It may have felt like the Michigan Wolverines' run to a National Championship was inevitable last season, but their path there was littered with close calls, controversy, and hard-fought victories. And never did Michigan feel more vulnerable than they did in their Rose Bowl matchup with College Football Playoff staple, the Alabama Crimson Tide. Down 20-13 with under five minutes to go, Michigan got the ball back, needing to march down the field and score a touchdown to keep their perfect season alive. And that's when Wolverines offensive coordinator (now their head coach) Sherrone Moore looked up to the sky and asked for some help.
“That drive, I was looking around. I looked at the clock, I looked at the time. I was like, ‘This is like the most important drive in Michigan football history,'” Moore shared with FOX Sports' Joel Klatt on Big Noon Conversations. “I looked up to the sky and asked my grandpa, ‘Hey, Pops, I need some help here. Help me out. Love ya.’”
This sort of late-game sideline plea is not abnormal by any means, but what happened next, at least according to Sherrone Moore, is certainly an unexpected twist to this story.
“I’ll never forget, I was walking, and all the linemen were strapping their helmets on. And JJ [McCarthy] comes up to me, he said, ‘Hey, pops, we got ya.’ I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re about to go score on this drive.’”
Just as Moore expected, Michigan scored the game-tying touchdown with a minute and change left on a JJ McCarthy to Roman Wilson touchdown pass. In overtime, Michigan scored first on a bruising touchdown run from Blake Corum, and then the Wolverines defense kept Alabama out of the end zone on a 4th and goal in order to advance to the CFP Championship Game. For three quarters, Washington hung with Michigan, but ultimately, the best team in the country took their rightful spot atop the sport.
Jim Harbaugh parlayed his success into a long-awaited return to the NFL, and in turn, Moore was elevated from offensive coordinator to head coach, an expected outcome given the fact that earlier in the season, following the Wolverines' victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes, Harbaugh referred to Moore as “a Michigan legend” after his offensive coordinator had filled in as head coach during Harbaugh's three-game suspension.
The new man in charge: “Michigan Legend” Sherrone Moore
With Jim Harbaugh off to LA to coach the Chargers and many of Michigan's stars also heading to the NFL — including JJ McCarthy, Blake Corum, Roman Wilson, Junior Colson, Kris Jenkins, and Mike Sainristil, among others — that leaves Sherrone Moore as the man in charge of Michigan's defense of their first National Title since 1997. Not that any road to a title is easy, but this season will prove to be a particularly difficult first year for Moore in Ann Arbor. Fans expecting a championship repeat would be wise to temper their expectations, because as Sherrone Moore himself explained, last year's group was something of an anomaly.
“It was something that when you work so hard, when you’re 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 were gonna do,” Moore told Joel Klatt.
And when you combine a collective chip on the shoulder with the talent that Michigan had at their disposal last year, a special season was always going to be the result.
“It just felt like they could not be stopped. It was a juggernaut, just ready to go every game. Any adversity thrown their way, they were ready to break it. It was something I had never been a part of.”
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