Sherrone Moore seeks undefeated Michigan season, not just in 2025, but every year

USA Today

a day ago

Despite being the protégé to Jim Harbaugh, Sherrone Moore isn't getting the same love as, say, David Shaw had after Harbaugh left Stanford. Yes, the Cardinal still thrived in the immediate aftermath, but Shaw also still had Andrew Luck to lead the charge on offense -- Moore wasn't dealt such a hand.
Yet, we see him recruiting at an elite level -- even better than Harbaugh -- while also getting wins over Michigan's rivals, even in a year when it appeared the Wolverines had no business doing so.
Moore may have led Michigan to an 8-5 record in 2024, but that's not his intent. With his recruiting and transfer portal prowess, he's looking to build a monster. And though he doesn't get the same benefit of the doubt as, say, Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame, or Kalen DeBoer at Alabama, he's seeking excellence commensurate with the maize and blue's ceiling.
"I'm hell-bent on being undefeated every year. That's the standard," Moore said at Big Ten media days. "You don't want to lose any game. That's the goal (as a coach. You want to be undefeated every year. So for me, yeah, the standard is not 8-5, and the goal is to win every single game and to be successful and hoist the trophy again. Because once you win one, you get greedy. You want to win another. And that's the goal over here.
"But we know it's going to take work, so can't be worried about the past, can't be worried about tomorrow. Because they don't owe you anything, so all we're worried about is today, and that's all we're going to do is work to be the best version of ourselves today."
Michigan finished the season better than any team not named Ohio State in 2024 -- and that's because it beat the eventual national champion Buckeyes. That carried over to the ReliaQuest Bowl, where the Wolverines shocked Alabama -- a team bringing in all of its starters -- despite being significantly shorthanded.
It was a reflection of the head coach, as his confidence going into those weeks permeated through the locker room (though that's not something he'd admit). He never lost his team, and they continued to believe, and it showed on the field.
Moore recounted the killer instinct that his Wolverines had and why they were able to overachieve compared to expectations.
"Just the instilled confidence that they have and the confidence that they got in those games. It wasn't a magic potion or something that we did, and it wasn't the way we changed practice because we practiced the same," Moore said. "But the energy, the focus, the level of confidence that they had in those games was definitely different than the others, and we'll just continue to apply it like that and just work. The leaders on the team saw it. The leaders on the team see it and continue to let our leaders be leaders and empower them as much as possible to make sure we continue that."
Despite the late-season success and Moore's 4-0 record as Michigan's interim coach in 2023, he's not given much of a chance, according to many. In Big Ten head coaching rankings, CBS Sports listed Moore as the 15th-best in the conference, even though he's one of only two in the Big Ten who have beaten a Ryan Day-led Ohio State team (Dan Lanning is the other, though he also lost to the Buckeyes). But if his closing statement in 2024 is any indication, that ranking, and his national perception, will be changing in short order.