The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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26 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2024 FOOTBALL PREVIEW want to know why we did things a certain way. He was always thinking. He was an in- telligent kid, but he was not the most gifted. He was a big kid, 6-5, 285-290, when he played for us. He wasn't that strong, so he had to rely on his brains and his technique. He was one of the leaders." So much so that the instruction on the offensive line came from more than Jirgens (interior) and Morrell (exterior). "Sherrone was another coach," Jir- gens assured. "He'd work with the fresh- men. OK, you're doing this wrong. This step needs to be six inches this way. He was al- ways leading." Although Moore wasn't, in Jirgens' esti- mation, "a huge rah-rah guy," he possessed the means of firing up his teammates, like he does with those he coaches now. "You guys have been introduced to the word 'smash,'" said Jirgens. "That was his thing back in junior college as well. He put the helmet on, and he was a different cat." Butler at the time did not take out-of- state offensive linemen — with pride, Jir- gens noted. "So, we had all Kansas kids, going against kids from Florida, Texas and Georgia," he said. "And we used it as a rallying cry. There were many times I watched Sherrone lose his mind during games, when we had to get things done. We didn't lose a conference game for five years. Those offensive lines led us. We were never the most talented, but we were always the most prepared. Sherrone was a big part of that." Moore's greatest strength, Jirgens in- sisted, was "being mentally prepared. As an offensive lineman, you've got to think on your feet all the time. As a running back, you know where you're going. As a wide- out, you know where you're going. As a DB, you know what third you've got in cover- age. But defenses do anything they can to confuse offensive linemen. We would grade our guys every week. I don't think he scored under 85 percent any week. "He made it a point. He was one of those office rats. He'd grab a couple of the guys, the starters, and say, 'Let's go watch tape.' He'd say 'Coach Jirgs, what do we have to do here? What if they do this?' He was al- ways thinking, trying to be a step ahead of the game." "Tom prepared him at Derby, and when he got here, we just kept polishing. And on up the ladder, at OU and throughout his coaching career." At Oklahoma in 2006-07, Moore helped the Sooners to a pair of Big 12 champion- ships and BCS bowl games. His approach involved more of the same, according to former OU O-line coach James Patton. "You can tell he's a very passionate per- son, eager to please," Patton said. "Cer- tainly, that's the way he was as a player, and I'm sure that's the way he is now as a football coach. "Smart, tough and accountable — those are three great qualities of a lot of the guys I've coached, and specifically O-linemen. Sherrone is one of those guys. "He was certainly smart enough to know what to do and how to do it, mentally tough enough to do the job and then certainly accountable. Those are things that he's about." Chris Messner, a teammate of Moore's at Oklahoma, expressed no shock that Moore worked his way through the coaching ranks — at Louisville, Central Michigan, and Michigan — so quickly. He also understood the emotion that went into the Penn State postgame last year. "I just think it speaks to how much he has invested in that team," Messner told the OU Daily. "Just like in our playing days, you always want to see everybody around you succeed, the team especially. He got a chance to help the team out, to help the organization out with all that was going on, and they didn't deviate from the success they were striving for. I think that's a huge thing. And I could see why anybody would be emotional." The opportunity that now awaits looms outstanding as well, with Moore's move to the big office at Schembechler Hall. "I was overjoyed," Messner said. "Going back to when we played together, Sherrone was always an upbeat, never-having-a- bad-day kind of guy. He loved to have fun in the locker room, and he was always very driven to do things the right way. Seeing him have success at the level he's at is quite beautiful." Removing All Doubt Moore worked with tight ends at Louis- ville, Central Michigan and Michigan be- fore taking over the entire U-M offensive line in 2021. That's a big step up, and not everyone jumped on board right away, at least outside of Schembechler Hall. Former Michigan offensive lineman Doug Skene — owner of five Big Ten cham- The Moore-coached Michigan offensive line won the Joe Moore Award as the nation's best offensive line unit in 2021 and 2022, becoming the first repeat winners of the honor. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL