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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When the Big Ten decided to punish the Michigan football program for an alleged in-person scouting operation, it determined that suspending coach Jim Harbaugh was the proper punitive measure.
Whatever early season benefit Michigan gained from Connor Stalions’ operation would be balanced by making life harder and the path harsher. The Big Ten would force it to play its toughest games — at Penn State, at Maryland and mostly against archrival Ohio State — without its head coach.
And, therefore, with Sherrone Moore, its 37-year-old offensive coordinator.
In Ann Arbor, they like to mockingly call Ohio State’s Ryan Day, “Coach Third Base,” a reference to a pointed and particularly vicious put-down by Harbaugh back in 2021, when the Wolverines finally beat the Buckeyes to cause this series to shift.
The theory was that anyone could take over Urban Meyer’s machine and win, but in the big moments and the big games, well, we’ll see who can hit a triple after all. In reality, Day, 44, has proven to be an elite coach and recruiter, 56-6 coming into Saturday, but in rivalries, reality doesn’t matter.
And so stood two coaches on two Big House sidelines on Saturday.
One a presumed heir apparent.
One a punitive case.
Well, one of them went 3 for 3 on fourth downs, used a surprise quarterback substitution to jumpstart a critical second-half drive and ran a halfback option to set up another key score.
One of them survived injuries to his best defensive player (Will Johnson) and best offensive lineman (Zak Zinter), somehow growing stronger without them.
Sherrone Moore delivered the biggest win of his young career on Saturday as Michigan toppled Ohio State for a third straight time. (Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images) (Aaron J. Thornton via Getty Images)
One of them had his team produce points on all four…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/with-sherrone-moore-calling-the-shots-michigan-wills-its-way-to-third-straight-win-over-ohio-state-235059430.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2023-11-25 23:50:59
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