Wink Martindale lauds Rod Moore's football IQ, compares him to Eric Weddle

Michigan football's new staff hires haven't been in the facility very long, but they've had a chance to see the players in various settings and get an eye for each player's talent level. Among those new hires is defensive coordinator Don 'Wink' Martindale, who met with the media on Friday afternoon.

Martindale joined offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell at the podium in Al Glick Fieldhouse to discuss the Michigan football team ahead of the start of spring practice on Monday.

The Michigan defensive coordinator, who recently named himself the "OG" of the team's stellar defensive system, talked about all things defense on Friday afternoon.

In the short amount of time that Martindale has spent in Ann Arbor since he was hired, one player's football brain has already stood out in a big way, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to Michigan fans.

"Rod Moore, he's the safety that, and I'm not talking about play-wise or anything else. Smart-wise, football knowledge-wise, all that," Martindale said. "...That's exciting to me because there's a lot of checks that have to be made on the field, and it's like, well, the head pieces, the ear pieces coming in now, which is great because that's what I'm used to. There's still signals going to be going on. Rod is like, 'If they go hurry up, what should we do?' Call the defense. You can't be wrong. He's that smart."

Moore, who is best known for his game-sealing interception against Ohio State last November, could have entered the NFL Draft and would have likely been a mid-round draft selection, but the Ohio native opted to return for his senior season with the Wolverines.

Although he missed the first three games of the 2023 season due to injury, Moore got healthy and immediately made an impact on the defensive side of the ball for the Wolverines.

He didn't make quite the splash on the stat sheet that he did in his sophomore season — he finished with 38 tackles and two interceptions compared to 71 tackles and four interceptions in 2022 — but Moore came up big for Michigan when it mattered most.

Aside from his history-making interception against the Buckeyes, Moore made two critical tackles of Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe in the Rose Bowl and followed it up with a four-tackle performance the following week against Washington in the national championship.

Martindale compared Moore to former NFL safety and six-time Pro Bowl selection Eric Weddle.

"He reminds me of Eric Weddle," Martindale said. "And he was one of the smartest safeties I've ever coached. And so I called Weddle and told him about it."

Martindale views Moore as a good example of how all defensive players should strive to know the intricacies of the game.

"Now, what you gotta do is start to build more and more guys like that," Martindale said. "I haven't had as many conversations with Makari (Paige) as I have Rod but you can see with Makari's play, those two are connected. I saw it yesterday in a walkthrough. There's going to be other guys with that. Mason is one, up front. Ernie (Hausmann) at linebacker. There's a lot of guys that know football here. That's the good thing for me."

Moore is poised for a big senior season in the defensive backfield alongside fifth-year senior Makari Paige. Michigan lost Mike Sainristil to the NFL Draft and Keon Sabb to the transfer portal (Alabama), but with the return of Quinten Johnson and the experience and leadership of Moore and Paige, the Wolverines' defensive backfield should be elite yet again in 2024.

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