ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Entering his second year with Michigan football, edge rusher Derrick Moore has trimmed down 21 pounds. But that’s by design.
He met this offseason with team nutritionist Abigail O’Connor so that he could lose the weight — something he feels is paying dividends in fall camp.
“I feel way better,” Moore said. “I feel quicker, faster, more twitchy, more explosive. I don’t feel (weaker or) anything, I just feel way, way better than I felt in the last year.”
That was the goal, to increase his speed and get him to be able to play faster, with more get-off at the snap. But, if you expect to see Moore simply bull rush off the line as he mostly did a year ago, then you’ll be surprised at his growth, he says.
After studying other players such as Aidan Hutchinson, Mike Morris, even former Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa, Moore recognized that he could integrate other moves into his repertoire. He feels like it’s been going well in fall camp, in large part due to the support he’s getting from the fellow players in the edge rusher room.
“Last year, I focused a lot (on) power,” Moore said. “So I think going into the spring game, I kind of just sort of focused on more speed and let my power set it up.
“But now like going into camp, I’m setting up my rush stuff. My bull rush, like, I’ll bull rush, and then I’ll play off-speed with it. So I’ve been just trying to like set all my pass rushes and getting like — especially having the guys that I have in my room. So I’m the youngest edge guy in my room. So having guys like Jaylen, Braiden, Josaiah, just having them guys in my ears telling me like, ‘Ya know, you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do that,’ and like how to set up and game plan my pass rushes, having them guys has been helping and just working for me.”
While that tells the bulk of the story, the biggest difference for Moore this offseason isn’t his weight loss or his additional moves. It’s that he feels more comfortable in what he’s doing, now that he has a much better handle on the college game.
“I will say the biggest difference is my confidence,” Moore said. “I feel like last year I just wasn’t as much confident, coming in as a freshman and you’re playing you thinking like, ‘Oh, if I mess up, I’m probably never gonna get back on the field.’ So now this year, I just feel more confident, you know? I want my teammates to be able to have my trust to go out and perform — even if I mess up, if I could come back and redo it the next play and just be there for my team, that’s all I really have going into this year.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]
[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal title=”An offer for Wolverines fans” description=”For the best local Detroit news, sports, entertainment and culture coverage, subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.” url=”https://cm.freep.com/channeloffer?gps-source=CPSMGMIDARTICLE&utm_source=smg&utm_medium=inline&utm_content=wolverineswire&utm_campaign=smgtolocal&offer=W-SF&barBuild=atoms-pid” button_text=”$1 for 3 months”]