"We gotta go back to work," Michigan football coach Sherone Moore said Monday. "No pouting, there's no worrying about it, no making excuses for it."
When Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore emerged through the door that leads from Schembechler Hall into the Towsley Museum, he did so in clothes he's not worn before for a news conference.
On top of his Michigan polo was a blue collar jacket, literally and figuratively, with his name sewed into a white patch of fabric on the left side of his chest.
The attire was a message, he said, a visual representation about what will be required of everybody from the top to the bottom of the program in order to save a season that now hangs in the balance.
"I mean I think the message is pretty simple," Moore said Monday, Oct. 13, approximately 36 hours after the Wolverines' 31-13 loss to USC in Los Angeles. "We gotta go back to work. It's the reason I got the blue collared jacket on today, we've got to go back to work right now. There's no pouting, there's no worrying about it, no making excuses for it.
"That's all we got to do, that's all I know and that's what we're going to do right now."
Moore later said the blue collared work jackets have been around since the Jim Harbaugh era. The team gets a blue collared shirt after its first road win of the season and a jacket after its second.
U-M did not qualify for a jacket last season, a year that saw U-M go 1-3 on the road during Moore's first year as coach. To this point in 2025, they are 1-2 in three road games.
Moore served his second game of a two-week suspension when U-M beat Nebraska 30-27 in Lincoln. But of the two road losses this season (the first being 24-13 at Oklahoma in Week 2), Saturday's defeat looked the worst.
The offense had just one drive that crossed midfield and resulted in points. The other touchdown came on a 69-yard pass from Bryce Underwood to Andrew Marsh.
But the real trouble that has caused consternation was a normally sure defense that looked lost. Poor angles, missed assignments and poor tackling. It's something the team says it works on and harps on consistently through each week.
"We thud almost every day besides Friday before games," safety TJ Metcalf. "We haven't put our best performance out, but we'll be better."
The Wolverines have little choice if they want to keep their slim hopes alive at making the College Football Playoff. That will require six consecutive wins to end the season. The task begins with a test against a potent Washington team.
Michigan and Washington are two of the top three teams in the "others receiving votes" category of the latest US LBM Coaches Poll. The Huskies (5-1, 2-1 Big Ten) are not quite as potent as USC's offense (No. 2) but they're not far off at No. 17 (468.5 yards per game).
Coach Jedd Fisch's team is No. 24 in passing offense (279.7 yards per game) and No. 37 in rushing (188.8 yards per game) led by a trio of stars: quarterback Demond Williams Jr., running back Jonah Coleman and wideout Denzel Boston.
Washington's attack is capable of chunk plays through the air, gets the ball out quickly, and can win in multiple ways.
"When you're facing a team like that, you gotta be ready," Moore said. "(Williams) is dangerous. He dangerous running the ball, dangerous throwing the ball, dangerous when it's a scramble play so we've got to do a great job containing him and making him uncomfortable.
"(Coleman) can make you miss, run you over, so it's going to be a concerted effort to hone those two in to win the game."
It's now or never for the Wolverines on the heels of losing a forecasted season-swinging game. It swung the wrong direction and now U-M has a massive hill to climb.
Moore said the message has been shared, and is well known internally, that the goals are still in front of this team by winning out to get into the CFP, and avoid a second straight year of missing the 12-team field.
Despite the body language appearing on the sideline to not be as upbeat as previous road games, Moore insists the juice was there.
While there was disappointment, he said everybody was looking him in the eye with focus. That's what needs to continue to climb out of the current hole.
"Our job now is to not worry about every other thing in front of us, just worry about today, then tomorrow," Moore said. "Look at college football, you never know what's going to happen. There's wins, there's losses ... you can't predict it so all we can do is get better today, then figure out how to win this game and move on."
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
Next up: Huskies
Matchup: Michigan (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) vs. Washington (5-1, 2-1).
Kickoff: Noon, Saturday, Oct. 18; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.
TV/radio: Fox; WCSX-FM (94.7).
Line: Wolverines by 6½.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football knows it must 'go back to work' to save season
Category: General Sports
