Twenty four Michigan takeaways from 2024 Big Ten Media days

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Sherrone Moore and three players — graduate safety Makari Paige , senior fullback / tight end Max Bredeson and senior running back Donovan Edwards — took the Lucas Oil Stadium stage at 2024 Big Ten Media Days, previewing the season for the Maize and Blue. Here are our biggest takeaways from the event.

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1. Sherrone Moore is confident

Moore fired onto the stage as ‘The Victors’ played and delivered a passionate opening statement, followed by some impressive answers to questions. Hours later, he took a smaller podium and looked cool and confident during a 45-minute session with reporters.

“You guys know Jim [Harbaugh ] isn’t coming back, right?” Moore jokingly asked as he sat down.

As an assistant coach and at times early in his head-coaching tenure, Moore has been known to give shorter responses and not divulge too much information on his team (the depth chart, etc.). He looked more relaxed and comfortable Thursday, though, in a completely different league than fellow first-year head coach DeShaun Foster of UCLA.

2. … and ready to attack

Michigan’s head coach, of course, has more experience than Foster, having led the Wolverines to four wins as interim head coach in 2023 and been at U-M and in the Big Ten since 2018. He also has a team worthy of exuding confidence about. The Wolverines lost 13 NFL Draft picks, several assistant coaches and its head man after winning the national championship last year, but they have plenty of talent coming back.

Moore said there will be no “honeymoon year” for Michigan, and that they’re ready to “attack.” After all, while Moore is forever simply known as a national champion, he’s not one as a head coach. A lot of the projected starters this season weren’t the main men on last year’s team, so there’s all sorts of motivation. As junior tight end Colston Loveland so eloquently put it when we spoke to him earlier this week, “two is better than one.”

3. Michigan unfazed by not being Big Ten favorite

The media picked Michigan to finish fourth in the Big Ten in 2024, behind Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State. The Nittany Lions selection may be surprising, but they have a favorable schedule, avoiding U-M and Oregon.

First of all, the media poll is wrong most of the time, picking the correct conference champion just four times in the last 13 years. That’s a good reminder that preseason talk is just that — talk — and that once the season begins, expect the unexpected, with some craziness and drama mixed in.

While Michigan players aren’t focused on the four-out-of-13 data with the media poll, they’ve seen themselves how irrelevant it is. The Wolverines were picked fourth in the Big Ten East (!!!) behind Indiana (!!!!) ahead of the 2021 season. They won the conference by smashing Ohio State and Iowa at the end of November and early December, respectively.

Ohio State was picked to win the Big Ten in 2021 and 2022, actually. Michigan won the crown again in the latter season. The Wolverines were the favorites heading into 2023 and got the job done, bucking the trend of the collective of writers making poor choices at the proverbial ballot box.

So, yeah, Michigan is in familiar territory, flying a bit under the radar — if that’s possible — after winning the Big Ten (and national title this time around).

“People always put stuff to paper, but ultimately it’s nothing we haven’t been through at all at Michigan,” Edwards said.

“For us, you like staying there,” Moore said of being under the radar. “You like staying in that little perch, and get ready. When it comes game time Aug. 31, you get ready to strike.”

4. Not shying away from expectations

Michigan lost numerous key players and has a different coaching staff. But as has been discussed so much this offseason, the operation of the program hasn’t changed much at all.

And neither have the expectations and the goals. The Wolverines will die trying to achieve them, too, as Harbaugh said in his time at U-M.

“Every year for us, our goal is to win that,” Moore said of the national title. “We’re not going to stray away from the goal of trying to win it all every year. At Michigan, that should be the goal every year.”

“Our team has done a good job of making the necessary steps to be elite, do all the things we set out to do — win the big games, beat our rivals, beat Ohio State, win the Big Ten, make the College Football Playoff and win it.”

5. Mum on quarterbacks

It’s not surprising Moore declined to go in depth on Michigan’s quarterback competition. It has to play out during fall camp, after all, and it does seem like it’s pretty wide open going into the July 31 start to practices.

Moore did note that graduate Jack Tuttle , who missed spring practices due to an injury, has looked “great” this summer, though, calling him “accurate, throwing it hard.” He’d be our bet to start the opener, but that’s a projection. Fall camp is likely going to be the determiner, and even then, Moore and Co. could have the competition go into the season.

There are a lot of different options, but no sure-things. Quarterback is the one spot making Michigan fans a little anxious about the upcoming season, which includes a tough schedule, but Moore can’t do anything about that in July.

6. Offensive line position battles

Perhaps it was just coach-speak, but when asked about who’s battling with senior Greg Crippen at center, Moore made it seem like classmate Raheem Anderson has a legit shot at winning the job. And in a way, he does, even though Crippen has been praised much, much more this offseason. Nothing is owed to Crippen, even if he did wait his turn. Anderson has waited just as long. Whoever wins that job should be a real plus player for the Maize and Blue.

Right tackle is the other position in question, and Moore noted that graduate Jeffrey Persi and junior Andrew Gentry are competing there. The tea leaves all point to Gentry being out in front, with Moore explaining in a separate answer that Gentry is one of the offensive linemen he’s most excited about, leaving out Persi. In addition, Gentry played right tackle in the spring game, while Persi filled in at right guard. If Persi were in line to win the job at that point, it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t have played at tackle.

Another offensive line note: Moore mentioned senior Dominick Giudice as a player that’s not getting enough love. He’s in our projected two-deep at guard.

7. Watch out for Kalel Mullings

Graduate running back Kalel Mullings wasn’t in attendance at Big Ten Media Days. Someone else from his position group was, with Edwards — one of the cover athletes of the college football video game and faces of the sport — drawing quite the crowd for his press conference.

All the while, Mullings could be one of the top weapons on the team. He’s big and physical — and faster than people realize. Moore raved about him, saying he’s “unbelievable.”

There’s little doubt in our mind that Mullings will have a big role on this offense, even with Edwards likely being the No. 1 back. Edwards said that he could handle 25 carries per game but that he doesn’t need those to stay happy. He wants to win and see his teammates succeed. Mullings seems primed to do so.

8. Donovan Edwards has grown in many ways

Edwards noted Thursday that he might’ve been “arrogant” heading into last season, when he said he could “revolutionize” the running back position and expressed his desire to declare early for the NFL.

He was humbled last season, he’s said this summer, and learned from it. He went through his own struggles on and off the field but got his “fire back” later in the season and was a star in multiple huge victories, including at Penn State and over Washington in the national championship game.

The way he talks about his teammates and wanting them to grow and experience success isn’t something he wouldn’t do in the past, but he’s now a team leader striving daily for others around him to shine.

9. Jyaire Hill out in front at cornerback

Michigan has an open battle at cornerback on the other side of the field to junior Will Johnson , who earned All-America accolades last season. But Moore said entering fall camp sophomore Jyaire Hill — a two-time spring game standout and former four-star recruit — looks like “the guy right now.”

That’s not a huge surprise, since sophomore DJ Waller Jr. — who was in the running for a starting role — transferred to Kentucky following spring practices and two incoming cornerback transfers haven’t had an official practice yet. Aamir Hall (Albany) and Ricky Johnson III (UNLV) joined the team this summer and will compete for time.

Hall has the best chance to earn a starting role out of he and Johnson, but Hill won’t go down easy. We have a feeling Hall and Hill will both play quite a bit, at least early in the season.

10. Michigan is ‘continuing to build’ with NIL

According to sources, Michigan has around $10 million to pay for its 2024 roster, looking to up that amount at all times, of course. Meanwhile, rival Ohio State has “around $20 million” for its team this season, according to athletic director Ross Bjork in an interview with Yahoo Sports.

The Wolverines — and most others in the sport — have ground to make up on Ohio State, which was desperate this offseason after another loss to Michigan, and the likes of Oregon, which reportedly has “unlimited” NIL from alum and Nike founder Phil Knight . But Michigan has taken a big step forward since the national championship run last January, and it’ll have to continue to have success fundraising to build its roster for 2025.

Moore has embraced those efforts, too, hitting key donor hotbeds after spring practices concluded. The Champions Circle collective also held one of its biggest events of the season, its golf outing, earlier this week. Moore was front and center as a host, doing interviews, speaking with donors, golfing and more.

11. Defensive pillars intact

The four pillars of Michigan’s defense — block destruction, ball disruption, communication and effort and angles — have done wonders for the unit, according to players and coaches. According to Moore, the returning athletes were adamant that those stay intact, and new defensive coordinator Wink Martindale was “so on board with it.”

Last season, former Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was teaching a master’s-level class in defense, delegating one pillar to each assistant. They’d present weekly on how to uphold the standard of their pillar and show examples, good and bad. The players have really taken to it.

Moore essentially said the outside world will have to wait and see how Martindale will change Michigan’s defense. But it’s clear the tenants of the system — and those pillars — will remain the same.

12. Hype for Cole Sullivan, Dominic Nichols continues

Two freshman defensive standouts of Michigan’s spring game received high praise from Moore: linebacker Cole Sullivan and EDGE Dominic Nichols . Moore said Sullivan is “ready to break out at some point” and that he’ll play this season, whether that’s special teams or defense. He called Nichols the true freshman he’s “probably most excited about.”

Sullivan and Nichols caught our eye in the spring game as way ahead of schedule compared to the rest of the early enrollees. Sullivan flew around and knocked back offensive linemen, posting 3 tackles, including 1 for loss, in the scrimmage. He looks like he could play off the edge if Michigan needed him to, and Moore even said the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder has the semblance of a defensive end playing linebacker.

Nichols, meanwhile, will develop throughout his career but looks physically ready to impact. The 6-foot-5, 251-pounder came screaming off the edge on a 3rd and 5 and made a tackle for loss in the spring game. There could be more where that came from this season, especially considering the Wolverines need depth to emerge at EDGE.

13. Ben Herbert approves of Michigan’s offseason

One of the best anecdotes of the day was Moore revealing that former Michigan strength coach Ben Herbert recently attended a summer workout. The new Los Angeles Chargers staffer told the team that it looked like “nothing has changed” with Justin Tress now in his role.

That speaks volumes, and Herbert wouldn’t just say that unless he really believed it.

It’s one thing for the players to say nothing has changed under Moore and other new staffers. It’s another thing for it to actually look like that on the field and in the weight room.

14. Which transfers will make an impact?

Michigan’s top two impact transfers appear to be graduate left guard Josh Priebe and junior linebacker Jaishawn Barham , both projected starters. But there are others who will play key roles, including Hall, graduate safety Wesley Walker (Tennessee / Louisville) and junior safety Jaden Mangham (Michigan State).

Junior kicker Dominic Zvada probably isn’t being talked about enough, though. Kicker has been such a big position for Michigan over recent years, winning the team multiple games, and Zvada has the makings of the next great one in a winged helmet.

Zvada, who nailed 17 of his 22 field goal attempts, including 8 of 10 from 40-plus yards, last season, was described by Moore as “accurate” and having “a leg.”

“He can really boot it,” Moore said.

15. Clear top three at EDGE

Michigan has two starters that could make up one of the better tandems in the conference at EDGE in senior Josaiah Stewart and junior Derrick Moore . Moore said “the pocket just shrinks so fast with those two guys,” using the example of the final fourth down stop to beat Alabama in last season’s Rose Bowl.

Stewart — a 6-foot-1, 245-pounder — blew back Alabama All-American right tackle JC Latham, who had 115 pounds on him, which was one of the catalysts of that stop. Moore, actually, made the tackle.

Moore compared Stewart and his strength to former Michigan outside linebacker and current New England Patriot Josh Uche , who stood 6-foot-2, 250 pounds in 2019.

“He’s got some elite twitch, elite quickness but also elite strength for his size.”

Stewart is being slept on nationally, we believe. He’s also stepped up as a leader this offseason, per multiple teammates.

Michigan is searching for depth on the defensive line, and senior TJ Guy appears ready to do just that. He waited his turn behind a plethora of talented edge rushers. Based on his comments throughout the offseason, Moore is high on Guy.

“Is anybody going to block TJ Guy today?” Moore said in the spring of one of the questions he asked during practice.

“He’s ready to go attack this year,” the head coach said in Indianapolis.

Michigan needs at least one other to step up and be a key contributor, based on the way it’s rotated up front in the recent past. Sophomore EDGE Cameron Brandt is seemingly the next guy up but didn’t receive any mention from Moore this time around.

16. A key for the Michigan defense

One of the keys to the Michigan defense will be to replace nickel back Mike Sainristil , and the favorite to start at that spot is junior Zeke Berry , who said this summer he’s been going back and forth between nickel and safety.

Berry has stood out as the top player at slot corner, though, according to position coach LaMar Morgan . And he’s not just taking the job, he’s shining. He was all over the field in the spring game, showing his skills to the rest of the world, and he’s impressed his teammates. Paige said that Berry reminds him of former Michigan nickel Daxton Hill .

It’s unfair to ask Berry to be Sainristil or Hill, but if he can play at a level close to that, Michigan’s defense should be elite. A great player at that spot might be the one missing piece on the starting lineup. It won’t be missing much longer if Berry can burst onto the scene.

17. Tight end room is deep

Michigan’s top two tight ends are Bredeson (who’s more of a fullback) and Loveland, an elite playmaker in the pass game. Moore called both of them “absolute beasts.” But the room has a lot of depth to it, beginning with junior Marlin Klein , a potential breakout star for the Wolverines. He’ll be asked to play a lot in line and be a key blocker — and Moore called him “probably the freakiest athlete of all of them.”

There are even more capable players there, including, and first up, sophomore Deakon Tonielli , who “looks like a guy who’s a junior” and classmate Zack Marshall .

18. Semaj Morgan, Donovan Edwards all about their work

Edwards and sophomore wide receiver Semaj Morgan are two of the more vocal and confident players on the team. But they’re also all about their business, and two stories on that stood out.

First, Edwards revealed that he told the rest of the running backs he was going to out-work them this offseason. That served as a challenge, intentionally so, and Edwards said he’s been pushed by the rest of the group daily. He’s been happy to see them work hard.

Morgan, meanwhile, earned a 4.0 GPA last semester, and that led to Moore allowing him to switch from No. 82 to No. 0 on his jersey. Moore also called him one of the hardest working players on the team.

“Semaj is probably one of the best practice players on the team,” Moore explained. “He practices so hard he loses probably about five or six pounds every single practice.”

19. Michigan has a plan for new rules

Moore has a nine-person analyst staff, and because of a new rule passed late last month, they’ll be able to coach on the field in practices and games. Moore said he was expecting that rule change, noting that he planned for it. He has an impressive group that he put together . The head coach said that more eyes on younger players should help their development.

Helmet communication is also here, with coaches having the ability to radio in play calls to one player on each side of the ball. Michigan was ready for that and even has a defensive coordinator who came from the NFL — where that communication has long been occurring — so that should be a seamless transition.

While it took a few months to get his recruiting staff in place, he’s hitting his stride there, too.

Moore didn’t sit idly by and stay in his own lane when he was an assistant coach. He thought out and eenvisioned what his own program would look like. Now, he’s implementing it.

General manager Sean Magee , who was close to taking a job with Oklahoma before coming to Michigan from the Chicago Bears, has also been a big boost for Moore. Like Moore is always thinking of his vision and working to implement it, Magee is in charge of managing what the future of the program, taking a lot off of the head coach’s plate.

Michigan has great organization under Moore, which isn’t easy for a first-time head coach to achieve this early.

20. Sherrone Moore staff moves have been a success, so far

There were a few hurdles early on in Moore’s tenure, with then-newly-hired defensive line coach being arrested for an OWI and resigning in late March. His replacement, Lou Esposito , was brought in from Memphis, where he was co-defensive coordinator and line coach for a stretch.

Esposito has been crushing it on the recruiting trail, landing three four-star recruits, highlighted by top-60 prospect Nate Marshall out of Oak Park, Ill. He’s also built great relationships with his players in short order, with the linemen speaking positively about him.

Esposito also has coordinator experience, having run the defense at Western Michigan from 2017-23, as do all of the assistants on that side of the ball under Martindale. Linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary was the coordinator at South Florida in 2017-19 and just came from Tennessee, where as Moore mentioned he went against the “fastest offense in the country” every single day in practice. Secondary coach LaMar Morgan was the coordinator at Louisiana for two seasons before making the move to Ann Arbor. He’s also been hot in recruiting as of late.

It’s all on paper now, and we’ll see how the team performs this season and in the years to come, but Moore feels good about the staff moves he made.

21. Ohio State overconfident?

This week, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was asked about repeatedly losing to Michigan, which has handed him all three of his Big Ten losses over five years as the head man in Columbus.

“One of the biggest struggles we have is when you lose a game like that, you have to wait a whole ‘nother year to get back into that game,” Day said.

He would know, for sure.

He’s not wrong about that, either, but it does feel like each of the last three years Day and his players believed it was “one play” or “one drive” that plagued them, even though Michigan won convincingly in 2021 (42-27) and 2022 (45-23). And it also feels like each year Day believes that if 365 days go by, Ohio State is inevitably going to right the wrong.

Ohio State has a great roster coming into this season, but it’s had elite talent under Day in years past and not gotten the job done against Michigan or in the bigger games. So it’s hard to know exactly how much of the talk of being motivated by last year’s 30-24 setback in Ann Arbor is lip service and how much is real.

“That was a very good team, but we still should’ve won the game,” Day said on SiriusXM. “We didn’t. So why was that? What do we need to do?”

Ohio State played a great game but came up short of the eventual national champs. “Should have” is an arrogant statement and brushing off that Michigan was the better team AND played better on that day.

It’s pretty clear at least some of Ohio State’s players haven’t eaten any humble pie when it comes to the Michigan rivalry. Wideout Emeka Egbuka , who had an underwhelming season with 515 receiving yards in 2023, slipped up and said the Wolverines may not have as good of a roster as the Buckeyes.

“It doesn’t matter if they don’t have the talent, per se, and we do have the talent,” Egbuka said. “It’s going to be a hard game every year.”

We see his point, given Michigan had 13 players drafted from last year’s team, and it actually was an innocent comment. But it being innocent is the point: The Buckeyes may be overconfident once again.

22. Michigan-Ohio State two- or three-game series in 2024?

With no more divisions in the Big Ten, Michigan and Ohio State could play two weeks in a row for the first time ever, in Columbus and then in Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game. They could play again in the College Football Playoff just weeks later.

Michigan players are excited about that possibility, as is Moore, who said, “Love it. Let’s do it,” when asked about that scenario.

One thing’s for sure: The Wolverines won’t be playing with any fear down in Columbus Nov. 30. It’s hard to win at the Horseshoe, but Michigan did so its last time down there in the second of its three-game win streak in the series. No player on the Ohio State roster, meanwhile, has beaten the Maize and Blue as a Buckeye.

“A dub. A win,” Paige said when asked what comes to mind when he hears ‘Ohio State.’

That could be seen as arrogant, too, but Paige is just being truthful.

23. USC is a wildcard in the Big Ten

USC is coming off a disappointing eight-win season in 2023. The Trojans allowed 34.4 points per game, ranking 121st in the country in that category, and head coach Lincoln Riley set out this offseason to revive his defense. He brought in D’Anton Lynn from UCLA — who came from the same Baltimore Ravens system that Michigan has used — and there are high hopes.

USC has a long way to go defensively, and it also has to adjust to the physicality of the Big Ten. The Trojans allowed over 190 rushing yards in nine of 13 games last season, and were not physical enough on either side of the ball in losses to Washington, Notre Dame and others.

On top of it, Riley’s showing at Big Ten Media Days didn’t inspire confidence in multiple national reporters we talked to, with the third-year head coach showing some frustration about what he inherited.

“It’s a process to get there,” Riley said. “Has my patience been tested on it? Hell yeah. No doubt. Every day. But my resolve hasn’t been tested. My commitment to being here hasn’t been tested. I know this is the right place. I know what this is going to be and that’s what makes that confidence every day, whether the day goes perfectly the way you want it or something goes wrong that day, I don’t ever leave that day discouraged. There’s just a bigger picture to what we’re building here and I’m really focused on that and I’m really confident in what we’re doing and that we’re doing it at the right place.”

Riley went on to say USC is “playing catch-up” in facilities, NIL, “resources within the program” and “damn near every way that you could think of.”

Hope springs eternal at this time of year, so taking media-day comments with a grain of salt is typically the right play. But the coaches usually have a good idea of what their teams will look like. Riley railing on his rebuild is a tough look.

There’s a chance USC’s defense is “fixed” and the Trojans are a force that contends for the Big Ten championship this season. But there’s also a scenario where they’re worse offensively after losing a Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback ( Caleb Williams ) and have a tough time against Big Ten opponents. They open conference play at Michigan — not a tough first test.

24. Jonathan Smith doesn’t add fuel to the fire

Oftentimes, there are huge contrasts with coaching hires. Former Michigan basketball head coach Juwan Howard , for example, is a 6-foot-9 former All-American who played over a decade playing in the NBA. New head man Dusty May , meanwhile, was an Indiana student manager in college, and stands 5-foot-10 in shoes.

Those facts don’t mean much in terms of how things went or how they’ll go in the future. There are just stark differences with a program and its look and feel when drastic changes are made.

Look at Michigan State football. It went from a cocky, flashy coach in Mel Tucker , who was fired last season, to Jonathan Smith , who’s much more subdued and serious (and a much better coach).

Tucker would fan the flames of the Michigan rivalry, that’s for sure. His players attacked U-M athletes in the tunnel in 2022 — an embarrassment and a shame after the Spartans were embarrassed on the field, 29-7. Smith, on the other hand, did not, showing his respect for the reigning national champions.

“It’s going to be passionate and all those things,” Smith said of the Michigan rivalry. “I’ve been part of an in-state rivalry really my whole coaching career. I think that’s the great thing about college football — the traditions that go with that. Every game means something, but that game will definitely mean more.”

On Moore, Smith said: “We don’t have a lot of communication, but I pay respect for what he was contributing to the last few years at that place.”

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