U-M assistant says there wasn’t disconnect between offense, Josh Gattis before move to field

Michigan tight ends coach Sherrone Moore has been a part of an offensive staff that has seen a bit of a approach shakeup in recent weeks with offensive coordinator Josh Gattis moving from the coaches box down to the field to run his unit from there.

Moore himself has coaching experience both in the box and on the field, but says he prefers being on the sideline with his players. That said, he can still do what he needs to do from up top.

“I like being down on the field to look into the guys’ eyes, but I can also hear their voices over the phone from up there,” Moore said this week. “They know after every drive they have to go to the phones, whether they want to hear what I have to say or not. I like being down there because I like to see them but you can see so much up there and help from an offensive perspective.”

Moore says that he never really felt as if there was a disconnect between the offense and Gattis with the coordinator spending the first three games of the year up in the booth.

“No, not really,” he said. “I get on the phone with those guys every drive so I’m constantly hearing and getting their input as soon as they get off the field if they’re not on special teams. Getting right to the phone and making sure I’m hearing what they’re doing and what they think they have to do. Making sure everything progresses the way we need it to be.”

Fans have wondered what the benefits are from coaching and coordinating from the box and that has been a popular question since the move was made. There are sound football reasons for why that would be the case.

“You just get to see more. You can see all 22 guys at every second, every moment and kind of see how it unfolds,” Moore said. “Josh has been down on the field his whole career and he sees it better from down there, so he gets the feel of how to call it down there. I definitely feel the advantage of it for him. For me, just being able to see everything and relay stuff down to him and I can relay stuff down to him, it’s been helpful.”

The Michigan offense has lacked consistency and the explosiveness that was promised when Gattis arrived at Michigan, but Moore feels that the team’s work and belief in the system will pay off for them.

“Just consistency and making sure everybody’s doing their job on each play because, on offense, it takes one guy and the play’s dead,” Moore said. “On defense it takes one guy to make a play, and you’ve got a tackle for loss. It’s just everybody doing their job at the same time and you can see that starting to click, especially now that you’ve got more guys healthy, more guys that are back.

“It’s definitely starting to pick up now.”