Sherrone Moore offers Rod Moore injury update

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore provided the latest injury update on defensive back Rod Moore and whether or not he could be back.

The head coach remained hopeful the Wolverines’ defender would return this season. The good news is, Rod Moore is progressing well.

Whether that means he;ll suit up though is a discussion for another day.

“We’ll see. He’s doing great though,” Sherrone Moore said if Rod Moore would be back for the season. “He’s doing great and his recovery is ahead of schedule. We’re just super excited it went the way it went, we can handle it and super excited for him. And we’ll see what happens.”

Rod Moore went down with a torn ACL during spring practice.

He was set to enter his fourth season at Michigan and was a starter each of the past three seasons. He earned first team All-Big Ten honors this past season to finish with 38 tackles, two interceptions and three passes defended.

It’s a big blow for a Wolverines team that is coming off of a national championship in 2023. The defense played a major part in that as Michigan ranked No. 1 in both total defense and scoring defense. 

The secondary allowed just 157 passing yards per game to rank second in the country and recorded 18 total interceptions. The Wolverines already lost cornerback Mike Sainristil (six INTs) and safety Keon Sabb, and the injury to Moore takes away another experienced player. 

Cornerback Will Johnson (four INTs) will aim to step up as the leader for the secondary as a whole, but the safety position now has a lot of questions heading into the season.

As a member of the Class of 2021, Moore was a three-star recruit out of Clayton (Ohio) Northmont, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 16 overall prospect in the state, the No. 35 safety in the class and the No. 483 overall prospect in the class.

Michigan defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator LaMar Morgan said Moore remained engaged and been helping him coach.

“He got injured. Let me talk about Rod real quick,” Morgan said April 10. “The guy gets injured; the next day he’s the first guy in the front seat in every meeting. He hasn’t missed anything; he’s asking questions. He’s unbelievable. That’s the culture that we have here.

“It’s hard to miss somebody like that — it’s really hard to get over it — and right now we’re just trying to be with him at every turn. Whenever he needs to get the surgery, we’ll all be behind him, the whole program. Everybody’s excited about that.”