INDIANAPOLIS — In the past five years, we’ve seen some legendary coaches leave their post while the new hotness comes in to fill the void. In some of those cases, the new head coach coming in has had much more hype than their predecessor.
When Ryan Day took over for Urban Meyer at Ohio State, he was spoken of as being on the same plain as Meyer, who had won three national championships at two schools. When Marcus Freeman took over for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame, he was spoken of as an upgrade on Kelly, despite his inexperience and Kelly’s penchant for turning mediocre teams into national contenders.
Yet, for Sherrone Moore at Michigan, he hasn’t been afforded the same lavish praise as the two aforementioned.
WolverinesWire caught up with CBS Sports studio analyst Adam Zucker at Big Ten media days, and in his eyes, he thinks part of it has to do with Jim Harbaugh being larger than life, but also says — good, Moore flying under the radar may be a good think for the maize and blue.
“I think lack of hype is good, actually,” Zucker told WolverinesWire. “And I also think that Jim Harbaugh was the magnet for praise, criticism, attention quotes, and I don’t think he purposely over-sheltered the assistants on the team, but with so much attention on everything on and off the field that took place under Jim Harbaugh, and the assistants — whatever minor roles that were with the recruiting aspect is fine — but they got to do their jobs, and now we get to see him do it.
“So, I think if anyone needs to make us make a quote about whether he’s going to be an elite head coach or not, I would just save your thoughts and watch and see him do it. He obviously won his chances last year, and you don’t just hand the Michigan head coaching job to anybody. So there’s a there’s a proving ground among the people who need to make that decision and we’ll see if they’re right.”
With Moore taking over for Harbaugh, not many are giving Michigan much of a chance to defend its 2023 national championship. Much of that is warranted given the personnel turnover and all of the questions that come with a coaching change. But Zucker notes that, even though some of the teams that get all the hype did get some big-time players in the transfer portal, Michigan has one constant that could frustrate a lot of teams.
We asked Zucker what Michigan would have to do to shock the world and win a second consecutive national championship, and he says it all has to do with one side of the ball where the Wolverines are not expected to take a step back.
“A lot obviously would have to come together, we can agree on that, right?” Zucker said. “I think if it’s still that defense, because we’re focusing a lot on Ohio State’s new offensive weapons, even though they added Caleb Downs, and got Denzel Burke back; Oregon, to me, I’m thinking about their offense. If Michigan’s defense can frustrate teams the way they have, that would be their chance. That would be their chance. Obviously, they have to make it to the playoff. But it’s their defense to me that leads the way, if it wasn’t already.”