Sherrone Moore looks back on Michigan's game-tying drive in Rose Bowl vs. Alabama

Sherrone Moore will never forget Michigan’s game-tying drive against Alabama in the Rose Bowl. Of course, the Wolverines went on to win the game and eventually the national championship against Washington.

Now, Moore can reflect on that moment while looking ahead as the team’s new head coach. But the Wolverines got the proverbial monkey off their backs by winning it all last season.

It’ll be a moment forever etched in history.

“Yeah, two instances will always be held forever in my mind,” Moore told Joel Klatt on Big Noon Conversations. “Really three, so before that drive, I’m never really nervous to call a drive, never really anxious. That drive I was looking around, I looked at the clock, I looked at the time, I said this is like the most important drive in Michigan football history. That’s how I thought of it and looked up to the sky and asked my grandfather ‘Hey, Pops, need some help.’ ….

“And I’ll never forget I was walking and all the linemen are strapping their helmets on and JJ (McCarthy) comes up to me and said ‘hey pops, we got you.’ And I was like, oh yeah, we’re gonna go score.”

Of course Michigan scored and Moore’s play calls were always in his mind. But it all came down to a fourth down call to keep the drive alive. 

“We’ve been moving the ball a little bit but not as much and that drive we went down and scored,” Moore said. “On the fourth and two call, we ran it, had play action on third and two with (Alex) Orji in the game, didn’t work out. They had to cover it and it was fourth and two and I knew coach was gonna say go for it … I knew what we were gonna do … And then (Alabama was) calling our run and then Blake (Corum) pops open and goes down the field and Roman (Wilson) gets the block in the back, so guys are like ‘oh no,’…  

“(But) we got the first down called the run-option with JJ. We haven’t ran that all game. I was like okay, this is the time we came back to a play action that we actually called earlier in the game, but the route spacing wasn’t right.” 

That’s when Moore described the last second adjustment the ultimately led to the score.

“We fixed it on the sideline and then Roman popped open and made an incredible catch, made the guy miss as he landed,” Moore said. “And then the play that I called second I was actually going to call first, but we got a little closer and then all of a sudden called the play action to Roman and he slipped out and it was a touchdown. So that drive will hold true forever in my mind of how I found the time and what happened (as a result).”