Michigan won’t be attempting to plant flags on opponents’ fields anymore following last season’s postgame dust-up between the Wolverines and Ohio State at Ohio Stadium.
That's according to Sherrone Moore, who said Thursday at Big Ten Media Days that his team's days of planting a flag on an opponent's home field are over.
“We definitely addressed it. There'll be no more flag planting. There'll be no more grabbing the flag," Moore said. "Our new tradition, what we do when we win a game, it’s go meet the band, go sing our Victors and stay over there until after the other team departs. That’s how we’ll operate. Shake hands after the game, show sportsmanship, be cordial. A lot of guys in college football know each other. All these guys, they’re kids – at the end of the day, they’re 17 to 22-year-old kids, and most of them are friends. A lot of them talk before the game. So let them have that, but then as a team, go be together as a team and leave as a team.”
Michigan defensive end Derrick Moore was at the center of the flag-planting incident that raised tensions between the two squads, though he says he himself did not actually plant the flag. Moore recalled the event on Thursday.
"I actually was trying to just run around the field with the flag and as (I was) running around with the flag, I got pushed and things like that. So I ended up talking trash and next thing, the flag ended up coming out of my hand and the whole scuffle turned out," Derrick Moore said. "But looking back on that, I probably got two views on it. I feel like I could have done a better job as a leader of not letting that get out like that. Pretty much just celebrating with my teammates and things like that. But at the same time, I feel like that right there is pretty much why people come to Michigan or Ohio State. It's ’cause of rivalries and atmospheres like that. I feel like that right there is going to be a good leap going into this year again."
The Big Ten fined both Ohio State and Michigan $100,000 following the incident.
Ohio State hopes it will be the team celebrating on its rivals' field this season as it attempts to snap its four-game losing skid against the Wolverines on Nov. 29 in Ann Arbor.
