Everything Sherrone Moore said on Joel Klatt's Big Noon Conversations

On the best part of being the head coach at Michigan

Walking in every single day into this beautiful facility with all these great kids and people. Understanding and knowing that everybody looks to us, looks to me as the head coach of this great university, great tradition and just our players. Being around the players every single day is the best part for me. I love that.

On when he knew Jim Harbaugh was leaving

I was in the Houston airport heading to Dallas, recruiting, and I just talked to coach probably three hours before that and he's kind of like, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen. I think it's going to happen soon. It could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week. I was like, OK, it's gonna happen at some point, just have to be ready. I saw it, I was going through TSA and it popped up on my phone, Jim Harbaugh to the Chargers. That second, phone *noises*, text messages, calls, text messages, calls. Our AD, our assistant AD calls, hey, you gotta come back right now. I did the interview that next day and got the job on Saturday. Press conference, was on the road recruiting on Monday and that was it. Humbling experience.

On a universal support for him to be the head coach

Felt honored. Felt like all the hard work I put in with these teams, these players had really come to fruition. It was something that you can't really describe but just very humbled to have Wolverine national, all the people, the players, the coaches, you and some media to say, hey, he should be the head coach at Michigan. When I first got here seven years ago, I just wanted to be the best tight end coach I could be. That's it. At some point I wanted to call plays, I got a chance to do that with our young guys. The opportunity to be the head coach here was really not in my mind. When this did take place, it was very humbling for me.

On when the desire to be head coach entered his mind

It entered my mind when Coach Harbaugh told me. You're going to be the next head coach at Michigan. This year he told me. I don't know when, I don't know what's going to happen. No man can tell the future. That's how he is, he's like that all the time. He just said, you're going to be the next head coach at Michigan. I was just like, what? I'm going to put it in my contract that if I ever leave or go somewhere, you're the next head coach at Michigan. He told me that at the beginning of the year. I was just like, what? I thought about that and I was like, this man who is a legendary coach who has done it all and has a chance this year to make a special run is telling me that I am going to be the next head coach here, what does that mean? That means I gotta work my tail off for this man who trusted me in this offense to do everything possible to help him and this team win. Just worked as hard as I could this year.

On what he learned last year as acting head coach

I learned that you're always in the spotlight. There's always somebody watching you. The decisions you make not only impact that side of the ball but the whole team and how important, how diligent and how detailed you need to be in the preparation of all that. Was very humbled, again, to be in that position to do that. The first game that it happened was the Penn State game. It was an environment that's close to unmatched in any college football arena, especially for an away team. It was loud, it was volatile, it was fun, invigorating but it was something our players kind of gravitated towards and they loved that. They loved being the villain. It was a special, special game.

On the postgame interview after the PSU win

All the emotions you can feel in anything exciting, that's what I felt. The hard work, the dedication the players put in, that Coach Harbaugh has put into that program all came out in that moment. For people on the outside to think our players didn't win fairly or didn't do something or do that, it was kind of like, OK, bet. This is what we're about, we're going to attack the moment, we did, now what can you say about us? Without our head coach, we proved ourselves right that we can go win in this big environment. It was a moment that was unfiltered, unfortunately the bad words came out but I apologized to my mom so that's OK. I got reprimanded a little bit. It was my mom and my grandma so I was trying to make sure they weren't too mad at me but they understood the moment. The players, I think, appreciated it because I think in the world today, emotion is kind of perceived as a weakness and I don't see it as that. People can say whatever they want but we accomplished something pretty special last year.

On how real is the element of the chip on the shoulder for motivation for last year's team

I think a little bit. I think they were motivated by that more than anything. Winning the national championship, getting to the national championship because that's all they talked about at the beginning of the year after the TCU game last year. We always talked about process over prize and we knew what the prize was. Alright, let's stop talking about the prize and let's go attack the process of getting better every day. We did that. I think when ll that stuff started to come out, it just added a little fuel to the fire. Just a little bit. We didn't need any but kind of glad you had a little fuel. Kept that chip, kept that boulder on our shoulder even brighter. They took it and ran with it.

On what made the 2023 team unique

I can't, either. I think it was just the love, a connection, a bond that was unbreakable, you couldn't break it. You could do whatever you wanted. You could talk about us however you wanted but the love, the connection that everybody had in this building was deeper than anything. Felt like they could not be stopped, a juggernaut just ready to go every game. Any adversity thrown their way they were ready to break it. It was something I've never been a part of.

On the unselfish nature of the players

The team, the team, the team. That's what we've been built off of and we'll continue to be that way. It was something that, I think, when you work so hard and you work so close to something two years in a row and you understand what it takes to get there, you'll do anything to get to that goal. They set out, that's what they're going to do, guys came back. It wasn't just guys came back, it was a mindset of this is how we're going to work to do that. I think in college football in times you come back to go do something but are you actually going to go do it? The work they put in, in the darkness, when nobody was there to go attack that moment was something I had never seen. That's what really led up to those moments.

On the CFP run

Something I've never been apart of. You knew the team's preparation was a little different. We had adjusted some things from our standpoint, how we approached bowl practice versus the previous. A couple different things whether it's meeting times, more time for themselves, practice times adjusting, still kept the physicality in what we did. We just adjusted a little bit. That helped but I think it was the players mindset, how they approached everything. It's funny, people always talk about the reaction to Alabama, seeing Alabama, when those cameras turned off, the boys were like, that's who we wanted. That's what we wanted to do. To be the best you gotta beat the best. They've been the king of the hill for a long time, I know Georgia won two national championships but Nick had six of them. You knew if you wanted to get to the top you had to face a team like that to get there. They were excited for that game and ready for the preparations they had throughout that month was super special. I'd be in the office at 10 o'clock and I'd see guys in the film room watching film and doing this, watching cut-ups, texting me at night, hey coach, what about this look? What about this look? What are we doing here? It was something I had never seen.

On the last drive against Alabama

Two instances that will always be held forever in my mind, really three. Before that drive, I've never really nervous to call a drive, never really anxious. That drive I was looking around, looked at the clock, looked at the time, this was the most important drive in Michigan football history. That's how I thought of it. I looked up to the sky and asked my grandpa, hey, pops, I need some help here. Help me out, love ya. I'll never forget, I was walking and all the linemen strapping their helmets on and J.J. comes up to me, hey, pops, we got ya. I was like, yeah, we're about to go score on this drive. We had been moving the ball a little bit but not as much and that drive we went down and scored and the fourth-and-two call, we ran it. Had a play-action on third-and-two, had Orji in the game and it didn't work out, they had it covered and it was fourth-and-two and I knew coach was going to say go for it. Fourth and two, I already knew what call we were going to do, I knew the pick route, I knew what we were going to do. I knew we had set it up because we had shifted and motioned it and looked the same the whole game. They were calling out run and Blake pops open and goes down the field, Roman gets the block in the back and guys were like, oh no, we gotta come back. No, no, we still got the first down. Got the first down, called the run option with J.J., we hadn't ran that all game and it was set up, OK, this was the time, came back to a play-action we had actually called earlier in the game but the route spacing wasn't right. We fixed it on the sideline and then Roman popped open and made an incredible catch and the guy missed as he landed. The play that I called second I was actually going to call first, gotta a little closer and all of a sudden called a play action to Roman and he slipped out and it was a touchdown. That drive will hold true forever in my mind with how it went down at the time and what happened with the result.

On whether taking over a program as the reigning national champion weighs on him

It doesn't weigh on me. I think about it but I'm not going to let it put pressure on me. I just want to get better every day, that's it, just work on this process. We talk about that still with the players, not going to let it drain me or try to think about it too much. Just going to try and work on getting better every single day to make this team the best that they can be.

On what is most important to him about his identity

I'm not going to change. I'm going to be who I've always been. I've always been a process-driven person. That's who I'm going to be, I'm not going to change that. I'm going to put the players first, always going to do that. That's something me and coach worked very close on about how we did things, who this program was about, it was about the players and even the philosophy of offense and defense. I was very close with him about how we talked about things on a daily basis, how we conducted our business, what the offense, what the defense, what the special teams were going to look like. That philosophy on how we do things will reign true the same on how we did it last year and the years in the past because I had a big hand in that. There will be some different changes in what we do. To my core, we're going to be physical, we're going to be tough, we're going to try and outlast people. We'll be multiple in every phase and we're going to be fundamentally sound and balanced with what we do.

On what would people notice that will be different

I guess we'll have to see, not really sure yet. (laughs)

On what he's pulling from Bob Stoops, Shawn Watson and Jim Harbaugh fundamentally

From Bob, the initial love of the game is really where I started getting it even more. Really the initial love for loving for your players, loving the program and how to run an organization. It was unmatched at the time for me. Seeing him in his element, I would say, and what we did on a daily basis to make our team great, motivational factors, motivational speeches and things he would say to us on a daily basis were super special and stuff I'd never forget. I still talk to him, I also talk to all these guys but for sure Coach Stoops, he's a legend and somebody I'll never forget the things I learned from him. I go to coach since he was most recently, never be afraid to be different. Never be afraid to venture out and try things that you've never done just because they haven't been done or you haven't done it, doesn't mean it's the right way. Just because you did it that way doesn't mean you should do it that way again. Always challenge yourself and challenge other people. I think I really grew with coach in challenging myself and also challenging others in a positive way to make sure we're doing it the best way for our players. That's probably the one thing I've learned most from coach. Just the style and organization, how to run an organization from him because he did it unlike anybody has ever seen. From Wats, the game of football. The game, inside and out, on the gridiron, how it's taught, how to be a great teacher. He's an amazing teacher as you know. Dude was — he still is, he was so impactful as a teacher. Soon as he started talking, your eyes would lock in on everything he'd say. How to take notes, how to do it, you should always be taking notes. The detail to take notes, every little things. We had these computation books, he's the only that started me using those computation books and I still use them to this day. Now we just have blue ones. The tree of those coaches have taught me so much and I continue to strive to pull from those guys, from our coaches, from different people. When you stop learning, you die in this business so you gotta keep learning.

On anything he learned from the games he coached that he wants to do differently

Probably don't want to run the ball 32 times in a row every game. If it works, keep doing it. (laughs).

On Chop Robinson and the adjustments made against Penn State

I'm not saying I won't do it again, if it has to be done, we will. Wasn't the plan. Wasn't the plan at all. Just had to happen that way. At the end of the day, we're going to do whatever it takes to win. If we had to do that, we will. That guy — he was coming off the ball fast and it was loud. You had to change your snap count, you had to move the pocket which we moved the pocket a little bit, too, and did some of that. He was coming off the ball fast. Salute to you, Chop, he will have a great career in the NFL. You watched him in every game, it was like that. Especially at home in his place, he did a great job of timing up the snap count. Had to make an adjustment but I also felt like we were getting that movement in the run game pretty well and you've got two backs like we do, super cool to do that. The coolest part about that is, J.J., Roman, Cornelius, Colston, AJ said what do you need us to do to win this game? That's it. I'm just like, this team is unbelievable. Usually it's, oh, I want my catches. Guys, let's just go win this game and they're like, we got you. And we did.

On what his favorite play call last year

Probably the halfback pass from Donovan against Ohio State. Probably my favorite. I've got a lot of favorites, it's hard. The fourth and two was good. Probably the play-action in the low redzone to Roman to tie the game up in regulation, that was probably my favorite. My second favorite would probably be the first touchdown to Blake, the mesh where we threw it out of the backfield to him because that's something the whole team knew was going to get called in that moment at that time. We talked about if the ball gets inside the 10, it's coming, you can call it. J.J., you can call it. He looked at me. We ran an end-around to Semaj on the left hash, went to the right hash and got inside the nine. J.J. looked at me like, I was like, yeah, got it. Everybody knew.

On how to maintain the level of play that has been set

We're going to continue to work. Just work. Work as hard as we can every single day, don't look at the prize, don't look at the games down the line, look at right now and do whatever we can do today to get better. We know we've got great talent here on both sides of the ball, we built it to sustain and not be up and down. Super excited for what the players has done this spring. They'll tell you, it's been a physical spring, it's been a fun spring, guys get after it. Sometimes you gotta pull them away, guys, we can't just keep pounding on each other like this. It's a great team to be around.

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