Moore is more: Why Michigan's offensive line coach was the right guy at the right time

To start off every Michigan spring football and fall camp meeting, Sherrone Moore put up a powerpoint slide in front of his players that laid out four goals: To beat Ohio State, win the Big Ten championship, take home the Joe Moore Award for the “toughest, most physical offensive line unit,” and be crowned national champions.

The team’s co-offensive coordinator, Moore had never coached offensive line before this season when he took over for Ed Warinner, though he did play guard at Oklahoma in the mid-2000s. The move to promote the former tight ends coach was undoubtedly a gamble for head coach Jim Harbaugh, but it paid off and turned out to be one of the best of the many changes he made during the offseason.

On top of his knowledge of the game and the position, Moore has connected with his players and created a family atmosphere within the room, many Wolverines have said. He’s tough and demanding, but also caring and loving — a balance plenty of coaches strive to attain but few can reach.

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Warinner drastically improved Michigan’s offensive line play during his tenure from 2018-20. But this move was more about making a good thing even better, rather than fixing something that was broken. It turns out, Moore was the right guy at the right time.

“It was a change, for sure,” Michigan redshirt junior right tackle Andrew Stueber said before the team’s College Football Playoff semifinal matchup with Georgia. “Obviously, whenever you change coaches, the room changes, the dynamic changes a little bit. But I think it was something we needed as an offensive line. The new defensive coordinator [Mike Macdonald] was huge for us — it was kind of bringing a fresh, new, young perspective — and it was the same thing for the offensive line.

“I’m not knocking any of the previous coaches — they’re all great coaches — but at that time it’s what we needed. We needed a fresh perspective, a new look, a new energy, some could say. I think that was a huge part of our success.”

The Wolverines’ men up front were named the Joe Moore Award winners Tuesday. They’ve given up just 27 tackles for loss, which is 14 fewer than any other team in the country, and 10.0 sacks, which is tied with Air Force for second nationally behind Army. The Maize and Blue boast the Big Ten’s best and the country’s No. 10 rushing attack (223.8 yards per game), behind five all-conference honorees along the offensive line.

The offensive line wanted to be the heartbeat of the team this season — a notion some scoffed at before the year — and did just that.

“As Coach Moore always says, the O-line sets the tone, sets the tempo in practice and game days,” Stueber said. “We really took that upon ourselves this year. We tried to bring as much energy as we could in practice every day and set the tempo, because when the O-line is firing on all cylinders, it’s really easy for every other position to fall into place.

“An O-line is a great testament to how good the team’s going to be.”

Michigan posted a 12-1 record and won its first Big Ten championship since 2004, and couldn’t have done it without stellar play in the trenches. Moore’s players march to the beat of his drum and embody his catchphrase, “Smash!”

“Coach Moore brings energy every single day. He pushes us to our limits,” Stueber added. “He’s really done a good job of building up the young guys, too. You can see that in who’s gotten in for some games this year. It was the right time for his perspective, bringing in new energy. He’s done a great job.”

The Wolverines have checked three of the four boxes on Moore’s powerpoint slide — highlighted by a dominant performance against Ohio State in which they rushed for 297 yards — and are two victories away from finishing the deal by winning the national championship. Battering the Buckeyes was exactly how Moore and Co. drew it up.

“To see it all come to fruition and see how well of a game not only the offense played but the offensive line and the defense played, it was a perfect collision of everything,” Stueber said. “It was what we worked so hard for. We’ve come such a long way since the 2020 season, and it was just pure joy.”

Some people think less is more, but Harbaugh has fundamentally disagreed with that sentiment throughout the years, arguing that “more is more.”

In this case, there’s no doubt that Moore is more for the Wolverines.