Ask anyone their opinion of Michigan sophomore safety Rod Moore and you won't hear a negative thing said about him.

Moore is a worker, someone who puts in long hours to hone his craft at such a young age. Someone who is focused on being a good teammate, someone who has earned the ability to start games as a true freshman at safety, which isn't easy to do.

There might not be a bigger fan of Moore than head coach Jim Harbaugh, with Moore catching his eye right when he arrived on campus.

Harbaugh, who appeared on Inside Michigan Football this week, went on a lengthy discussion about Moore and his smarts. Effusive in his praise for his ascending safety.

"I have evidence that he's not one of those, he is the guy when it comes to preparation and studying tape," Harbaugh said. "A year ago in training camp, his freshman year, I was able to look at the guys iPad's through technology to see how many times they've opened an install tape or watch practice tape during that 29-day period during training camp. The amount of hours that Rod and times he had opened up that iPad to either install or tape watching was twice as much then the next guy. It was ridiculous. It was somewhere in the upwards of 550 times.

"The next guy was around 250. It's a good number, 250 times to have clicked on one of the different periods or drills or install tape, et cetera. Very, very impressive. Soon as he started playing, he didn't play like a freshman. From the time he got into games to the time he started playing in the games."

He continued:

"The other thing that stands out, he's a real hitter. He is not timid, shy, or unaggressive in any way. He's continued to be that guy that tackles them, gets them on the ground in space. Also, opportunistic, got another interception this past game. Definitely one of my favorite players. Young, too. Young in terms of, he was 17 when he got here on a college campus. He didn't turn 18 until a couple of months into his freshman year. It's pretty cool. In this day and age of guys that can reclass so they can be older, 18 sometimes 19 before they get on a college campus. I've always got this theory too that the young ones are really the better ones because they've still got a year of man growth coming their way. It usually happens around 18-19 years old. That's when they get that man year. He's been a shining star and a great example of that."

Not to leave out his position coach, Jay Harbaugh, who works with Moore every single day.

He, too, loves the development trajectory of Moore.

"Rod's an ascending player," Harbaugh said. "Had a great season last year and he's bigger, he's heavier, a little bit sturdier. He's all the same things as he was last year but just taken to another level. He can cover, he can play all the coverages. He can play man, he can tackle. He's an unusually good tackler for a guy who is not particularly bulky. He's a bit more of a wiry build but he's very, very strong and tackles with good technique. He's a guy who is a very well-rounded safety.

"Him and Makari, together, those two, R.J., they give you a nice trio of guys who can do everything. If you have that, it gives you so much flexibility and keeps you out of bad spots when each guy can cover for the other one, some guy can go to the post and another guy can go down into the box. You have a lot more flexibility and you're not covering up for weaknesses. Rod's a big part of that."