Inside Michigan football's Sunday practice after bye week break: 'They came out with super high energy'

In the fall and most of the year, football is on the minds of head coach Sherrone Moore and the Michigan Wolverines football staff. But a bye week allows for a little bit more time to execute different tasks such as watching recruits play in high school games. Even that is a bit of a breather from the daily grind of the season, even if Moore and Co. are still working on the current team while on the road.

“The iPads are out on the plane, watching every piece of practice, looking at practice again, looking at film,” the Michigan head coach said on the ‘Inside Michigan Football’ radio show. “So there’s a break a little bit, but you’re still locked into what you’re doing.

“Coaches went out recruiting, I went out recruiting. We got some practices in with the guys, and then they had a couple days. And then came back on Sunday, had a good practice. Yeah, ready to roll.”

The practice on Sunday stood out to Moore, who’s mentioned it during different interviews this week.

“They came out with super high energy,” the first-year head coach explained. “It’s kinda crazy; so, [senior EDGE] Tyler McLaurin has a queue. They started playing the ‘Dawg’ song, and he started doing his dance. It was very just natural and unintended, and just the energy was super high.

“It was cool to watch the players just come off of a couple days [off] and resurge and really refocus again. Everybody was pushing each other to make each other better, so it was a really good day.”

Michigan is 5-5 with two regular-season games left, Nov. 23 against Northwestern and Nov. 30 at Ohio State. The Wolverines are looking to harness that energy for the final two weeks.

“One, I think both these games mean a lot,” Moore said. “The Northwestern game is a trophy game. We’re 2-0 in trophy games. It allows us to be bowl eligible, which is a huge piece.

“And then obviously the last one, there’s not much more motivation needed for that one, so I think these two games are huge for us.”

Michigan is a double-digit favorite over Northwestern, with the rivalry game against Ohio State on deck. The Wolverines must remain focused on the task at hand, though.

“They know the focus that we have to have, because they’re a good football team — and we gotta go win this one,” Moore said. “And then the motivation that you have to play that team down there is always burning in you, and you’re always thinking about it regardless of who you’re playing. So we’ll be prepared for that one, but we gotta go win this game.”

Michigan players — and even Moore and the coaches — are feeding off the energy of their teammates. But it’s Moore who sets the tone from the top down. Senior EDGE TJ Guy shed some light on how Moore has been in his first season as a head coach, navigating what has been a challenging season.

“He’s obviously grown and learned stuff from the things that we’ve gone through,” Guy explained. “He’s a changed guy. Not changed too much or changed his personality, but he’s learned his lessons and is implementing the things that he wants to see out of us and things like that.

“He’s the same guy overall, but knowing what he knows now and what we’ve been through, he knows we have to attack things differently, from different angles — and he’s implementing those things.”

Sherrone Moore discusses ‘dominant’ Michigan defensive tackles

Michigan junior defensive tackles Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham are two of the best in the game. The duo of Grant (5 TFL, 2 sacks) and Graham (7 TFL, 3.5 sacks) have put up big numbers this season.

“As dominant as any unit in college football, I would say, when those two are in the game at the same time,” Moore said of their impact on Michigan’s defensive line. “They’re violent, they’re physical. They can stop the run, they can rush the passer. So they’ve been awesome.”

The Wolverines’ defensive line is coming off a big performance in a 20-15 loss at Indiana, having sacked Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke 4 times and generated pressure on 31.3 percent of dropbacks.

“I think they’re doing a really good job, because I think he had been sacked 4 times all year, and they got 4 sacks on him,” Moore noted. “[Senior EDGE] TJ Guy had 2, but those guys are just doing a really good job of mixing up looks.

“And it’s not necessarily a lot of blitzing — it’s just pressures, four-man rushes, twists, picks, all those things. I thought [Michigan defensive coordinator] Wink [Martindale] did an outstanding job scheming up that offense, because they score a lot of points.”

Having been Michigan’s sole offensive coordinator in 2023, having to go up against a similarly structured Wolverines’ defense, Moore knows first hand how much of a challenge it is to face off with the unit.

“It’s a pain in the butt,” he said. “It’s not fun at all. You have to figure out ways to offset that. I have ways that I obviously had to deal with. I’m not gonna put that out, but they’ve done an outstanding job, and it makes it hard for offenses to execute.”