Sherrone Moore says ‘rivalries are still alive’ despite player swap with MSU

This is kind of surprising. #GoBlue

DETROIT — You’d think that Sherrone Moore and Jonathan Smith are buddies the way they appeared to be palling around with each other at the outset of the SoundMind SoundBody football camp at Wayne State.

After each gave a brief speech, the Michigan football and Michigan State coaches walked off the floor together, with Moore patting Smith on the back. But, for now, that’s off the field. Things are certain to change come October.

Both rivals had something almost unheard of just a few short weeks ago — players switching sides. It happens — Michigan got Ed Warinner’s son to switch before the 2020 season. The year after, linebacker Ben VanSumeren switched from maize and blue to green and white.

But this offseason, two players switched sides just hours apart.

First it was starting safety Jaden Maugham who transferred from MSU to Michigan — drawing the ire of Spartan fans. Hours later, Michigan linebacker Semaj Bridgeman transferred from Ann Arbor to East Lansing.

At SMSB, Moore says that he hasn’t heard all of the backlash on social media, but he’s happy that it worked out for both players. And regardless, once the teams take the field on the last Saturday in October, the mutual hate will certainly be apparent.\

“We’re happy we got Jaden,” Moore said. “He was really good player, an All-Big Ten player, so super stoked for him. And, excited for Semaj — he got an opportunity like he wanted, so good for him and all the blessings for him. But, I think the rivalries are still alive and just respected all of them but they’re still alive.”

Moore has been around the rivalry for some time having coached at Michigan since 2018. But this will be new to Smith — though he’s not unfamiliar with being the ‘little brother’ in rivalries, given he was the head coach of an overlooked Oregon State (which had occasionally taken down ‘big brother’ Oregon). It will be interesting to see how the two coaches handle working against each other in-state.

But for now, it makes sense they’d be docile. Because that October matchup in The Big House seems very far away.