CHICAGO – Michigan’s Sherrone Moore opened his postgame press conference with a sigh of relief.
The Wolverines’ head football coach watched his team blow a double-digit fourth-quarter lead only to respond with a game-winning 31-yard field goal from Dominic Zvada as time expired.
The 24-22 victory salvaged their season, but he stressed the importance of cleaning up mistakes that have hampered the team in recent weeks despite owning a four-game win streak. Michigan (8-2, 6-1 Big Ten) committed five turnovers Saturday but escaped with a victory, largely because it doubled up Northwestern (5-5, 3-4) in total yards, 496-245.
Here are highlights from Michigan’s postgame news conference:
Moore on his thoughts on how they game played out: “When you coach this game, when you’re part of this game with these young men, coaches, staff, and you’re with them for hours and hours on end on the day, and you go through that emotional rollercoaster like that, you appreciate the hard work, you appreciate their fight, their grit to finish.”
Moore on his message to kick Dominic Zvada after misses: “I see him — but I don’t talk to him. Like I told you, I can’t coach kickers. I let the kicking coaches coach him. His demeanor just never changes. I’ve never kicked before … I’m sure no one else in here … anybody in here kick before?
“Madden? Yeah, Madden. It’s different. That meter goes like this (flexes hand back and forth). That’s different. If you can hit that every time, you’ll make every kick. But it’s a lot different on Big Noon, on national TV, and the clock is at three seconds and they freeze ya. Then I see him over there, talking to one of their guys, and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s about to bang this through.’”
Receiver Andrew Marsh, who had 12 catches for 189 yards to set single-game records among Michigan freshmen (since at least 1979): “It means the world to me, just to have a chance, an opportunity to go out here with the team, the guys that I work hard with every week. Having an opportunity to come out here and do something like that, make history, it means a lot to me.”
Moore on his concern level after five turnovers: “In college football, in the Big Ten, it is hard to win. Every week it’s a battle. You can’t have five turnovers a week. That’s not going to help you win, so we got to clean that up. But, I mean, we moved the ball on offense. We got a good 496 yards of total offense. Defensively, held them to 61 yards rushing. That’s incredible. That’s an amazing job by the defensive staff, defensive front. Proud of the team and the win.”
Bryson Kuzdzal, who rushed 15 times for 53 yards and stepped into a featured role in the fourth quarter when Jordan Marshall exited with an injury: “I guess that’s just the belief that comes with being a Michigan running back. Justice (Haynes) goes down, Jordan steps up. Jordan goes down, I step up. That’s what we do; it’s the standard for the room.”
Moore on Kuzdzal’s fumble on fourth-and-1 from the NU 24-yard line late in the fourth quarter instead of opting to try a go-ahead field goal: “Wanted to be aggressive and go get the first down. Try to go score. We fumbled the ball. That can’t happen. It was just a fumble of the exchange.”
Moore on a large contingent of Michigan fans at Wrigley: “It was outstanding. Big shout-out to the Michigan family for coming out to support us in Chicago. I thought there would be a good group showing for Michigan, but it was better than I thought. They came. They were ready to go. They were pumped. They were loud. They were supportive. So much appreciation.”
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