Not many outside of Ann Arbor are giving Michigan football a chance to beat Ohio State, but outside of 2023, that’s also been the case. Selective memory tends to take over, with many acknowledging that the Wolverines have beaten the Buckeyes the past four years, but somehow forgetting at the same time.
While Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore remembers, in a way, he’s trying to forget, having to prepare anew for a new game against OSU, in hopes of turning the four-game win streak to five.
Speaking with WXYZ’s Brad Galli, Moore shared what goes into the year-round preparation for the Buckeyes and why it’s so crucial to spend more than just game week working toward a win in The Game.
“One, they’re such a good football team, but as we know, when you come here to Michigan, that’s the first thing you hear about,” Moore said. “You hear about this game, you hear about the rivalry, hear about how much it means not only to the players on the team, but the players of the past, the coaches of the past, the people, the alumni. So we do everything we can to go win this game.”
Of course, Moore isn’t going to share Michigan’s actual game plan, but he did share the main tenets needed for the Wolverines to come away with a win on Saturday. And it’s not terribly different than what has been the case in each of the past four years.
“You’ve got to control the line of scrimmage. That’s always part of it,” Moore said. “I know that’s mostly in all games, but you’ve got to do that on both sides of the ball. You’ve got to control the outside noise, the outside factors, because there’s so many things going on right now in this game that can control you. And then you just got to prepare like you prepared these last six games or last five games.”
The team that wins the rushing battle has tended to win The Game, and that has been the case since 2000. Yet, Ohio State is a pass-first team and is among the most explosive in the nation on that front, ranked No. 28 in the country in passing offense.
Moore shares what Michigan has to do in order to win that side of the battle, especially considering that OSU does have the firepower to win the game without running the ball particularly well — as we’ve seen across its schedule all year.
“Yeah, we’ve got to put together a great plan,” Moore said. “We know they’ve got great receivers. They got great skill, so we got to do a great job containing that. We got to make the quarterback uncomfortable in different ways. He hasn’t really been affected, so we got to do that in different ways, and we got to be patient. We got to take our shots and be aggressive on our side, too.”
While Michigan is the better team at running the football, it will be charged with also moving the ball through the air against the nation’s No. 1 defense, if for no other reason than keeping the Buckeyes from keying in on the run. That means relying on a true freshman in Bryce Underwood.
Moore has said all year that by now, Underwood is no longer a freshman, and even though this will be his first entry into The Game, the head coach feels like Underwood will be ready for the challenge, given his preparation and understanding.
“Yeah, I think, one, he’s been preparing for this moment for all his life,” Moore said. “He’s always been a part of this rivalry. He’s seen this rivalry. He understands it. The moment’s not going to be too big, but we’ve got to do everything we can as a staff, again, to make it easier for him, and it’s not going to be an easy game. It’s going to be a physical battle. It’s going to be something that we’re going to see something different that we haven’t seen, but we’ve just got to go through, day by day, and prepare him however we would. “
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan’s Sherrone Moore details blueprint needed to beat Ohio State
Reporting by Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire / Wolverines Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
