As Michigan football prepares to defend its national championship, it seems this summer a lot of the conversation has been not about what the Wolverines can do to return to the summit of the sport, but instead about the scandal surrounding the program.
Earlier this month the NCAA settled the case involving COVID-era recruiting violations, handing former head coach Jim Harbaugh a four-year show-cause and a one-year suspension. The NCAA also delivered its notice of allegations in connection with the program’s alleged sign-stealing and off-campus, in-person scouting scheme.
This week Netflix debuted a documentary on former staffer Connor Stalions, who spoke publicly for the first time about the allegations, largely denying any wrongdoing.
But even as the possibility of punishment looms over his head and the program as a whole, new head coach Sherrone Moore says the team is not letting any of that distract them.
“We just go on about our business. We know we gotta put all our attention on Fresno. You can’t let anything distract you,” Moore said Wednesday morning on the Costa and Jansen Show. “There’s distractions all over the place and when you’re at Michigan, that’s how it’s always gonna be when you're the best university in the world. We’re just worried about getting better today and trying to have a good practice today.”
While Moore said he’s not going to comment on the allegations, he said he knows there’s a target on his team’s back. But not just because they’re defending national champions.
“We know there's a target on our back because we’re Michigan and everybody wants a piece of us regardless of if we win a national championship or not. For us, we just wanna go out there and win and go out there and be successful and put our kids in a position to be successful and our players wanna go out there and work hard to go dominate their competition,” Moore said.
As for the pressures of defending that crown, Moore said the players “don’t really like talking about it” because it’s a new year and a new team with new goals.
“If anybody brings it up, the kids are like, ‘we’re tired of talking about it.’ We know this is a different team, we have different goals. Our goals, they don’t change, but it’s a different year. So for us, it’s not about last year, it’s all about Aug. 31 and that 7:34 kickoff,” he said.
That’s when the Wolverines open their title defense at the Big House against Fresno State. But who will be under center when they take the field is yet to be decided.
Junior Alex Orji and senior Davis Warren have been duking it out this summer to earn the starting role. It’s a possibility that both guys see time on Saturday, regardless of the score, but he definitely wants to “hone in” on who the starter will be.
“I think both of ‘em have been awesome and inspirational to each other. They’ve really pushed each other to be better. They’ve been competitive, not combative,” Moore said. “We’ve seen Alex Orji try to match the throws that Davis does and we’ve seen Davis try to match the runs that Alex can do. Both of them have really raised their level of play.”
Moore said “we’ll find out soon enough” which one earns the starting job, but it will come down to who can take care of the football and be a leader in the huddle.