Wolverine Digest

Michigan safety returning to Wolverines for 6th season

The Michigan captain will be back in Ann Arbor for the 2026 season
Seth Berry|
Michigan safety Rod Moore walks toward the locker room as the team arrived off the bus ahead of the New Mexico game to open the season at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, August 30, 2025.
Michigan safety Rod Moore walks toward the locker room as the team arrived off the bus ahead of the New Mexico game to open the season at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, August 30, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In this story:

Michigan Wolverines

Two-time Michigan captain Rod Moore will return to the Wolverines for the 2026 season, as announced on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Thursday night.

Moore medically redshirted in 2024 after missing that entire season recovering from a torn ACL. In 2025. Moore preserved his traditional redshirt after appearing in just three games this past season due to having some lingering effects from the prior injury.

The 6-foot, 198-pounder will have an opportunity to earn captain status for the third straight season, as he was voted as one by his teammates the past two years.

If Moore can return to full strength, he will provide the Wolverines' secondary with a veteran presence who has shown he is capable of being a playmaker when he is at full strength.

Moore at Michigan

Even while still battling injury in 2025, Moore still found a way to make an impact when he did see the field while recording an interception against Wisconsin on Oct. 4 after making his season debut at Nebraska two weeks prior.

Moore shared Defensive Player of the Week honors for his play against the Badgers in his second game back. He started at USC on Oct. 11 and made four tackles in the Wolverines' loss, but did not return to action for the rest of the season after the game against the Trojans.

Rod Moore
Oct 11, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; USC Trojans wide receiver Makai Lemon (6) runs for a first down before he is stopped by Michigan Wolverines linebacker Jimmy Rolder (30), defensive back Rod Moore (19) and defensive end Cameron Brandt (9) in the second half at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Prior to getting injured ahead of the 2024 season, Moore became a star in the back end of the defense in the Jim Harbaugh era at Michigan.

In 2023, Moore appeared in 12 games with 11 starts at safety, making 38 tackles for loss with two interceptions while helping the Wolverines to their first national title since 1997.

The year prior, as a sophomore, Moore appeared in all of Michigan's games and made 13 starts, leading all defensive backs on the team with 71 tackles. He also had a team leading four interceptions among seven pass breakups that season.

Moore first came onto Michigan as a freshman in 2021, when he appeared in 11 games with four starts at safety while making 32 tackles with one pass breakup.

— Sign up for the Michigan Daily Digest newsletter for more free coverage fromMichigan Wolverines on SI —

Published
Seth Berry
SETH BERRY

Seth began writing on Michigan athletics in 2015 and has remained in the U-M media space ever since, which includes stops at Maize N Brew and Rivals before coming onto Michigan On SI in June of 2025. Seth has covered various angles of Michigan football and basketball, including recruiting, overall team coverage and feature/analysis stories relating to the Wolverines. His passion for Michigan sports and desire to tell stories led him to the sports journalism world. He is a 2020 graduate of Western Michigan University and is the former sports editor of the Western Herald, WMU's student newspaper.

Share on XFollow berry_seth14
Home/Football