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Two Michigan football players named way-too-early All-Americans by ESPN

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•about 9 hours•

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Michigan Wolverines football safety Rod Moore has 6 career interceptions. (Photo by Lon Horwedel / TheWolverine.com)
Michigan Wolverines football safety Rod Moore has 6 career interceptions. (Photo by Lon Horwedel / TheWolverine.com)

ESPN.com’s Chris Low released a list of ‘way-too-early’ All-Americans for the 2025 season, and two Michigan Wolverines football players made the cut: graduate safety Rod Moore and senior kicker Dominic Zvada.

Surprisngly, Moore and Zvada are two of only six Big Ten players to make the 26-player list. The others are Penn State offensive lineman Olaivavega Ioane, Ohio State tight end Max Klare, Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith and Ohio State safety Caleb Downs.

Moore missed all of last season after tearing his ACL in a March spring practice, but he announced he will return for the 2025 campaign.

Moore has 6 career interceptions, having appeared in 37 games with 27 starts over the previous three campaigns. He’s totaled 141 tackles and 13 pass breakups.

The 6-foot-0, 198-pound Dayton, Ohio, native also battled a knee injury at the start of the 2023 and didn’t perform up to his standard, but he was named third-team All-Big Ten despite missing three contests. That injury was part of the reason why he returned to Michigan for his senior season.

While he was disappointed he couldn’t impact on the field in 2024, the Michigan standout said on an interview in October that he believes his experience watching from the sideline and helping coach will benefit him once he’s back out there.

“I’ve been telling myself, if I ever got to play again — either this year or next year, if I come back — the amount of plays that I could make just by off of what I know I’ll get … it’s different when you know what you’re gonna get, because you play faster, you don’t guess yourself,” Moore said. “I think I’ll play a lot better if I — when I’m able to play again.”

Zvada, meanwhile, is coming off one of the best seasons for a kicker in Michigan history. The Arkansas State transfer went 21-of-22 on field goals, with the one miss being a blocked kick at Illinois. He made 7 kicks of 50-plus yards, which is a school record not only for a season but for a career. His longest makes were a pair of 56-yarders, which came against Indiana and Northwestern in back-to-back outings.

Zvada is Michigan’s career and single-season leader with a 95.5 field goal percentage (minimum 15 attempts), standing well ahead of James Turner (85.7).

Zvada is ready to run it back at Michigan for his final season of college football.

“Even though I feel like I’m ready to go to the next level, I feel like I can compete at the next level, I wasn’t ready to leave this place yet,” Zvada said in December. “I feel like I have another year in me that I can go out there and be a part of something special, especially with the team we’ve got coming back next year. I feel like I want to be a part of that and go and compete for a national championship.”

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