Michigan Football Avoids Massive Exodus for the Second Time

© Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Michigan Football for the second time in under 100 days, navigated through another transfer portal window without having a mass exodus of players. The 2024 spring transfer window is now closed and Michigan fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief, for the second time Coach Moore was able to keep almost all his starting roster intact. 

Maintaining the roster has become one of the biggest challenges for coaches to face and Moore has passed the test yet again. Moore has spent 45 of his 95 days as head coach dealing with being inside a transfer portal window.  Even with all that time for players to be convinced to leave Michigan, Moore has managed to keep the Wolverine's most sought-after players in Ann Arbor. 

In this new world of college football, roster management has turned into a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week and 365-days-a-year task.  Coaching staffs not only need to recruit players to bring in they also need to recruit their players to keep them from leaving the program. The NCAA's inability to enforce rules due to different legal battles has let the transfer portal turn college football into a modern-day version of the Wild West.  in a very short time at Michigan, Moore a first-time head coach, has now proven his and the staff’s ability to keep players out of the transfer portal, and that’s a good sign for fans. 

Moore was able to keep his best players on the roster,  and in this new era of tampering it's not something easy to do.  Colston Loveland, Myles Hinton, Kenneth Grant, Mason Graham, and Will Johnson are all coming back for the 2024 season.  Fans of a school 185 miles from Michigan believed and speculated most if not all would be gone.   Moore was able to prove them wrong just like he proved he could beat them as an interim head coach back at the end of November. 

Moore has only been able to grab 1 player so far out of the portal Dominic Zvada a kicker out of Arkansas State, Michigan has a total of 3 players transferring in.  With the lack of Depth inside the linebacker, wide receiver and secondary positions Moore will need to bring in at least a few players these next few weeks.  

Michigan has lost 18 total players to the portal and since taking over on Jan 26, 2024 coach Moore has lost 11 of the 18 to the portal.  The wide receiver room took the biggest hit with 3 leaving under Moore and 5 total. The secondary has lost 4 players total and 2 after Moore became head coach. The Secondary also lost 2 of the bigger names in Keon Sabb and DJ Waller Jr, both were projected to see the field a lot in 2024 with Waller possibly as a starter opposite Will Johnson

Not that the spring window has finally closed Moore can now shift most of his attention to acquiring talent to Michigan.  Moore will need to fill holes that were left by players who decided to head to the NFL or hit the portal.  He will also need to build depth at several position groups.  Coach Moore will need all the resources possible if he hopes to compete against the other top programs on the recruiting trail.  Michigan fans need to hope that Athletic Director Warde Manuel, President Santa Ono and the Board of Regents make sure he has those resources available.