Shortly after Michigan football’s national championship in January 2024, it seemed that standout safety Rod Moore would possibly be a three-year college player and test the NFL waters.
Instead, after returning for what he believed would be one final year to improve his stock, he suffered some bad injury luck. He is now a sixth-year player, and this fall he will quite possibly become a first in U-M history: a three-time captain.
Moore, who joined the Wolverines in 2021, is set to play for his third coach and fourth defensive coordinator during his U-M tenure. And while his journey has been topsy-turvy, the former All-Big Ten safety is slowly but surely feeling more like his former self.
“I’m feeling the best I felt since March 27, 2024, the exact day I tore my ACL, but I’m feeling great,” Moore recently said on the “In the Trenches” podcast with team color commentator Jon Jansen. “Took three surgeries, but now I’m feeling like I haven’t felt the past two years. I’m moving around, running straight line back, feeling fast again, and it’s just a matter of getting the coordination back under my feet.
“I didn’t really understand this, but when you come back off of an injury like that, and go through three surgeries, your body forgets how to do certain things, and it’s been times where I was frustrated, because I might be able to do this, but now it’s like it just takes time to get it back under you.”
Moore had surgery in the spring of 2024 and missed the entire season. Then in April 2025, after he continued to feel a nagging pain, he had another surgery on his meniscus, which he felt would be the final step toward returning to the field.
While he did play in 2025, it was sparingly, appearing in just three games against Nebraska, Wisconsin and USC. He recorded an interception against the Badgers, but the wear and tear on his body from such an aggressive return took its toll, and he was sidelined the remainder of the year.
Moore was granted an NCAA waiver for a sixth season of eligibility this past offseason, right around the same time he had a third (and what he hopes is final) surgery to clean up the scar tissue from the prior procedures. Though he didn’t play in spring practice, Moore was already feeling valued by the new leaders of the defense.
“[Defensive coordinator Jay Hill] called me one day out of nowhere — I think it was probably a week after he got here — and he was like, ‘I like the way you move,’” Moore said. “I’m like, ‘Dang, you’re back there watching the ‘23 film?’
“He told me how he can’t wait to get me back, and to be honest, it’s probably been the first time in my college career that I’ve felt I had the support and the needs for a coach to want me healthy.”
Moore has played in 40 career games, recording 147 tackles, 14 pass deflections, seven interceptions and 2½ tackles for loss. Highlights including a game-sealing pick against Ohio State in 2023 to advance to the Big Ten championship game, an interception against MSU in a 2022 victory, and his 12 tackles and interception in what ended as a CFP loss to TCU in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl.
The rehab continues for Moore, and after years of largely watching from the sideline, he now understands exactly what it takes to return from significant injuries and where his body has been and needs to be. As Michigan begins its summer workouts this month, Moore is expecting to participate and be ready for fall camp which begins in August.
“I’ve got to hit [the ground] running in June,” Moore said. “I’ve got to be full go being able to participate in all the workouts, which I fully anticipate on doing. It’s just staying healthy, getting healthy, and just dominating the entire summer and coming into fall camp Day 1 just going.”
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football’s Rod Moore is ‘feeling the best’ he has in 2 years
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
