ANN ARBOR, Mich. — One of the big questions this offseason for Michigan football is how similar will it be under Sherrone Moore compared to Jim Harbaugh. Thus far, halfway through spring ball, to the veteran players, it doesn’t look any different.
Senior fullback Max Bredeson didn’t partake in the terrible, no-good COVID year when the Wolverines went 2-4. But he arrived in 2021 and saw the beginning of the culture change — and thus he saw the standard set. Now that he’s entering year four, he isn’t seeing anything radically different from what he experienced as a freshman.
“It feels like the same Michigan as when I first got here,” Bredeson said. “It’s a different personality, a different coach, but similar where it has to be. And he’s having his own little tweaks, I guess, wherever he finds. But it’s been awesome. All good things come out of it, so he’s awesome.”
Michigan has been driven the past several years by ‘the climb.’ The team had a chip on its shoulder and was working towards unmet goals from previous years.
In 2021, it wasn’t just improving upon a dismal season, it was about beating Ohio State for the first time in a decade and winning the Big Ten. After that mission was accomplished it was about beating all three rivals in one year and winning the College Football Playoff. The former was achieved in 2022, but when Michigan lost to TCU in the semifinal, 2023 became a requiem of that. Thus, a national championship was the goal and it’s what the team achieved.
So what does the team chase now that the mission has been accomplished? Bredeson says that chasing the high of winning everything is enough to drive this new iteration of the Wolverines.
“So I’d say now it’s more about that you’ve created a standard that you have to match,” Bredeson said. “There’s the experience that you’ve got to feel like — I’ll never forget those wins. And it’s like, I’ll do anything to get back to that same point. You just want to feel that feeling again, you want to just — you come here to win, it’s what you want to do.”
Especially on offense, the big thing will be to impart that to the younger players whom Michigan will need to heavily rely upon. The Wolverines are loaded on defense but less so on offense. Bredeson says that those who had learned from the leaders in 2021 and beyond know what it takes to win and they’re imparting that to the younger players.
“It’s more of them just kind of seeing what it looks like,” Bredeson said. “When I first got here, it was a different season, but I mean, you watched Aidan Hutchinson and Josh Ross — you knew what it was supposed to look like. Just follow them and everything will figure itself out type of deal. And hopefully, (younger players now learn from us like) that. And they’ve got to feel the intensity of what winning takes, what a practice looks like to get to that level, what it takes in the weight room. So I think it’s more just occupational learning for them.”
With all of that said, is anything different? Not really, Bredeson says. The only real differences under Sherrone Moore at this point are the new ‘Quest for Atlanta’ drill that pits 11-on-11 and that the players have more of a choice sometimes in what they’ll work on. Otherwise, the train keeps rolling, just with a new conductor.
“It feels just about the same,” Bredeson said. “Randomly, we’ll do a player-choice period where he lets us pick a period. But that’s really about it. It’s been awesome.”