ANN ARBOR – The Michigan football team found itself in an unfamiliar position after Saturday’s 31-12 loss to No. 3 Texas.

For the previous 23 games at Michigan Stadium, players have filed into the postgame press box at Crisler Center, right next to the Big House, to celebrate a victory. But the 10th-ranked Wolverines had little to celebrate Saturday. They fell behind early and couldn’t match the Longhorns on either side of the ball, falling 31-12.

First-year head coach Sherrone Moore and the players were pressed about what went wrong after the program suffered its first regular-season loss since 2021 and its first home defeat since 2020. Here are notable quotes from Moore and the players after Saturday’s drubbing:

“My message to the team was that it takes determination. We haven’t lost here in a while. We don’t like losing. For us, it’s like you never want to lose, so you never think about losing. But for them and for us, I just think about them. I think about how they feel and what are we going to do to get better? That’s the only thing we’re worried about right now. We’re going to do everything we can in all three phases to get better, and every little bit, and my message to them was that we have to do it together. You can’t point fingers, and you find out who you are in the team when adversity strikes.”

– Moor about his approach to dealing with loss

“There’s no problem maintaining the standard. The standard that’s been set here for how we do things, how we approach every day, every practice, every meeting, every walkthrough — that standard hasn’t changed. It’s up to all of us to uphold that standard in every way possible, and that’s something we clearly didn’t do a good enough job of today. I didn’t do a good enough job as a quarterback today. It’s up to me to get better, to play better.

“It sucks because you come into this game and you know there’s a lot at stake. You want to win. So you have to take a long, hard look in the mirror at what kind of team we want to be, who we want to be. But I know, know from my side, adversity is – I’m used to it. I’m prepared to deal with it and take it easy and wake up tomorrow morning with a burning passion to get better.”

– Quarterback Davis Warren on how the team aims to maintain the winning culture it has built over the past three years, when it went 40-3. Warren, a former walk-on and cancer survivor, completed 22 of 33 passes for 204 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions on Saturday.

“I think they did a great job with the offense they presented to us. It’s a lot like our defense — a lot of positionless football. You have running backs that act like receivers and you have receivers that act like running backs. We were prepared for that. We just didn’t execute it well enough.”

– Safety Quinten Johnson on how Texas’ offense attacked them. The Longhorns’ running backs combined for eight catches for 56 yards and a touchdown, while receiver Ryan Wingo also had a 55-yard run on an end-around. Overall, Texas finished with 389 yards, including 279 in the first half.

“I don’t think it really changes. A is a loss. Obviously, yeah, you have a better chance with a loss or two to make the playoffs. But it’s the same thing either way. I feel like we should have won that game. We have to execute and win games like this. It hurts. But we just have to get better as an offense. I have to get better.”

– Tight end Colston Loveland or whether he views a loss differently now that the playoff field has expanded to 12 teams this year. Loveland, who finished with a team-high eight catches for 70 yards and had a fumble in the second quarter.

“I think he just did a good job. He stepped up in the pocket a lot when our rushes were high. He did a good job of maneuvering in the pocket on third downs, and that’s really what kept drives alive. The play-action passing game worked. He did a good job with the open routes. We just have to communicate better and make sure that we do that. We mixed man and zone, so it wasn’t like we’re man, or we’re zone, or this. So we just have to do a better job of matching all the routes and communicating. You really look back and the missed assignments, that’s what hurt us.”

– Moor on what made Quinn Ewers effective on Saturday. The Texas quarterback threw for 246 yards and three scores on 24 of 36 passing.

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