Sherrone Moore Assesses Matchup With Buckeyes: ‘They’re going to make plays’

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore knows that his team has its hands full with the No. 2 Buckeyes this Saturday. The Wolverines come into the game sporting a 6-5 record, and he’s seen enough from his team this year that the 21-point line in this game can’t be a surprise to him.

The Buckeyes have the No. 1 scoring defense, the No. 1 total defense, the second-most efficient passing game in college football, and the kind of overall talent that has NFL personnel making frequent trips to Columbus.

On Monday, Moore was asked for his assessment of the Buckeyes.

“They’re as good as any defense in the country, I feel,” he said. “Complete defense, got great skill, got great talent, do a good job with the scheme, something we’re familiar with, we studied, we watched, and they’re a really good team. So we just have to go execute at a high level to go win.”

Moore is correct in that he has some familiarity with OSU’s defensive scheme. This will be Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ third crack at taking this Michigan offense offline.

In his first year, the Wolverines put 530 yards on Knowles’ defense, averaging 8.8 yards per play. Last year, those numbers dropped to 338 yards and 5.6 yards per play, but they were still good enough to secure a 30-24 win.

When Sherrone Moore looks at this year’s Ohio State team, he sees many of the same faces, but also noted the additions of safety Caleb Down, quarterback Will Howard, and running back Quinshon Judkins.

“The defense is mostly the same guys except for Caleb Downs,” he said. “The quarterback’s different. He’s playing really, really well. Really efficient. And then they have another running back in there, but the other guy that they have at running back is really good. So they’re still a talented team. It’s not like they have lost talent or they weren’t as talented last year. They have that. They’re just playing really good together.”

Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson have combined for 1,489 yards rushing this season on 233 carries (6.4 ypc). Howard is leading the nation in completion percentage (74.0) and is second in pass efficiency (180.54). He also has some decent receivers helping him along.

“Yeah, I mean, as good a wide receiver crew as you’ll see in the country, probably. We saw a great one with Texas and Oregon, and this one is probably as good or better,” Moore said.

“I mean, last year they were really good too. People make all these references that it’s different. I mean, last year they had Marvin Harrison. Now they have Jeremiah Smith.”

Jeremiah Smith is Ohio State’s talented true freshman who leads the team with 899 yards receiving and nine touchdowns. His 52 receptions are good for second on the team behind senior Emeka Egbuka’s 56 catches.

At this point one season ago, the All-American Harrison had 62 catches for 1,093 yards and 13 touchdowns. Smith isn’t too far behind, which is incredibly impressive.

“Jeremiah Smith is as advertised,” Moore said. “He’s big, he’s strong, he’s fast. Can make all the tough catches. So we’ve got to do a great job disrupting him.”

As teams have found out, however, if they put too much of their defensive focus on Smith, there are others who can make them pay.

“And then you’ve got Emeka Egubka. You got Carnell Tate. You got Brandon Inniss,” Moore said. “They got a lot of threats out there, so we’ve got to do a good job making it uncomfortable for the quarterback to distribute it to them and not let them get into their comfort level. They’re going to make plays. They always do, and they will, but we’ve got to limit those plays.”

While this game is generally won by the team that runs the ball best, the Buckeyes’ ability to throw the ball is also going to be a key factor. If Will Howard has time to throw the ball, he is going to utilize all of the talent that Moore just mentioned.

And if that happens, any limiting of big plays that Moore wanted to do may be out the window.

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