Sherrone Moore discusses Bryce Underwood, Michigan QB battle, Ohio State rivalry, more

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Sherrone Moore joined The Daily Wire’s ‘Crain and Company’ with hosts Jake Crain, Blain Crain and former U-M quarterback David Cone. Here are some highlights from Moore’s podcast appearance.

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On recruiting five-star+ QB Bryce Underwood and getting him to flip from LSU last November

“It was a long process. We’ve known Bryce for a very long time. I’ve known him for a long time. First of all, he’s an outstanding young man. He’s a great football player. Great family. They are incredible human beings, first of all, so I always knew it was a great fit for us.

“The process, there were some things that happened beforehand where he felt like that was a better fit for him. We rebuilt the relationship. We already had one, but we rebuilt it when I became the head coach. We had been recruiting him since he was committed to LSU, and as we know, in recruiting, that always happens. If you’re not talking to your players, somebody else is.

“So, you always have to be able to recruit at a high level with communication. Communication is the No. 1 piece of it.

“There’s NIL, all this — all that’s great — but if you don’t communicate and build relationships with these players and families, then none of that matters. For us, a big piece of that is building a relationship. And I take a lot of pride in myself building those relationships with as many guys as I can on the board.

“The staff is very careful at trying not to overload me, but I’ll do it. I’ll call 10 to 15 guys a day if I have to, and write letters and talk to parents and build those relationships, because I want them to understand that when you come here, you’re not just a player, you’re like my kid. Now, I have two sweet little girls at home, and I have 105 guys, kids here. It’s really important to me that I build that relationship.

“That was a huge piece of it, continuing that relationship, letting him understand that the vision of this program would be like, and then let everything happen from there. The media part of it started coming out, and that’s when it felt like it blew up, but it was something that was already happening behind the scenes.”

On Michigan’s quarterback competition heading into spring practices, which begin March 18

“You got [Fresno State graduate transfer] Mikey [Keene] you got [freshman] Bryce [Underwood] and you got [sophomore] Jadyn Davis, and Jadyn Davis is no slouch, either. He’s a kid that came in highly touted, super competitive. Love his spirit, love his ability.

“Right now, we got those three guys that are really in the thick of the battle. And then, we’ll bring in another high school player, Chase Herbstreit, in the summer, and we’ll probably have another guy here, so we’ll have a total of five. So, those three are really in the thick of the battle.

“It’s unbelievable to have the talent that we have here right now in that position, and we just want to build it and continue to build it for years and years.

“But the process is going to be pretty simple: who completes the most passes, who’s the best leader, who can help the team win the most. Those things can sometimes be answered in the spring. Those things can be pushed out throughout the summer, through workouts, and then most of the time it happens when you gotta get to fall camp and make a decision. 

“We’ll take the process very slowly and make sure we make the right decision for the team.”

On Michigan not following suits with the recent trend of not having a spring game

“For me, I love the spring game. It’s always been a competitive [game] … we draft teams, we split the whole building. It’s something we’ve done for a while now, since [former Michigan head] Coach [Jim] Harbaugh was here. Our players love it, so I don’t want to take that away from them.

“At the same time, we gotta be cognizant of what we do with the world that we live in now and how we operate. So, we’ll make a decision internally how we’ll handle that. I still in my heart want to have a spring game, but we’ll make a decision on how we’ll handle it.

“For us, it’s really not about — because regardless, whether you have a spring game or not, people are going to poach your players if they really want to try to. So, it’s not gonna be they watch them on TV or watch them … they’re gonna figure out a way to make sure they can get involved, whether it’s an agent, a family member, a high school coach. We’ve had high school coaches of our players shop around players who hadn’t even played yet. 

“That piece, you can say that just because you have a spring game they’re gonna come take your players. You can not have a spring game, and they’re probably still going to try to anyway, or somebody in their circle is going to shop them around. I don’t think that matters as much.

“So, we’ll make a decision what we feel is best for us and best for the team. I’ll have my captains that are involved, see what they think, as well, because I try to involve our players as best as we can in a lot of those decisions.”

On the direction of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry amid the changing college football landscape

“I think it’s the greatest rivalry in sports. Being a part of this rivalry and seeing other rivalries and watching the impact it has — not only on our fan base, their fan base but the country. That game is called ‘The Game.’ There’s no name, there’s no nickname — it’s just called ‘The Game.’

“And being part of it now, this is going to be my eighth year at Michigan, especially the last four years, has been incredible. But I was a part of losses, too, and they sting. They don’t just sting for that week or those two days. They sting the whole year. So, I understand completely what that rivalry means, and it’s amazing how you go around the country recruiting, traveling, whatever it is, and to hear the ‘go blue’ or you hear the ‘O-H.’ My rebuttal is always, they say O-H, I say, ‘N-O.’ They get upset with me about it.

“It’s a rivalry that just can’t go away. It’s awesome for college football. It’s what college football is all about. And two great programs that compete every year, and it usually means a lot for the end of the season for somebody.”

On the best piece of advice he received from former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, under whom he worked for six seasons

“Probably the No. 1 thing is that, don’t be afraid to do something different because you’ve never done it. So, always live outside the box, always be able to go outside the box. Just because you did something this way doesn’t mean it’s always going to work, whether that be planning a schedule, whether that be a play.

“When I was calling plays, he was really hands off in his approach and kinda let me handle it. Because I had been kinda indoctrinated to how he kinda wanted it and how he always thought of football, I didn’t have a cookie cutter approach to how I thought of football or did things, because I’ve been a part of West Coast, I’ve been a part of spread, I’ve been a part of up-tempo. I’ve been with quarterbacks who can run the ball and whatever. So, I’ve been able to adjust and do different things.

“But his vision of how he thought of the game was just completely different, and for a quarterback to ultimately just want to run the ball, for me, that was like, ‘Wow.’ That was the craziest thing ever. But that turned into when he was planning practices and planning different events and different things with the players, I think that was the No. 1 thing that I learned from him about how to attack the game and how to approach everything you do.

“And then the other thing is probably just how to challenge people. You don’t have to challenge people and attack them. You can challenge the problem. And I’ve been a part of both, seeing people attack people and people attack problems, and he never attacked people. He was an outstanding communicator, just being able to get his point across. And sometimes, it was a little different. His point would come across, but you would understand he was trying to make you better as a coach or as a player or as a staff member. He wasn’t attacking you as a person. So, I think those were the things I really learned from him.”