Michigan football: What Sherrone Moore said about 25 players during spring press conference

The Michigan Wolverines are a week into spring football as they get reps and establish a pecking order on the roster heading into the rest of the offseason. This should be a pretty competitive few weeks, especially with the rosters needing to be trimmed down to 105 players ahead of the 2025 season.

Michigan will be four practices in by the end of Tuesday, which was set to be the second padded day of practice this spring. It is still early on with a lot of football to go, but a few names of intrigue came up in conversations with players and coaches over the last week or so.

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Head coach Sherrone Moore name-dropped 25 players during his spring ball press conference this week. Here’s what he had to say specifically about each of the Michigan players brought into the conversation.

QB Bryce Underwood

“I think just early enrollees in general, it’s a great thing for the game and for those players to be able to come in not only just for football, for school, be able to handle school, be able to maneuver in school and know where your classes are, but for him and all the quarterbacks, it’s been good, adjusting to things and doing things a little bit different, but he’s done well. He works his tail off. He’s in here late, in here early, and those guys have really worked hard to compete at that position.

QB Mikey Keene

“I think the first thing we saw was when we played against him. I remember watching him in the summer. I said, damn, this kid’s pretty good. We’ve got to deal with this dude game one. He’s making all these throws. He’s experienced. I did a study of all the guys that the most snaps guys played, and he’s played the most snaps in college football on our team, over 2,000-something snaps. A guy that’s played a lot of football, understands the moments, understands the big moments, understands what it takes to be really good. He’s been a great addition for our football program.

“Obviously, size is a little different [than Underwood]. But talk about a guy that knows the game, extremely intelligent, wants to be a coach after he gets done playing. So the experience piece is the biggest piece there.?

RB Justice Haynes

“You see him as a guy that’s another leader on the team. The dude only eats one ingredient foods. That’s why he looks like a statue. He takes care of his body in every way. He’s a leader off the field with how he approaches academics and his social life and everything. On the field, he has that mentality about him. You can see his experience and him playing in big game before and understanding the game and understanding the moment and understanding how to prepare. He brings that to that room and to the offense and to the team. It’s been great to have him around.”

RBs Jordan Marshall and Ben Hall, other running backs

“They’ve been awesome. It’s an awesome room. It’s a competitive room. Again, they’re together just like the quarterbacks, just like every other room. Everybody competes, but they all align together. So they’ve been great. Jordan’s just kind of picked off where he left off in the bowl game. Again, we haven’t had tackling yet, but he’s been great. Ben’s continued to climb and do the same thing. So I feel good about those guys. And then the young guys, Micah Ka’apana is doing well. Bryson Kuzdzal is doing well. Donovan Johnson, same thing. So all those guys are putting themselves in a position to be in a good place, and we’re just excited about where they’re going.”

Wide receivers

“I feel like that group has obviously grown in size. That was an emphasis for me. I wanted big receivers, and with him and Donaven McCulley and bringing in Jacob Washington, even Andrew Marsh. He’s not a small guy. He’s a long-limbed guy. I felt like we’d bring in really good size in that group to help us be more explosive in the passing game, and that’s what I wanted. And those guys have made plays, and it’s been fun to watch, and it’s been great for our defense and great for the DBs to go with guys that are bigger because, as we know, in the games that matter, you’re going to have to play really big dudes that can go get the football up in the air. So it’s been awesome. It’s been very encouraging to watch them all.”

Defensive tackles

“Rayshaun’s done an outstanding job. Really great offseason. Looks great. Ironically, changed his number to Mason’s old number, but that was his high school number. So he came up to me, and it’s funny with these numbers. Sometimes guys want to change it. But there’s some personal relationship with him. With him being a senior, being an older guy, I was like, yeah, absolutely, we can do that. But he’s done really well. Tre and Damon have been awesome. They’ve just assimilated into the culture. They put their head down and work. They’ve been great. Been a very seamless transition for both of them and done a really good job in the first three practices.”

EDGE rushers, headlined by Derrick Moore and TJ Guy

“Huge for the experience piece, huge from a talent standpoint, but from a leadership standpoint, and especially TJ. Both of those guys have grown so much as leaders, not just physically but vocally. I think that’s a big piece to it. You want — everybody says you lead by example. Well, yeah, you’ve got to lead by example, but sometimes you’ve got to say something. And he’s definitely taken that next step in being one of those guys to be a force on the field and off the field in a positive way, so very proud of them. And it was important that we got both those guys back. I think they’ll be a dynamic duo in college football next year, along with Dom Nichols and Cam Brandt. Those guys have showed up just as much as they have. I feel like we’ve got four guys on the edge that are going to be pretty good.“

LB Jaishawn Barham

“I just want to see him on the field because he’s a really good football player, and he’s so much more comfortable being just in the Michigan helmet and being a part of the Wolverine and being a part of our family. And you can see it in how he approaches the game, how he studies the game, how he handles being around his teammates. So he’ll be in multiple spots and doing different things throughout the year, but excited about his progress too and where he’s been.”

Other Michigan linebackers

“Ernest and Jaishawn have been great. They just kind of picked up where they left off and been even better. It’s been really good to see them. Jimmy Rolder is playing both spots. He’s been awesome. He’s been great. Jaydon Hood, Cole Sullivan, he’s gotten bigger, gotten stronger, continues to get better. And [Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng] is another guy that stands out with Chase Taylor, both freshmen. It’s a deep group, and it’s a fun group to watch, all athletic, all big, all long, and I feel like we’ve got a chance to be really great in that group.”

CB Shamari Earls

“You can definitely see it, especially being that size and that long. For a true freshman, he’s definitely flashed and made the plays you would think he would. I just reserve reservation to say anything else until we tackle and we really play football because the first two days you’re in helmets and spiders, so it’s tag off. And then Saturday it was thud, so it’s good football, but we want to hit and tackle and see what we’re really all about.“

K Dominic Zvada

“He hit like a 60-yarder the other day and just walked off like nothing happened. So it was great. Love him, love the kid. He’s put on like 10 pounds of muscle — for a kicker, that probably doesn’t mean much, but to him he feels good. So he came in the other day with like a reversed Phoenix Suns Kevin Durant jersey. I was like, dude, you’re the only kicker in the country that can wear that with that much swag. It was beautiful. So he’s been great.”

Punters

“So Hudson Hollenbeck, has been a starting punter, and he’s been doing really well. Picked up from the bowl game, and I think he did really well. Next we’ve got him, we’ve got Stuart Blake as a walk-on, and Marlin Klein’s still been punting. He actually can punt really well.”