Sherrone Moore reveals promise Jim Harbaugh made before becoming Michigan’s coach

“Big Noon Conversations” is back for its second season, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore joined me for the season premiere of the summer series on my podcast, “The Joel Klatt Show.” Fresh off the Wolverines’ national championship win, the first-year coach gave some insight on the process of replacing Jim Harbaugh following his departure to the NFL and coaching Michigan through a dramatic moment in the College Football Playoff. He also relived his memorable postgame interview following the win over Penn State.

Here’s a snippet of my conversation with Moore. 

[Read more: Michigan has new-look secondary following quartet of transfer additions]

First things first, what’s the best part about being the Michigan Wolverines’ head coach?

Walking in every single day into this beautiful facility with all of these great kids and people. Just understanding and knowing that everybody looks to us, looks to me, as the head coach of this great university. Being around the players every day is the best part for me. I love that.

I’d love for you to take us back to that moment when you knew that Coach Harbaugh got the job with the [Los Angeles] Chargers. We had talked, I have always known this was in your aspirations. But take me into what it was like for you and when did you realize this was going to be the move they were going to make?

Well, I was in the Houston airport, heading to Dallas. … I had just talked to coach (Harbaugh) probably like, three hours before that. He was kind of like, “Yeah, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I think it could happen soon. It could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, or it could happen next week.” I was like, “OK it’s going to happen at some point. I’ve just got to be ready.”

I was … going through TSA, and it popped up on my phone: “Jim Harbaugh to the Chargers.” … That second, my phone — text messages, calls, text messages, calls from our AD, our assistant AD calls and says, “You’ve got to come back right now.” So, I did the interview that next day and got the job on Saturday, had the press conference and was on the road recruiting by Monday. It was a humbling experience.

I know you probably prepared for this and that these were Jim’s aspirations, as close as your staff was, and that you wanted to set yourself up for that. What I thought was unique, covering this sport for a long time — whether it was a guy like me on the outside pounding the table immediately for Sherrone Moore or the players and fan base — it was in unison. It was very rare. It was universal that Sherrone Moore was going to be the head coach at Michigan. How did it make you feel to have that support?

I felt honored. It felt like all the hard work that I put in with this team, these players came to fruition. It’s something that you can’t really describe, but I’m just very humbled to have Wolverine Nation, all of the players, coaches, you and some media to say, “Hey, he should be the head coach at Michigan.”

When I first got here seven years ago, I just wanted to be the best tight ends coach I could be. At some point, I wanted to call plays. I got a chance to do that with our young guys. The opportunity to be the head coach here was really not in my mind. When this did take place, it was very humbling for me.

When did it enter your mind?

It entered my mind when Coach Harbaugh told me, “You’re going to be the next head coach of Michigan.”

When did he tell you that?

This year he told me that. He said, “I don’t know when, I don’t know what’s going to happen, no man who can say the future tells the future.”

He gave you a Harbaugh-ism.

That’s how he is. He’s like that all the time. He just said, “You’re going to be the next head coach of Michigan.” I was just like, “What?” He was just like, “I’m going to put it in my contract that if I ever leave or go somewhere, you’re going to be the next head coach of Michigan.”

This man — who’s a legendary coach [and] done it all, and we have a chance to make a special run — is telling me I’m going to be the next head coach here? What does that mean? It means I’ve gotta work my tail off for this man. He trusted me and this offense to do everything possible to help him and his team win. So, I just worked as hard as I could this year.

You got a taste of being an acting head coach last season. What did you learn from those experiences when you had the reins on game day? 

I learned that you’re always in the spotlight. There’s always somebody watching you, but the decisions you make not only impact that side of the ball, but the whole team and how important, diligent, and detailed you need to be in your preparation of all that. I was very humbled, again, to be in that position to do that. 

The first game that it happened was the Penn State game. It was an environment that’s close to unmatched in any college football arena, especially for an away team. It was loud, volatile, fun and invigorating, but it was something our players gravitated toward, and they loved that. They loved being the villain. It was a special, special feeling.

You can’t bring up that game without me bringing up your interview with Jenny Taft at the end. That was an epic, authentic and one of the best interviews that she’s ever gotten. She was so happy at the end of that. I know you probably weren’t as happy. She was like, “Sherrone was authentic. That’s how excited he was. There was no facade there.” What was that moment like for you?

All the emotions that you could feel in anything exciting, that’s what I felt. The hard work, the dedication that the players put in, that Coach Harbaugh put in this program, all came out in that moment. For people on the outside that think our players didn’t win fairly or do something or do that, it was just kind of like, “OK, bet. This is what we’re about.”

We’re going to attack the moment. We did. Now, what can you say about us? Without our head coach, we proved ourselves right, that we can go win in this big environment. It was a moment that was unfiltered. Unfortunately, the bad words came out, but I apologized to my mom, so that’s OK.

Did you get a text or a call from your mom?

Oh, yeah. I got reprimanded a little bit. It was my mom and my grandma. I tried to make sure they weren’t too mad at me, but they understood the moment. The players, I think, appreciated it because I think in the world today, emotion is seen as weakness. I don’t see it as that. So, people can say whatever they want, but we accomplished something pretty special last year.

The run late in the season, between an epic Rose Bowl Game — I mean, my goodness — and then what I would categorize as the prototypical Michigan victory over Washington. You were just going to wear them down, wear them down, wear them down and wear them down some more. The CFP run, what was that like, internally?

Something I’ve never been a part of. You knew that the team’s preparation was a little different. We adjusted some things from our standpoint, the coaches’ standpoint, from how we approached bowl practice to make sure we weren’t worn out.

Versus the previous seasons?

Yeah … a couple of different things. Whether it was meeting time, more time for themselves, a little bit of practice time adjusting. [We] still kept the physicality in what we did, but we just adjusted a little bit. That helped, but it was really the players’ mindset, how they approached everything. It’s funny, people talk about the reaction to seeing [we’d be playing] Alabama. When those cameras turned off, the boys were like, “That’s who we wanted. That’s what we wanted to do.” To be the best, they say you’ve gotta beat the best. They’ve been the King of the Hill for a long time. I know Georgia has won two national championships, but Nick [Saban] had six of them. So, you knew if you wanted to get to the top, you had to face a team like that to get there. 

They were excited for that game and ready. The preparation they had throughout that month was super special. I’d be in the office at 10 o’clock, and I’d see guys in the film room, watching film, doing this, watching cut-ups, texting me at night, “Hey coach, what about this look? What are we doing here?” It was something that I’ve never seen.

You can talk about prep, mindset and culture — but when it has to manifest, and you’re down 20-13 with under four minutes to go and you’ve got to drive on the Bama defense just to tie the game. Walk me through that last drive.

Two instances will always be held forever in my mind. Really, three. Before that drive, I [had] never really been nervous to call a drive, never really been anxious. That drive, I was looking around, I looked at the clock, I looked at the time and was like, “This is the most important drive in Michigan football history.” That’s how I thought of it. I looked up to the sky and asked my grandpa, “Hey pops, need some help here. Help me out, love ya.” I’ll never forget, I was walking and all the linemen were strapping their helmets on. J.J. [McCarthy] comes up to me and says, “Hey, pops, we got ya.” I was like, “Oh yeah, we about to go score on this drive.”

We had been moving the ball a little bit, but not as much. That drive we went down and scored. The fourth-and-2 call, we ran it, had a play-action on third-and-2 with [Alex] Orji in the game. It didn’t work out. They had it covered. It was fourth-and-2, and I knew [Harbaugh] was going to say, “Go for it.” I already knew what call we were going to do. I knew the pick route. I knew how it was going to set up because we had shifted in motion and made it look the same the whole game. We ran duo. They were calling our run. Then, Blake [Corum] pops open and goes down the field. Roman [Wilson] gets the block in the back, so guys were like, “Oh no, are we coming back?” I was like, “No, we still got the first down.”

We got the first down, called a run option with J.J. We hadn’t ran that all game. I was like, “OK, this is the time.” Then, came back to a play-action that we called earlier in the game, but the route spacing wasn’t right. We fixed it on the sideline. Then, Roman popped open, made an incredible catch, made the guy miss as he landed. The play that I called second, I was actually going to call first, if we got a little closer. All of a sudden, I called the play-action to Roman. He slipped out and it was a touchdown. That drive will hold true forever in my mind.

For more of my conversation with Moore, head over to Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports’ lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast “The Joel Klatt Show.” Follow him on X/Twitter at @joelklatt and subscribe to the “Joel Klatt Show” on YouTube.

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