Those Michigan Men. For all the alleged character that has been attached to that appellation, they keep getting in trouble.
The football program continues to stuff the stat sheet in all areas over the last five years: a national championship; three College Football Playoff appearances; a four-game winning streak over Ohio State; two major NCAA investigations; two different head coaches suspended; turning Cloak and Dagger Connor Stalions into a household name; really gross allegations against former offensive coordinator Matt Weiss; and now the current head coach has been abruptly fired.
Stop making headlines, Wolverines. At least the embarrassing ones.
The cycle of scandal continues in Schembechler Hall with the jarring termination of Sherrone Moore, who threw away a dream job in two seasons. The school announced Wednesday that Moore was “terminated, with cause, effective immediately. Following a University investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. The conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”
The 39-year-old Moore was given the keys to the maize-and-blue Cadillac for two reasons: he was on Jim Harbaugh’s staff, and he did a good job keeping a championship operation on track in 2023 while the head coach was suspended during the Stalions advanced scouting scandal. Riding Harbaugh’s coattails gave him a shot at a job a lot of people weren’t sure he was ready to handle. But he was heading into a third season, with a rising star quarterback, and he just nuked his opportunity.
This has been an unsavory run for a football program that had always positioned itself as a cut above the rest in terms of how it operates. The defiance Michigan showed throughout the impermissible recruiting investigation and then the Stalions affair was the sort of stuff associated with the SEC scofflaws that the Wolverines once looked down upon. It shows that everyone is willing to embrace situational ethics and put up a fight for a winner.
Michigan circled the wagons, took all the arrows and made all the necessary rationalizations in defense of Harbaugh amid multiple NCAA infractions cases. His record at the school was 86–25, including 37–3 over his last 40 games. That made him a hill worth dying on. With a title won and the NCAA walls closing in, he returned to his NFL habitat. Michigan fans regard him as a hero.
Moore? He’s 16–8. Not bad, but not Harbaugh-good. The Wolverines were 8–5 his first year and were 7–3 with him as coach this year (9–3 overall, with two suspended games). After pulling the greatest upset yet of Ohio State in 2024, he presided over an emphatic home loss to the Buckeyes last month that snapped Michigan’s cherished streak in the series.
Did that make him more expendable, especially in terms of escaping a buyout? Only Michigan knows that answer. And only the shallowest subset of fans is shrugging this off as a net positive because it saves the school money and at least another season with a coach they didn’t think could compete for titles.
Bottom line: Moore’s transgression, as presented by the school, is certainly fireable. Bobby Petrino got second chances after a similar situation at Arkansas—but he also had more wins on his résumé, and in the swamp of college football that matters. Moore, like Mel Tucker down the road in East Lansing, Mich., a couple of years ago, might have a (deservedly) hard time coming back from this.
As for Michigan? This tumult comes at a time when the hiring cycle has effectively closed in college football.
Athletic director Warde Manuel has to find a coach after several potential candidates have gone elsewhere or agreed to enhanced contracts where they are. Penn State, LSU and Florida made hires at the top of the food chain, with Michigan State, Auburn, Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia Tech on the next tier. Indiana, Texas A&M, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Louisville, SMU, Georgia Tech and BYU kept their successful coaches.
Could any of them change their mind? Maybe. Are there other options, in the college and NFL ranks? Sure. Is this still an A-list job? Undoubtedly.
But with the transfer portal opening Jan. 2 and QB Bryce Underwood’s phone undoubtedly blowing up—no matter how secure his NIL contract might be—Manuel must both nail the hire and do it relatively quickly.
In terms of trying to again conjure up the Harbaugh era magic? That ship might have sailed. The most likely candidate with ties to Harbaugh would be his current defensive coordinator with the Los Angeles Chargers, Jesse Minter, who was also the DC at Michigan in 2022–23.
But some program observers believe Manuel (and others at the school) are ready for a clean start outside of the Harbaugh coaching tree. They defended him doggedly and loved the results, but it was an exhausting era that threw an uncomfortable amount of shade on the university.
If the Harbaugh postscript ends with Moore’s firing, it’s a wildly checkered era at the school. Much to celebrate, much to be embarrassed about, and often those two things were intertwined.
This much is certain: The Michigan Men leading the football program the last five years stirred up enough dirt to muddy that haughty term. The modern Wolverines have been every bit as much about investigations, suspensions and scandals as championships.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sherrone Moore Firing Proves Wolverines’ Michigan Man Reputation Is Falling Apart.