Sherrone Moore has been back to work after serving his two-game suspension over the sign-stealing scandal. With a 5-2 record so far, his body language and clothes literally scream ‘grind harder.’ Remember his blue jacket that he wore at Schembechler Hall, following the loss to the Trojans? Well, he is not giving up that piece of cloth anytime soon.

Ahead of the week 9 matchup against Michigan State, Moore showed up in his controversial blue jacket that had certainly evoked mixed reactions from the fans. His response for his choice of attire? “I guess it worked, huh?” per The Michigan Insider’s Alejandro Zuniga.  Well, it certainly did. After the road loss to the USC Trojans, following which the head coach first appeared in his “get back to work” jacket, the Wolverines clinched a 24-7 win against the Washington Huskies.

Last week, his message was crystal clear in his choice of clothing. “I mean, I think the message is pretty simple,” he said on Oct. 13, after losing to Lincoln Riley’s USC. He had further added. “We gotta go back to work. It’s the reason I got the blue collared jacket on today, we’ve got to go back to work right now. There’s no pouting, there’s no worrying about it, no making excuses for it.”

Although last week’s appearance caused a meme-meltdown, with the fans and critics leaping on him, following losses against USC and the Sooners and for a his ‘motivational tactics.’  But the head coach says, “He’s not concerned about silencing the critics, and jokes wearing the jacket is something he does because it is getting cold outside,” he said, per The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich.

The blue shirt-jacket attire tradition is a more recent one that’s been around Ann Arbor since the Jim Harbaugh era. The team gets a blue-collared shirt following its first win on the road game and the jacket after its second road trip. Back in 2023, the Wolverines’ Wire wrote about Harbaugh’s fascination with blue-collar shirts.

TLDR: pulling off the heavy machinery stuff and instilling the same mentality in his players to work harder. “And he’s often doled out blue-collar shirts to his players to emphasize a similar mentality,” the Wire wrote. Turns out, Moore’s blue jacket last week worked like a charm, and before hitting the next game against the Spartans, he’d rather not take any chances…so it continues.

But how are the Wolverines’ road games faring? This season, the Wolverines have six road games on their schedule. With three games already concluded. They won against Nebraska, but both of their losses have come on the road to Oklahoma and USC. Now, they will head to the Spartan Stadium for the week 9 road game. The next two games are against Northwestern and Maryland.

Last year, the Wolverines couldn’t wear the jacket due to a 1-3 away game record.

Wolverines vs Spartans

Rivalry week in town at East Lansing. With a 5-2 record, the Wolverines are heading to a week 9 matchup at the Spartan Stadium as a 14-point favorite, according to DraftKings. Following the win over Washington, Sherrone Moore said post-game, “We’ve just got to focus on next week.”

“We can’t worry about what’s going to happen, what team’s going to win and what team’s going to lose. It starts with this next one.” With rivalry matchups, sentiments always run high. “It’s always been about us,” running back Jordan Marshall said.

“I don’t care who we’re playing. It’s a faceless opponent every single week, and we’re going to go out and do what Michigan does every single week.”

Presently, Sherrone Moore’s program holds a dominant winning streak of 63-36-4 against their in-state rival, with the Wolverines winning the last three matchups. But Moore is not underestimating his opponents, calling it a “huge one.”