Zeke Berry: Michigan football ready to move forward post-Moore

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In the interim between the conference championship games and the College Football Playoff, Michigan football has been the center of the college football world, and not exactly for the right reasons.

Not only was head coach Sherrone Moore fired for having an inappropriate relationship with a female staff member, he was later arrested and charged following the aftermath, having allegedly broken into her residence and threatening self-harm. Afterwards, Biff Poggi was named the interim coach and has been tasked with keeping the team together, despite the deafening outside noise. He said at a Cheez-It Citrus Bowl press conference that the players felt 'betrayed' by Moore's actions, something echoed by three players made available by the program on Friday.

Even so, cornerback Zeke Berry says that Poggi has done a good job of keeping the players' focus on the right things, instead of wallowing in the mire.

"Being that that happened, a lot of players were down," Berry said. "But something that he said was, 'Don't let someone else's decisions affect your emotions,' and that's something that stuck with me. I've been trying to think about it every day, to keep pressing on."

Moore often spoke of accountability and even had the team slogan this year as 'team over me.' Yet, Moore's actions fly in direct conflict with what he preached. And that could have a lifelong impact on some of his players.

But Berry is guarding against not trusting future coaches just because his most recent head coach acted outside of the values that U-M works to instill.

"I mean, it can (be hard to trust future coaches), but try not to really think about that so much," Berry said. "Cuz I know that this program is gonna bring somebody in that's into that squad that's gonna lead us and guide us to where we wanna go."

While tight end Marlin Klein made an impassioned plea on Friday for Michigan to promote Poggi to full-time head coach, Berry feels like perhaps there needs to be a wholesale shift in the program after Moore, especially given how much the Wolverines have been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons in recent years.

"Yeah, something does need to change," Berry said. "I mean, I feel like we've already been doing that. So, yeah."

Michigan is practicing now in anticipation of the December 31 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl against Texas in Orlando, Florida.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Zeke Berry says Michigan football focused on future after turmoil

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