Sherrone Moore says 10-win season would be 'huge success' following Ohio State loss

The Michigan head coach is looking for his team to respond in the bowl game
Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leads his team onto the field prior to the NCAA football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 29, 2025.
Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leads his team onto the field prior to the NCAA football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 29, 2025. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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The No. 15 Michigan Wolverines were defeated by a score of 27-9 by No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday in Ann Arbor. With the loss, Sherrone Moore's second full regular season as head coach of the program comes to a close.

After finishing 7-5 in 2024, Moore's team improved by two games to end with a 9-3 regular season record in 2025, including a 7-2 mark in Big Ten play.

Even after the defeat to the Buckeyes in a game where the Wolverines were completely outplayed, Moore said in his postgame press conference that he is looking forward to the team working on things they need to improve on leading up to the bowl game.

Considering how young this Michigan team is, Moore told reporters he believes 10 wins would be a success if the Wolverines can come out on top in the bowl.

"We've got another game we have to play after this," Moore said. "We've got to regroup and try to get 10 wins. That'll be huge. That would be a huge success for this team, to get 10 wins with such a young team. Starting six freshmen—redshirt freshmen, true freshman quarterback, redshirt freshman running back, three redshirt freshmen offensive linemen. So, we've got to regroup as a team and make sure we do that."

Sherrone Moore
Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore hugs athletic director Warde Manuel during warmup at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Would 10 wins be a success?

Whether 10 wins is considered a success season may conflict the Michigan fanbase.

There is no doubt about it—the Wolverines are one of the youngest teams in the country, and in theory have a bright future ahead of them if players on the current roster continue to develop while Moore and his staff continue to recruit at a high level. On the field, many young players on both sides of the ball who will return to next year's team showed flashes of major potential.

At the same time, Michigan's schedule as a whole this season wasn't exactly considered a gauntlet, and when they did go up against teams of higher caliber (Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State), the Wolverines were beaten badly in all three games against their toughest competition.

So, whether a 10-win season would be considered a success for Michigan is probably subjective on a person-to-person basis. But there's no doubt that the Wolverines will have to take another step forward next season to prove that coach Moore is taking the program in an upward direction.

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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.

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