The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1523593
94 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2024 FOOTBALL PREVIEW personally, it means a lot. Having him on the other side of me, I need him … and it means a lot to the defense, just being able to have guys come back who have played and have experience." A Long Journey Like it is for most prep standouts, suc- cess didn't come overnight for Moore. He initially committed to Oklahoma out of Baltimore St. Frances, before head coach Lincoln Riley bolted for USC. He reopened his recruitment and wasn't sure where he'd end up after telling Riley he wasn't inter- ested in going too far from home. He turned to a few familiar faces to help him on his journey. Former Michigan line- backer and St. Frances graduate Nikhai Hill-Green called Moore and told him ev- erything good about the program and how he might fit. It helped, too, that Biff Poggi, Moore's former coach at St. Frances, was associate head coach for the Wolverines. He followed up on Hill-Green's phone call with one of his own the same day. Moore set up a visit, and he clicked right away with Harbaugh. While the coach talked football most of the time, Moore also left campus impressed with the school and its alumni network. He didn't waste any time deciding on his next move. "I was like, 'I can't throw this away. If I do everything right, I'm going to make it,'" Moore said. "After having a talk with my family, a talk with my coaches and Coach Biff, I ended up making the right decision and said it on the spot. I committed on the weekend up here to Coach Harbaugh's face." He's since played in 29 games and more than 600 snaps for a program that's won back-to-back Big Ten titles and a national championship thanks in part to his play. No, he wasn't on the field on every down, rotating with other outstanding edges, but somewhere he realized he didn't need to be. He watched several of his teammates in the same boat get drafted by NFL teams just as highly as they would have had they played every snap, only they'd put less mileage on their bodies. New defensive line coach Lou Esposito wants to employ a similar strategy with Moore, Stewart, senior TJ Guy and oth- ers, but he also understands who his bell cows are. The first-string line has the potential to be dominant, and with less proven depth behind them, might have to shoulder more of the load. "We have some special guys there be- tween Stewart, D-Mo [Moore] and Guy and some of those young kids that have come along," Esposito said. "There are some special players there. Then you get the inside kids mixed in there. When you have a good defensive front, you can't just scheme one guy. They can't say, 'We are going to scheme to [junior tackle] Mason [Graham]. We're going to go slide to D-Mo. We're going to slide to Stewart.' "There are so many guys out there, so it opens everybody else up. That's the key to having a deep front. One of the biggest Moore, who earned honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition from the coaches and media as a sophomore, notched 5 sacks and 6 tackles for loss last year and is just coming into his own as a pass rusher. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL