Sherrone Moore believes Michigan is 'not far' from Texas' level

Texas won the battle in the trenches and pummeled Michigan, 31-12, last weekend. The 19-point defeat marked Michigan’s first loss in 616 days. What’s more, the lopsided, top-10 matchup went down as the Wolverines’ first home loss in front of fans since the 2019 regular season finale against Ohio State.

There’s a different feeling in Schembechler Hall this week.

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The defending national champion Wolverines, who won all 15 of their games in 2023, are looking to bounce back after a letdown of a performance in The Big House.

“I think it can be just a blip,” said Sherrone Moore, who is in his first year as full-time head coach. “Guys are hurt, guys are stung, guys don’t feel happy, guys aren’t smiling and laughing. But now it’s our job to uplift them and and bring them back to the light of, ‘Hey, this happened. Now we got to see the mistakes, we got to fix the mistakes, we got attack the mistakes, and we got to get better from it.’

“We can’t let this game beat us again.”

Michigan, which dropped seven additional spots in the AP Poll and now is No. 17, hosts Arkansas State this week. Then the Wolverines welcome No. 11 USC, another high-profile matchup where the size of Michigan’s drop-off from 2023 will be measured.

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After having a program-record 13 players drafted this year and replacing a handful of staff members — most notably head coach Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter — Michigan looked overmatched against a clear national title contender in Texas.

The new-look Wolverines offensive line struggled to pave the way in the run game, as Michigan finished with just 82 rushing yards on 22 attempts, or 3.7 yards per attempt. What was more surprising was the way the Texas offensive line won its head-to-head with a Michigan defensive line rich with NFL talent.

But Moore doesn’t believe his team’s margin of defeat is an accurate indication of how much separation there is between the Wolverines and a team like Texas. In fact, Moore believes the Wolverines are “not far” from Texas’ level.

“I think for us, it’s they executed very cleanly,” Moore said. “All the credit to them and what they did and how they played. So, I’m not going to take anything away from them.

“But, for us, we know that the turnovers, the third down margin — you take those two things, and it gives us a much better chance to be successful. So we know where we’re at. We know what we got to do. And it was a good lesson for us to learn.”

Whereas Texas was 10-of-16 on third down last weekend, Michigan was 3-of-12. The Wolverines also lost the turnover battle, 3-0.

No matter the size of the gap, big or small, Michigan has to close it quickly. A surging USC team is coming to Ann Arbor in less than two weeks.