Michigan football fans finally got some reason to celebrate regarding star safety Rod Moore. After enduring a brutal two-year battle with his right knee, the Ohio native announced on the In the Trenches podcast that he is feeling the absolute best he has since 2024.

“I’m feeling the best I’ve felt since March 27, 2024 — that’s the exact day I tore my ACL,” Rod Moore told Jon Jansen on Wednesday. “I’m feeling great. It took three surgeries, but now I’m feeling like I haven’t felt since the past two years.”

He is officially planning to be a 100% “full-go” for summer conditioning and preseason training camp. This is a monumental update for a guy who has been the literal heartbeat of the Wolverines’ secondary when healthy.

The main reason he is feeling so great right now stems from a third “cleanup” surgery he underwent back in January 2026. For months, his knee felt stiff and had an annoying clicking sound. Surgeons went in and scraped out a bunch of old scar tissue. It worked like a charm, completely eliminating the discomfort. Because of that quick procedure, he is finally able to run in a perfect straight line again and says his signature elite speed has officially returned.

Right now, he’s focusing on regaining his high-level foot coordination. Obviously, when you go through three back-to-back-to-back surgeries on the very same leg, your brain and muscles will have a hard time syncing well enough to play football at a high level.

“I didn’t really understand this, but when you come back off an injury like that and go through three surgeries, your body forgets how to do certain things. There have been times where I was frustrated because I was like, ‘Dang, I used to be able to do this.’ But now it just takes time to get it back.”

To make sure that his knee stays perfectly stable and his mind doesn’t play any doubts or tricks on him, the 6’0” DB is putting in some 30 minutes of a multi-step pre-workout “prehab” warmup routine, according to On3.

To understand how much adversity this guy has faced, you have to look at the timeline. It started on March 27, 2024, when he tore his ACL and meniscus during spring practice. The injury forced him to miss the entire season. He then had another surgery in April 2025 to fix a meniscus problem and tried to come back in 2025.

But his knee still wasn’t ready. He played only 86 snaps in three games before the coaching staff decided to shut him down for the rest of the season. Thankfully, the NCAA granted him a rare sixth year of eligibility because of his injuries. Now, he is preparing to play for his third head coach and fourth defensive coordinator at Michigan.

At the same time, he has a chance to become the school’s first-ever three-time captain.

On the verge of making history.

“It would mean everything to me. It meant everything to me when I was a one-time, first-time captain, and then repeated it for a second year. But it’d be crazy. There are only five or six people that have been two-time captains,” Moore said.

Truth be told, it’s only a matter of time. If anything, this extra season is a big-time blessing for Michigan’s defense. Moore is a highly respected two-time team captain and has suited up and played in 37 career games.

Before the injury bug hit, he was one of the best certified playmakers on the team. The Year 6 vet has racked up around 142 career tackles, 3 crucial interceptions, and 7 pass breakups.

Buckeye fans know what he’s quite capable of. After all, his best play came against Ohio State. He secured a game-winning pick against Ryan Day’s squad back in 2023 to seal a 30-24 dub. The new defensive coordinator, Jay Hill, seems to love everything about him, and Moore couldn’t be any more grateful for it.

“Honestly, I can say I got lucky because a lot of coaches don’t really go back and look at players that used to be here, older players that are coming off injuries,” Moore said. “I can say that this coaching staff, they took the time to really learn who I was, especially Coach Hill.

He doubled down on their relationship.

“He called me one day out of nowhere — I think it was probably a week after he got here, and he was like, ‘I like the way you move.’ I’m like, ‘Dang, you back there watching the ’23 film?’ And he told me how he can’t wait to get me back, and to be honest, it’s probably been the first time in my college career that I’ve felt I had the support and the need for a coach to want me healthy.”

If his knee holds up during summer workouts, Moore will easily reclaim his starting safety spot and most probably will end up in the first 3-4 rounds of the NFL Draft.