The No. 14 Michigan football team decided to define the 2025 season by the motto “today, not tomorrow” or “TNT,” as a way to stay grounded and not dwell on anything but the task at hand. Now that the New Mexico game is behind them, the fuse is set for No. 18 Oklahoma as the next team on the Wolverines’ schedule.
Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was an offensive lineman for the Sooners from 2006 to 2007. His defensive coordinator is now-Oklahoma coach Brent Venables and his offensive coordinator is now offensive assistant Kevin Wilson. Moore was also former teammates with current tight end coach Joe Jon Finley and current running back coach Demarco Murray.
With all the ties to its head coach’s alma mater, the Wolverines game against Oklahoma, theoretically, has a lot of weight to it. Not only is this a homecoming for Moore, but the Wolverines are marching into a ranked matchup and night game in Norman. But rather than putting more pressure on this weekend’s game, Moore is treating it like any other and focusing on his players — on simply winning.
“A lot of people that I know on the staff I have a lot of respect for and it’s a great town, great place — but it’s about the kids,” Moore said Monday. “It’s not about me. It’s not about any return to home. For me, it’s about the players on our football team going to try to win a game. … It’s going to be an awesome atmosphere, don’t get me wrong, but these kids are what’s special to me.”
And when asked if he would reach out to any of his former teammates and coaches ahead of the game, he had a quick and simple response.
“No, absolutely not.”
The mindset of “today, not tomorrow” and the Wolverines running a “locked in” fall camp, are both similar to the approach they will take against the Sooners. Rather than looking at what’s to come or listening to any noise from outside the program, Moore is only focused on winning.
Despite all the stakes of the game it’s not just Moore who’s treating Oklahoma like any other opponents. His players have also bought into the same philosophy.
“No, not really,” graduate offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi said when asked if the Oklahoma game has any extra incentive. “We just want to win. That’s the most important thing. It could be New Mexico. It could be Nebraska. It could be Oklahoma or the team down south. We want to win and want to do everything possible, play our best, do our best, and win the game.”
Treating every game the same mentally doesn’t mean the preparation stays the same as the Wolverines simulate what it will be like to play a night game in Norman. Freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood’s first road game is sure to be a big test, but in practice, the Wolverines are simulating the hostile environment by playing music or generic crowd noise over the speakers.
“The fans are going to always be loud, but we’re used to it,” El-Hadi said. “… Practices are very loud, sometimes louder than the game. … They got every speaker hooked up, playing as loud as possible during certain periods so we could work on silent counts. We could work on whenever everybody’s gonna be loud during games.”
Ignoring any added narratives surrounding this week’s matchup, Moore and his players are going to continue to focus on the present. And as the week progresses and the speakers get louder and louder, the Wolverines are going to shut out any noise from both inside and outside the facility on what the stakes of the game are and focus on one thing — winning.
The post Sherrone Moore, Michigan treating Oklahoma like any other matchup appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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