Michigan football: Legends praised U-M O-line, Moore after OSU game
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh heard from too many people to mention after Saturday’s win over Ohio State. He spent hours celebrating before moving on to Iowa film in preparation for Saturday’s Big Ten championship game.
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One text, though, stood out. Former Oakland coach and NFL commentator John Madden texted Harbaugh to let him know just how much he appreciated watching it.
“That was quite a text from John Madden. As he said in the text, ‘as a former offensive lineman, I really appreciate offensive line play’, and that performance in that game was as good as he’s ever seen,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh sent offensive line coach Sherrone Moore the text and told him to leave it on his phone forever as a reminder of the job he’d done.
“Sherrone Moore is a shining star. That’s always been easy to see,” Harbaugh said Monday. “He’s a tremendous coach and teacher, has a tremendous connection to the players. He’s one of those on our team that’s been committed.
“I figured that one would work out really well, and I could say this about a lot of the coaching hires that we’ve had … worked out even better than expected. I had really high expectations for the kind of job that Sherrone Moore would do, and he’s produced even better than expected. Those expectations were really high.”
This season’s might be the best Michigan line performance since 2007, Lloyd Carr’s last year. It culminated with thorough domination of a good Ohio State defense.
Michigan enjoyed a three-play, 81-yard drive all on the ground to start the half and threw the ball only four times in the second stanza. The Wolverines ended the game in victory formation after owning the fourth quarter on the ground.
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“It was dominant,” Harbaugh said after the game of U-M’s 297 yards rushing, led by Hassan Haskins’ 169 yards and five scores. “It was dominant with the offensive line, no question about it. There was movement, continual movement, up front by the guys and Hassan Haskins.
“They might have thought they saw a ghost, but they didn’t. It was No. 25, Hassan Haskins. He was running with great determination, great purpose, great ability.”
The sky’s the limit for this group, but it started back in spring when Harbaugh returned to his roots. Some fans groaned when Harbaugh and Josh Gattis talked about playing to their strengths — the running backs — but it proved to be the right move.
Michigan currently ranks ninth nationally at 229.42 yards per game rushing.
“We just really felt all along that we were capable of doing both,” Harbaugh said. “Eleven personnel throwing the football; 11 personnel, running the football. Twelve personnel running the football, 13 personnel, running the football, 22 personnel. We felt like we were capable of being a really good throwing team, being a really good running team, so we just set out at getting good at both.
“With the type of backs we knew we had, Hassan and Blake [Corum] and Donovan [Edwards] coming in, we felt really good knowing they’d have the opportunity to run behind the offensive line that was also really ascending. We felt we had a chance to be extremely good, and Coach Moore has done a tremendous job coaching that group.”
Earning the praise of some of football’s best minds along the way.
