Sherrone Moore and Michigan football signed Tony Alford from Ohio State as their new running backs and offensive coordinators.
Sherrone Moore explains why he hired Tony Alford from Ohio State.
Earlier this month, Sherrone Moore and Michigan football signed Tony Alford from Ohio State as their new running backs and offensive coordinators.
Earlier this month, Michigan football signed Tony Alford from Ohio State as their new running backs coach and offensive run game coordinator.
Alford had spent the previous nine years with the Buckeyes, under both Urban Meyer and Ryan Day, and he left after the team began spring workouts. He arrived in Ann Arbor to oversee a room that included Donovan Edwards, Kalel Mullings, Benjamin Hall, and a slew of youthful talent.
Moore spoke on Thursday about what made Alford such an appealing candidate.
“His résumé speaks for itself,” remarked Sherrone Moore. “Who he is as a coach, mentor, and recruiter.” But more crucially, as an individual,. I’ve known him for a long time.
“Clearly, he was on the opposite side. Don’t blame him too much for it. But, as a person — once you get to know him outside of that — he’s a fantastic human being. “He’s an incredible mentor and coach, and I’m so excited to have him on staff.”
Alford has almost 25 years of experience coaching running backs at some of college football’s most prestigious teams, including midwestern powerhouses Notre Dame and Ohio State. Charlie Weiss hired him at Notre Dame in 2009, and Brian Kelly retained him the following year. Alford served as wide receivers coach in South Bend from 2010 to 2011, running backs coach, slot receivers coach, and receiving coordinator from 2012 to 2013, and running backs coach/recruiting coordinator in 2014.
Ohio State hired Alford from Notre Dame in 2015. In Columbus, he served as assistant head coach for offense and running backs, and he was recently promoted to run game coordinator. Alford is also known for his strong recruiting skills, which should benefit Moore and his team.
“The experience he has, what he’s done, and where he’s been, it’s just a different perspective,” Moore told reporters. “It’s always beneficial to gain a new viewpoint, and you don’t always do things the same way you did. Sometimes you have to make a few changes, but it’s always beneficial to have a different perspective and opinion on how someone has done something. Just because you’ve tried one method before doesn’t imply it’ll work. Just because you’ve always done it a certain way doesn’t mean you can’t do it differently. So having a different perspective is beneficial to us.”
Alford succeeds Mike Hart, who departed the program after three years as running backs coach. Hart is a program legend who still maintains Michigan’s all-time rushing record. “Mike did so much for this university,” Moore explained. “He was an important part of what we did here both as a coaching staff and as a player.” I won’t say anything else about it.
