play this game.

On what he can tell the players about the experience in Norman

Yeah, I mean, it’s just going to be loud. It’s a night game in an SEC environment, so it’s going to be loud. But we’ve played in loud environments, so we’re going to have to prepare for the noise.

On whether he plans to have any communication with the Oklahoma staff this week

No, absolutely not.

On the benefits of going up-tempo with this offense

Yeah, I mean, I think just any change of pace that you can have in tempo is going to help. You know, we always want to be the aggressor and keep defenses off track and on their heels. So we want to dictate the tempo however it is, whether it’s jumping to the ball as fast as we can, spreading people out, moving people around, whatever it is. We want to be able to dictate tempo. And that’s something Chip has done with a lot of success in the past, and we want to continue to do that.

On how much going tempo can be attributed to Bryce Underwood

Yeah, it’s all attributed to what the quarterback can handle. So if the quarterback can’t handle it, we can’t do it. So he can do a lot. He’s very mature for his age, but it’s not only him, it’s everybody else on the offense.

On anything he has picked up from Bob Stoops’ coaching philosophy

Yeah, I mean, Bob is like, he’s one of the biggest mentors I have. So there’s a lot of respect and love that I have for Coach Stoops. And, you know, I’ll see those guys before the game. There’s no, like, love lost or anything. I’ll see all of them before the game and say hi to them because, you know, there’s memories there. But, you know, Bob, coaching players hard and loving them is one of the things I remember Bob telling me all the time. And just the enjoyment for the game. You always have to love the game. You know, when you stop loving and when you start learning is when you should probably stop coaching. He was always very humble and always wanted to learn no matter who it was from. So that’s something I take from him. I think as much as people think you know, you don’t really know as much as you actually think. So you’ve got to continue learning this game.

On the velocity of Underwood’s passes being an adjustment for the receivers

I don’t, you know, I have to ask them. I try not to catch any footballs from Bryce or any quarterbacks anymore because I’ve done enough of that, like when I was coaching tight ends and all that. But I think he throws enough velocity, but he also has enough touch where it’s not always like that. They’ve done a good job, it seems like, throughout camp and throughout spring ball. They figured out, they’ve got the rhythm and there’s obviously drops that we’ve got to get corrected and things we’ve got to do. But that’s all route spacing and timing and footwork and all those things. So we’ll get those done.

On whether Underwood made a throw that impressed him the most

I mean, I’ve seen those throws live, but to watch him do it in the game was awesome. It was cool to see him do it in the game and to watch his poise throughout the game. I mean, it was really just, it was just that. It was just the poise that he had throughout the game. Not just on the field, but off the field, you know, watching the iPads and making the adjustments and talking to the team. And the kid is just cerebral, and I just tell him not to throw any more blocks.

On whether the ball to Klein was his favorite Underwood pass

I like them all. I’ve seen him throw every type of throw, so there’s not like a favorite anymore. So, but I mean, that was the type of ball you had to throw or else it wasn’t getting completed. So it was cool to see.

On what it means for Michigan and CFB to have a match-up with Oklahoma

Yeah, I think it’s necessary. I think you have to have match-ups like this in college football. Two blue blood programs going at it on a national stage. It’s college game day. It’s why you come to Michigan. It’s probably why you go to Oklahoma, right? I mean, those are the type of games that you want to be a part of and games you remember. Obviously, every game is important. But yeah, playing against Oklahoma, one of the winningest programs in college football, is huge to us. And to have Michigan and Oklahoma helmets on the field at the same time, what is it, the second time we’ve played? So it’s going to be a cool match-up to be a part of.

On where he’s seen the most growth between week one and week two historically

Yeah, I mean, that is the biggest growth you have, is from week one to week two. And it’s multiple years. It’s different things. When I was coaching the O-line, we tried to focus on one thing that week that we’d get better the next week. When I was coaching tight ends, it was the same. When I was the offensive coordinator, it was the same. So it was just different themes throughout the week. And we’ll have our themes and what exactly we want to get better at. But I think you’re always chasing perfection, right? So you don’t really know exactly. There’s not one thing that, as a person, you want to get better at everything. I want to get better at everything as a coach. But our players will, we’ll give them all specific goals, what they want to get better at. And as a team, continue to trust the process, continue to be excited and be connected together. And that’s going to help us win ball games.

On John Mateer and the Oklahoma offense

I mean, he’s an electric quarterback now. I mean, he’s a gunslinger. People keep comparing him to Baker Mayfield because he’s a shorter quarterback, but he’s got his differences. He’s a quarterback that can make every throw, off-schedule throws. He can run the football. So we got to do a good job of keeping him off schedule, but not making sure that he can’t just have free windows and covering guys up when they’re downfield, because they do have speed on the outside lanes to run, and the O-line is good. So we just got to do it. We just have a great plan to keep him rattled and change the picture on him. So it’s not, he’s not comfortable. I know they’re going to be fast. I know they’re going to be physical. They’re going to be fundamentally sound and they’re going to try to tackle as well as they can. So, but our job is to try to make a miss and be explosive on offense. So we’ve got to do things to counteract his thought process and how he puts together the plan. So that’s what we’re going to attempt to do.

On what position group has to play the best to take off the most pressure on Underwood

Yeah. All of them. They all got to play good. But you guys know me. It’s going to be the O-line. You know, they got to set the tone and I think they’ll be up for the challenge. To watch them game one was fun and to watch the 50-yard-plus run that Justice Haynes had. I mean, you look at that hole. It’s pretty big. So to watch them take the steps that they’ve had, because I know they’ve been criticized and said, oh, they’re not as good as the 23-line. These guys are working their tails off to be really, really good. And the challenge has been set and they keep answering the bat to it. So I’m excited to watch them work this week and see what they do and watch our leaders really take the next step. But if the O-line plays how I think they will, we’ll have a good day.

On the biggest challenge for a young QB to go on the road and how to combat the noise

Yeah, just settling in the noise. At the end of the day, it’s noisy, but those fans aren’t playing. It’s the team that you’re playing across. So they can be as loud as they want. If you’re focused on the 10 guys that are with you and your job and what you have to do on that play, that’s all that matters. So we can’t worry about, we’re going to create noise. We got ways to create loud noises for our players that make it hard for them to communicate that they’ve got to speak really loud and they’ve got to do things to make sure they communicate to each other. So we’ll handle that piece. But within the moment is not get caught up in all the extra stuff. So just execute and do your job.

On Andrew Sprague’s status and the play of the tackles

Yeah, yeah, he was just cramping. So a little cramp, but he’s fine. Sprague is phenomenal, I love Sprague. Both those guys did well. I think they just continue to get better and moving Evan back to left was good and they’ll just continue to get better and we’ll put them in position to be successful.

On Hogan Hansen and Rod Moore’s status for Saturday

Yeah, Rod is, you know, I’d say questionable, possible. We’ll see how he feels and feel like Hogan’s probable. Feel like we got a auténtico good shot for him to play this weekend. So excited to get him back. We’ll get him practicing full speed again. And he’s been practicing full speed, getting contact, doing things. So, but we’ve been very cautious with all that. We don’t want to, you know, I’m not a doctor like I always say. So I let them handle that. But he’s been doing everything and feel like we got a great shot to get him to play this week.

On what went into coaching the first two games before the suspension

Yeah, just, you know, I don’t really want to talk about those. I just want to coach this game.

On whether he will talk about the interim head coach after the Oklahoma game

Yep.

On the freedom Underwood has pre-snap

Yeah, first road start. So it’s going to be loud. It’s going to be different for him. And we’ve had periods in camp to train him for stuff like this already. And we’ll do that all this week. So obviously it’s going to be loud. We’ve got to have different cadences ready for it. But for him, you know, we’ve got two veteran guys up front, too. So with Gio and Krip, that allows us a lot of liberty for them to handle a lot of things that need to be changed up front. But anything that we need him to communicate, we’ll see what he can handle and then go from there.

On what went into the decision to punt on fourth and short at midfield

Yeah, just the fact I felt like our defense was playing really well and we were up 14-0 at the time. So we were like at the minus 45, and it’s something like that. Yeah. And it’s like, well, then the ref spots it and it’s like fourth and two and then they move the stick and it’s fourth and one. I’m like, you know what? Our defense just had a three-and-out and then a four-and-out. Let me punt this and let the defense stop them again, which they did. So that’s, you know, it’s a field position game, too. You can’t always go for it. I will sometimes. You know, you guys have seen that. And we’re pretty aggressive most of the time. But I think there’s evident flows of the game where you got to be smart on how you make those calls.

On the guard position and whether Blake Frazier will see time there

Yeah, we just like him at tackle. Both of them played well. I think Brady played a little bit better, but both of them played well. Excited to watch them work this week. But yeah, Blake will for sure play tackle.

On the importance of having a quick strike offense

Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, just one, the confidence for Chip to make that call and Bryce to make the throw and Channing to make the catch. But that’s something they’ve executed in camp over and over and over. So what we like to call banked reps, you know, reps that are just put in the bank that you keep executing, that you keep rolling, that you know they’ve completed. And, you know, it kind of goes along with the question we had earlier about the defensive structures. Like Wink’s defense isn’t very static. So we see a lot of movement, a lot. So that helps us prepare for what we’re going to see throughout the season.

On how long it takes for an offensive line to gel

Yeah, I mean, I think it’s different every year. I felt like even at 23, it was like it took some time. But in 22, it was a little faster. So it feels like these guys got a good, you know, they’ve got a good feeling for how they’re all going to operate. But this week’s going to be huge on us, you know, just making sure we communicate, we do the right things. We, you know, we just coach each other, help each other to be better.