As Michigan football begins its spring practice window, which opened Tuesday, March 17 and will run through the maize vs. blue spring game on Saturday, April 18 as the final of the team’s 15 practices, it will do so without a trio of players it hopes will be vital to a successful 2026 campaign.
Transfer EDGE John Henry-Daley (lower body), sixth-year safety Rod Moore (knee) and offensive tackle Andrew Babalola (ACL) are all expected to sit out the spring window, or at best be very mild participants with the team.
Michigan defensive back Zeke Berry (10) and defensive back Rod Moore (19) celebrate an interception from Wisconsin at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025.
“They probably will not be available for spring,” Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham said Tuesday at his first press conference in Ann Arbor. “Maybe limited. One or two might have some limited action. Very limited.”
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Henry-Daley comes off an All-American campaign under Whittingham at Utah, but it was cut short the final two games of the season after he reportedly tore his Achilles tendon. When he was on the field, he was among the most dynamic players in the country, racking up 17½ tackles for loss and 11½ sacks in 2025.
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Moore, meanwhile, played just three games for the Wolverines last season. After tearing his ACL in spring ball of 2024, then needing another procedure in December 2024 to clean up his meniscus, it set back his timeline for 2025. He vowed not to rush back and sat out the non-conference season before returning against Nebraska.
The next week against Wisconsin he recorded an interception, but after a setback the following week in a road loss at USC, he decided to shut it down for the remainder of the year. Moore was granted a medical waiver by the NCAA to return for a sixth and final season of college football but evidently is still working his way back to the field.
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Last but not least, Babalola, the Class of 2025 five-star offensive tackle who was rated a top-15 incoming freshman in the nation last season per 247Sports composite rankings.
Ty Dieffenbach of the Cal Poly Mustangs is chased out of the pocket by John Henry Daley of the Utah Utes during the first half at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Sept. 6, 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He tore his ACL in August which kept him out of the entirety of last season. Now, seven months later, he’s continuing his rehab process in hopes of competing for one of the starting tackle positions with the presumptive favorites, Blake Frazier and Andrew Sprague.
None of these updates are particularly surprising, especially at this time of year when the coaching staff wants to air on the side of caution.
“We’re just trying to get them to the season healthy,” Whittingham said. “That’s the critical thing. They’re proven commodities and we know what they can do. We’ve got to make sure we do what we have to do to ensure we don’t have any setbacks.”
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Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football spring practice begins without 3 key players
