Well, as everyone knows by now, the Michigan head coaching position is open now that Sherrone Moore has been fired. In a (somewhat) unexpected development, Michigan's head man was fired for having an extramarital relationship with a staffer.
I won't get into all the details at this point because the story is still developing with details, but ultimately, Moore allegedly had a relationship with a staffer that resulted in a pregnancy. The pregnancy was halted in some form or fashion, and things were kept quiet, reportedly for several months. In the wake of his firing yesterday, Moore was then arrested and lodged in jail for some sort of domestic disturbance.
I'm not a reporter, so that's about as far as I'm going to go at this point.
Moore went 17-9 in his two seasons at Michigan, give or take a game here or there when filling in for Jim Harbaugh or when being filled in for by Biff Poggi. He went 1-1 against Ohio State, or 2-1 if you include the 2023 win when he was filling in for Harbaugh. He went 2-0 against Michigan State. And he won a national championship as an offensive coordinator in 2023.
Prior to that, he was a tight ends coach and then a Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line coach in 2021 and 2022 after taking over for Ed Warinner on the line.
It's extremely disappointing that Michigan has been dragged back down into this scandalized area. I actually think Harbaugh has been somewhat wrongly villainized in some areas for a lot of things he did, but he was a coach who annoyed someone, somewhere, every step of the way. Whether it was ticking off the NCAA for satellite camps or pushing NIL or supporting the transfer portal or buying burgers for recruits or whatever, drama just followed him.
But Moore was supposed to be kind of the quiet leader by example who showed emotion on occasion (like after the 2023 Penn State game) but largely led his guys in a confident manner. I didn't even mind that he had some trouble in the Connor Stalions case, because I don't believe his text messages with Stalions showed anything incriminating; if they did, we would have seen them made public by now.
Instead, Michigan has perhaps one of the most embarrassing scandals that could happen, one on par with Bobby Petrino of Arkansas Razorbacks fame, who is still a joke over a decade later. This kind of stuff hurts the image of the entire university.
Maybe this blows up the recruiting class. Maybe it blows up the team. Maybe it blows up the coaching staff. I don't foresee anyone currently on the staff stepping in to be the head coach, so I assume Michigan will hire someone brand new, who will probably sweep out most of the coaching staff, if not all. The players will be able to portal out if they want, and unless the athletic department can get a quick turnaround on the coaching interview process, they might be mired in an extended coaching search period.
Go Blue forever, but I'm embarrassed for my alma mater right now.
Having had time to process this a bit from last evening, the element of this that's most painful is that Sherrone Moore spoke of the team being like family, and that he "loved" them, and that he cared for them as if they were family. The players -- some of them; perhaps many -- bought in and trusted that. And now the illusion is shattered by a betrayal of the very heart of integrity, which is his dedication to his real family. Setting aside all the legal issues surrounding this, Sherrone Moore is absolutely damaged goods, and therefore had to go.
ReplyDeleteThis has the potential to put Michigan football into a deep hole that may take many years to climb out of.
Michigan is at a bit of a crossroads at this point. What does the university community -- not the rabid online fans -- really want? There is a not-trivial segment that would be happy to put athletics in the background, and elevate academics to first place. Or do they want to bring Michigan into the now-mercenary environment of top-tier college football? The third option is to learn to be satisfied with good teams, but not championship teams. To get to the championship level requires commitment to that cause, and that comes at a price. The university would have to sell its soul, as Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M, and a few others have done.
Hyperbole? Some. But not entirely. It's a real crossroads.
Not sure why make an obviously bad hire in Moore means we should just turtle and become Northwestern.
DeleteHow do you fix bad decisions?
How about this...ready?
Stop making more bad decisions.
And when you make a hire, here is some tips for you playing at home:
Vet them. If they have 834 onlyfans accounts as a dad and father of 3, that might be a red flag. might be. Not sure.
So much to reply to:
Delete(1) Moore was *not* an "obviously bad hire" at the time he was named the HC in 2024. He was rather widely praised as the logical choice.
(2) Nowhere did I suggest Michigan "turtle and become Northwestern." I merely said there is a contingent in the UM community that held academics to be more important than athletics.
(3) "Stop making more bad decisions" is easy to say from the comfort of your armchair. Elevating Moore was not, at that time, a "bad decision." Going forward one would clearly want to make good decisions, but those are not always lit up in neon. If you've ever been in an executive position, you would know that.
(4) The OnlyFans number keeps going up and up and up, every time I see it mentioned. Even on the MGoBlog podcast, Brian had to admit his was an exaggeration.
(5) Yes, vet potential employees, but that process is proportional to the position they are taking. Sherrone Moore came into Michigan in 2018 as the Tight Ends coach. That's something different than vetting for the head coach. Further, all the fury over the Instagram follows is lacking context, as nowhere I've seen has there been a timeline *when* those follows occurred. On MGoBlog, Brian has a post where he makes a thing out of the Central Michigan follow, linking it with the Connor Stalions thing. Well hell, Moore was a TE coach there from 2014 to 2018, and it's probably that follow was from that time.
(6) Brian at MGoBlog has fueled a lot of this vetting anger, but he's operating from imperfect information, and despite presenting himself as a logical, analytical person, he operates every bit as much from emotion, and he's doing it here.
Let's be honest...
Delete...moving athletics to the background and prioritizing academics doesn't take away the opportunity for sexual shenanigans. We need look no further than our recent university president, who had a very similar unprofessional relationship. There are professors messing with students and professors messing with graduate student instructors and GSIs messing with students and on and on and on. The older I get, the more I realize this is happening not infrequently.
I don't know of anything going on personally, but I can practically guarantee you that some Michigan professor is currently messing with a student or GSI.
Brian is certainly quite emotional. It doesn't mean he's wrong. But he's emotional.
Moving athletics to a lesser standing would not eliminate inappropriate sexual relationships. You're right about that. But it lessens the impact when they do occur. Thought exercise: imagine the rowing coach had an affair with a staffer. Also cause for termination, but it would almost certainly not make the news. Another thought exercise: imagine the head football coach of Princeton or Harvard had an affair with a staffer. Also cause for termination. But it would not be the headline news it is with the University of Michigan. And that's because the football program is so prominent, and whatever happens at the highest level within the football program is news.
DeleteFor what it's worth, I don't think relegating Michigan football and other sports to Ivy League level importance is good for Michigan. I'm just reporting that there are some within the university that would be quite okay with it.
There is also a 4th option - if you fall off the horse, get right back on but learn from your mistake in falling off. I.e. these events should not change Michigan's approach on things, it will continue to try an achieve competitive excellence without going "full slimy" like some others do. But maybe it means things like "we have to periodically review/vet employees, particularly when they might receive significant promotions" or "when we hear persistent rumors we have to be more active in looking into those even if a full investigation is not warranted at the time." Yes, I felt like Brian's response was a bit overboard (e.g. SM following Vada Murray's daughter was "creepy" and implying something sexual) and his criticism of Warde was a bit over the top, but some of his points were valid.
DeleteOh man, where to begin? So much info still trickling out, some verified & some not
ReplyDeleteThis is a crappy situation for the program. These players sign on to be MICHIGAN Men, and parents trust the staff to get them there
My heart goes out to his family. Those little girls have to live in a life on the interwebs, and it's starting right before Christmas
I have nothing good to say about Sherrone, but don't want to pile on while his problems are the size of Mt Suribachi
But for whatever it's worth, folks need to know that bad things happen. We make bad choices. Own up to it and face the consequences. Moore could be on a staff as an Analyst as soon as today if he fessed up & resigned, saving his family humiliation and salvaging his young career. Hope he gets himself right mentally & emotionally
For The Team, it's decision time. After claiming "Team Before Me," these young men need to discuss among themselves, with family and pick what's best for them
nightmare situation for his family and the program.
ReplyDeletethis would be brutal situation independent of the harbaugh scandal.
will take extended time to overcome this drama, even if they nail the hiring process.
manuels program cant seem to get out of its own way
We, as I have said in the past, the CRAP Harbaugh put up through was worth it because no check was too big to cash for 15-0 and a Natty.
ReplyDeleteBut we are getting close.
We got Moore, completely unqualified (who we hoped would grow into the job) because he bailed late, took a month to mull over going to the NFL, then leaves and recommends Moore. Not because he is any good, precisely the opposite; because he was of no value to Jim in LA as an OC. Because if Moore was any good, we all know he would be right next to Minter coordinating the offense for the Chargers
Let's see what we have here:
Wiess, remember him? FBI level of internet fraud.
Robinson- DUI
Shemmy- Had to fire him after the MEDIA did the venting.
Stallions- Complete whack job completely off the reservation working like Colonel Kutz from Apocalypse Now.
The Hamburger investigation leading to violations
The illegal taping of opponents games.
The endless suspensions.
The interviewing with NFL teams openly for two straight years running openly mocking the university.
The forgetting to recruit the last two years.
Taking everything but the light fixtures on the way out leaving us with garbage coaches.
And now Moore, his "handpicked" successor.
quite the check we cut.
Emotions are raw, that much is obvious. But it's worth pausing and reflecting on what's valid analysis, and what's hindsight 20/20. And there's a *lot* of 20/20 hindsight going on over this whole thing.
ReplyDeleteI think it was worth a shot letting Moore take over and see what he could do. Sometimes that works (like at Oklahoma when Stoops retired), and sometimes it doesn't. Moore's game management kind of sucked, and obviously Kirk Campbell was not a good full-time coordinator in 2024.
DeleteOne of the things that Jake Butt and Devin Gardner mentioned is that Jim Harbaugh had a huge network of people to work with and get advice from because of his experiences all over, but Sherrone Moore's limited track record (Oklahoma as a player, Louisville/CMU as a coach, and Michigan) kept him from being able to find "the best of the best" when it came to coaches and staffers. I think that's a good point.
Butt and Gardner used that concept to talk positively about someone like Jedd Fisch, who has coached in the NFL and with a variety of college programs. I don't love the Jedd Fisch idea, but that is something to consider when hiring a new coach.
Yes, agree. That's one of the reasons why I think the talk about Jay Harbaugh as the new head coach is ill-advised. Yes, he has the name. But he's never been a head coach, and Father Jim's contacts, or Uncle John's, do not automatically translate to Jay. Jay seems like a fine position coach, and one day he might be a head coach, but *right now* the leap to Michigan head coach is a leap too far.
DeleteI'm not crazy about Jedd Fisch either, but we could easily do worse. The problem with Fisch is, I don't think he's much better than a 9-3 coach most years. I think DeBoer is a 10-2 or 11-1 type coach, but I'm not at all sure he can be had. Maybe, but I'd be surprised. Minter is not coming, and I'm not sure that's any less a gamble than others. He too has never been a HC, and the role of HC is *way* more challenging than DC.
I don't get the love for Jeff Brohm that come out of Brian at MGoBlog. He's been on that train for a while. Brohm seems an 8-4 to 9-3 coach as well.
Brohm (and even Deboer) have issues with running the ball. Kind of a big deal around here
DeleteI like Dillingham. I'd love to get Freeman, even if that's not happening. We'll probably get Jedd
I'm starting to think the eventual answer is going to be name nobody anticipated. It won't be a "wow" hire. It'll be a "this may be the best we can do given everything" type hires.
DeleteMy advice to all deeply invested Michigan football fans is this: brace yourself; find another place to invest your emotions and hope, because Michigan football won't be the place for that. They won't crater, but they may wander in the wilderness for a spell.
I don't really think it will be a name nobody anticipated. I think there are some decent answers outside of DeBoer/Fisch like Jason Eck and Tommy Rees to the point where we're going to be familiar with them.
DeleteI would be very surprised if Michigan hires Jason Candle or Neal Brown or G.J. Kinne.
I don't know ... this whole thing is starting to devolve into a pathetic mess. The arraignment of Moore today, the surfacing of tensions within the University, the continued negative press, the starting trickle of committed players leaving, the sense of things being without leadership ... it all points to a situation that no rational coach would want to step into, unless this thing gets stabilized right now. This has gone well past the mere firing of a coach for football things, and is now on the cusp of airing a whole bunch of ugly laundry about a lot of things. Heaven help us.
DeleteI think a lot of firings are ugly for various reasons. It hits home more with us because we're Michigan fans and alumni, and we're embarrassed for our university. However, if you look at the firing of Brian Kelly at LSU, there were questions going all the way up to the governor of Louisiana. If you look at Urban Meyer's departure at OSU, it was messy and there were a lot of questions about who knew what and when. The James Franklin firing at PSU ended in a 54-day, somewhat embarrassing search for the next coach.
DeleteAnytime you're firing a high-profile coach, there are going to be things swirling for various reasons. What did they do wrong? Who knew what? Was it the AD or the president or boosters who wanted him out? Was there a scandal? Is the NCAA involved in an investigation? Etc.
Juwan Howard's departure was also messy (who did he have an altercation with? what's up with his kids? who wants him out? why was he even allowed to "coach" when he was recovering from his surgery?) and then Dusty May came in, and Juwan Howard seems like a distant memory now.
Hindsight is 20/20? You know we pay millions of dollars for people to make the right decisions, correct?
ReplyDeleteMoore, when HIRED, was ranked as the #15 coach in the LEAGUE, not country, the LEAGUE.
Was a mediocre guy at every stop, did not develop ONE NFL OL (Look at his 2021 and 2022 classes, that is why we are playing freshman)
His first year coaching was, eh, not good. Playing Edwards over Mullings (he practices good), not even trying to portal in a warm body to play QB (Orgi, he is ready to go). losing winnable games last year with poor management.
We saw it, and we sympathized because Hard balls left him/us a shit sandwich and we were willing to let him learn on the job.
And this is how he repays us!
Some saw it, not all. Do not attribute to Moore's elevation some prescient notion of what transpired. That's revisionism.
DeleteI'm sympathetic to the argument against Harbaugh. I know our host here feels otherwise, but I think the way he handled himself in flirting with the NFL for a couple of years prior to his departure, his going all-in on the 2023 team with a drop in focus on the future, and his dangling everything until *he* secured his wishes, the program be damned, was something that betrays a selfishness deep in his heart. He's not alone in that, but he's also not excluded from that.
But yes, there's a *lot* of 20/20 revisionism at work right now. Brian Cook at MGoBlog being one the most prominent and vocal of those.