Michigan's Loss To Ohio State, Bowl Projection, Future Of Program Under Sherrone Moore

Michigan's regular season is now over and while on the surface 9-3 looks pretty good, there's a lot of disappointment surrounding the program right now. The Wolverines went 0-3 against its three best opponents and weren't in any of the games. Freshman phenom Bryce Underwood didn't develop much as a quarterback over the course of the season and head coach Sherrone Moore might just be in over his head. All that and more in the episode above.

Michigan's season-ending loss hit hard

Michigan began the game against Ohio State with promise—opening with early momentum, a big run, and an interception from Jyaire Hill. However, despite the strong start, Michigan’s offense struggled for the remainder of the game. They managed only three field goals and failed to score any touchdowns, ultimately taking a “beating” from Ohio State. The Buckeye defense, which was repeatedly praised as “the real deal” over the course of the season, stifled the Wolverines and Michigan couldn’t get their offense going.

The game had a noticeable presence of Ohio State fans, described as “a sea of red” in Ann Arbor, owing in part to many Michigan tickets being sold to Ohio State supporters. You're never going to keep every Buckeye fan out of the Big House, but Saturday was a bit ridiculous.

As a Michigan fan, it's hard not to feel pretty disappointed after that kind of showing. Losing by nearly 20 points against your most hated rival in your own house is a kick in the pants. It got away from the Wolverines after a strong start, which makes it feel that much worse.

Michigan's 9-3 record feels hollow

The season’s overall record has been described as hollow since Michigan’s wins mostly came against lower-ranked teams, and the team struggled in big games like the one against Ohio State. As outlined by another reporter on the Michigan beat, there just aren't any signature wins from this year's slate.

Michigan beat the four worst teams in the conference in Purdue, Maryland, Michigan State and Wisconsin, and very mediocre teams in Nebraska and Northwestern. By the way, it took a last-second field goal to beat the Wildcats at Wrigley Field. Because of that, 9-3 just doesn't look or feel like much of an accomplishment.

Is Sherrone Moore the guy?

At times, it feels like Sherrone Moore is trying to be too much like Jim Harbaugh. He's trying to copy Harbaugh in a lot of ways, and he’s not Harbaugh. He needs to do his own thing, come up with his own identity and try to make the team his own, from top to bottom.

As far as Xs and Os go, at a lot of points this year, he was way too conservative and just wasn’t creative enough on offense. There was disappointment with the team’s lack of creativity and a tendency to rely on conservative plays, even after bringing in new assistants. The offense did not show meaningful innovation or adjustment as the season progressed, despite hopes that a new staff and uber talented quarterback would provide a fresh approach.

It also seemed like Moore often leaned on the youth of the roster to explain shortcomings, a rationale that some felt wasn’t fully justified given the performance of young players on other teams. Plus, coming up with excuses is just not a great look for a strong leader.

At the end of the day, Michigan is 9-3 and will likely play in a high-profile bowl game, but that's not good enough. Period. With a 12-team playoff, Michigan needs to be in that mix year in and year out. For the second year in a row, which happen to be Moore's first two seasons, the Wolverines are not. That's a problem and he likely won't have much longer to get that problem solved.