ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Saturday will mark a return home for Sherrone Moore but it won’t be a typical kind of homecoming.
Moore, an Oklahoma alum, will be tasked with putting a one in the loss column of his alma mater. It’s the biggest game of the weekend with a ranked-on-ranked matchup, and the Sooners look as if they may rebound from a tough 2024 season.
On Monday, Moore shared more of what OU offers, but also noted he has a certain familiarity with the coaching staff as there is a ton of crossover from his time there as a player to now.
“Really good football team, complete football team in all three phases,” Moore said. “Return game, they’re dangerous. Offensively, obviously, it all starts with Mateer, the quarterback, and what he does. And they’ve got a bevy of running backs, and Burks on the outside that plays extremely well. They move the tight end, who was that, linebacker, Kanak, to tight end, No. 12. And he can find space, he can find areas, and they do a good job of spreading the field and playing with a little tempo, playing not with tempo. So really good.
“And defensively, they’re fast. I know Brent, I’ve known Brent, obviously, for a long time. And much respect to a lot of people on their staff. Brent was my defensive coordinator. Kevin Wilson’s on their staff now, he was my offensive coordinator. Joe Jon Finley’s the tight end coach. He was the tight end when I was playing there. DeMarco Murray was the running back when I was there, and he’s a running back coach. So a lot of people that I know on the staff and have a lot of respect for. It’s a great town, great place, but this is about the kids. It’s not about me. It’s not about any return to home for me. It’s about the players on our football team going to go try to win a game.”
The biggest challenge will be stalling quarterback John Mateer, the transfer from Washington State. Against Illinois State (an FCS team), Mateer completed 81.1% of his passes for 392 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Even at 6-foot-1, while there are thoughts that he’s a little undersized, Moore notes that he doesn’t play that way at all.
“He’s an electric quarterback now. I mean, he’s a gunslinger,” Moore said. “People keep comparing him to Baker Mayfield because he’s a shorter quarterback, but he’s got his differences. He’s a quarterback that can make every throw, off-schedule throws. He can run the football. So we got to do a good job of keeping him off-schedule, but not making sure that he can’t just have free windows and covering guys up when they’re downfield, because they do have speed on the outside lanes to run, and the O-line is good. So we just got to do it.
“We just have a great plan to keep him rattled and change the picture on him. So it’s not, he’s not comfortable. I know they’re going to be fast. I know they’re going to be physical. They’re going to be fundamentally sound and they’re going to try to tackle as well as they can. But our job is to try to make him miss and be explosive on offense. So we’ve got to do things to counteract his thought process and how he puts together the plan. So that’s what we’re going to attempt to do.”
Michigan’s offense did come alive in the first game of the Bryce Underwood and Chip Lindsey era. But it will be interesting to see — for both teams — if leveling up the competition makes things look a bit different or difficult. The Wolverines and Sooners kick off on Saturday at 7:44 p.m. EDT in Norman with the game being broadcast on ABC.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Sherrone Moore highlights Oklahoma’s strengths ahead of Michigan’s Week 2 matchup in Norman
Reporting by Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire / Wolverines Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
