Sherrone Moore updates health status of Michigan football S Rod Moore during spring practice

Michigan football safety Rod Moore is back for a fifth season after not playing a single game in 2024. Moore suffered a season-ending injury last spring and was banged up for the entire season. Moore is arguably one of the top safeties in college football when healthy, but getting fully healthy is the key. Defensive coordinator, Wink Martindale, said back in early March that Moore wasn't running yet and wasn't sure if he would be ready to go for the start of spring ball.

Now that spring practice is underway, head coach Sherrone Moore spoke with the media on Monday, and confirmed that Moore hasn't practiced yet. While the head coach isn't sure if his captain will be practicing this spring, he feels good about the veteran safety being ready to go for the start of the regular season.

"Yeah, not yet, but he's recovering well and I'm looking forward to him doing it too." Moore said on if [Rod] Moore is practicing. "We'll see. Yeah, we'll see if he does."

"Yeah, I feel good about it."

The Wolverines' safeties room is fairly deep. Michigan returns both Mason Curtis and Brandyn Hillman, with Jaden Mangham back after seeing minimal action last year for the Wolverines. Michigan also brought in transfer TJ Metcalf who started for Arkansas. They will continue to see action with the starters to see who will play alongside Moore once he returns.

Rod Moor — Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

True freshman defensive back stepping up

Michigan returns most of its corners from last season but the Wolverines have to replace both Will Johnson and Aamir Hall. Johnson missed most of the second half of the season, but Hall was a mainstay all year. Jyaire Hill and Zeke Berry are expected to play a ton and likely start on the outside, but Sherrone Moore mentioned true freshman cornerback, Shamari Earls, as one player who has stood out early.

"Yeah, you can definitely see it, especially being that size and that long," Moore said of Earls. "For a true freshman, he's definitely flashed and made the plays you would think he would.

"I just reserve reservation to say anything else until we tackle and we really play football because the first two days you're in helmets and spiders, so it's tag off. And then Saturday it was thud, so it's good football, but we want to hit and tackle and see what we're really all about."

Earls will compete to get into the two-deep this season. The 6-2 cornerback has been compared to Johnson and could have a trajectory as he did.

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