Sherrone Moore introduced as new football coach at Michigan: ‘I’m going to be me’

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Somewhere between a week and 10 days before Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel received the call from head football coach Jim Harbaugh, he wanted to speak with offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. In that moment, Manuel was uncertain whether Harbaugh would be leaving for the NFL, be that with the Los Angeles Chargers, the Atlanta Falcons or some other organization. Negotiations between the school and Harbaugh over a lucrative contract extension were still ongoing, same as they had been for months.

But if Harbaugh moved on after three straight wins over Ohio State, three straight Big Ten Championships and the program’s first national title in 26 years, Manuel knew who his top candidate would be. So he called Moore and gave him the lay of the land. 

“I told him before Jim made the announcement,” Manuel explained, “I said, ‘Just know, you’re going to be the first person I sit down with. I promise you that. So just be patient. Be prepared. I want to know your perspective on how you’re going to do things.'”

The phone call that so many Michigan fans were expecting finally happened on Jan. 24, at which point Harbaugh explained to Manuel he was departing to become head coach of the Chargers. That call ignited a race against the clock for Manuel, university president Santa Ono and the Board of Regents to identify and lock down whomever they believed should lead the Wolverines into the post-Harbaugh era.

A deal with Moore was struck within 48 hours. An official announcement was made on Friday evening. And by 11 a.m. on Saturday, with his wife and two daughters in attendance at the Junge Family Champions Center attached to Michigan Stadium, Moore was formally introduced as the 21st head coach in program history. The audience included Manuel, several members of the Board of Regents, a collection of current Michigan players and most of Harbaugh’s coaching staff, though Harbaugh himself did not attend.

“I can’t be Jim Harbaugh,” Moore said. “So I’m going to be me. And I think in this business, in any world, if you’re not yourself, then you’re going to lose the people around you. So I’m definitely going to be myself, be who I am, my leadership style, how I’m going to approach things. But I’m definitely going to lean on [Harbaugh] tremendously because of what he built and what we’ve built here.”

Once Harbaugh finalized the decision to leave Ann Arbor after nine years, returning to the NFL for the first time since 2014, this was the succession plan he wanted for his alma mater. Manuel said Harbaugh had “talked effusively” about Moore before the season began, entrusting him as acting coach against Bowling Green during a three-game suspension that was self-imposed by Michigan. Then Manuel said Harbaugh raved about Moore again as the season progressed, certain that he could lead the Wolverines against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State after the Big Ten imposed another suspension. And when Manuel spoke to Harbaugh again on Wednesday, with the latter informing his boss of an impending move to the NFL, where his aspirations of winning a Super Bowl couldn’t be passed up, Harbaugh stumped for Moore a third time to make his preferred choice crystal clear.

It was then that the never-ending contract negotiations between Michigan and Harbaugh were officially cooked, even after the school offered to make him the highest-paid coach in the country. The two sides had reportedly clashed over Harbaugh’s request for an immunity clause that would preclude him from being fired for cause pending the results of multiple ongoing NCAA investigations into the football program. Harbaugh’s attorneys, who spoke to The Detroit News, said it took “until the proverbial 11th hour on Wednesday for Michigan to give in on certain contract language.”

When asked on Saturday how he’d characterize the negotiations with Harbaugh’s camp, Manuel said he was aware of how things were being portrayed on social media and that outsiders weren’t privy to everything that happened behind the scenes. 

“I can’t judge how close we were or weren’t [to keeping Harbaugh],” Manuel said. “I know we had constant communication, great effort — myself, the president, the board — and we made our best effort. Ultimately, Jim made a decision that he wanted to make for the next phase of his life. And I’m at peace with it. I’m happy with what we tried to do. He knows how much I loved him, we loved him. But ultimately, he made a choice to go to the Chargers as a head coach.”

Manuel kept his promise and met with Moore for an interview the following morning. The win over Penn State more than two months prior had convinced Manuel that Moore could be the next head coach at Michigan, though he didn’t know when such an opportunity would arise. To him, the way Moore handled both the unexpected news of Harbaugh’s second suspension, which broke as the team plane landed at State College Regional Airport, and the game-day uncertainty surrounding the university’s attempt to file a temporary restraining order were exemplary. It was 90 minutes before kickoff when Manuel told Moore that he’d be leading the Wolverines against Penn State. And then Moore disposed of the Nittany Lions by calling 32 consecutive runs to end the game with a tour de force.

That performance checked the football box on Manuel’s list of criteria. What he still wanted to learn during their interview was how Moore, 37, planned to handle the myriad off-field tasks that are now prerequisites for being a successful head coach: building a staff, recruiting, academics, fundraising, NCAA compliance, NIL initiatives and more frequent interactions with fans, donors and other leading figures at the university, from Manuel himself to Ono and the Board of Regents. He hoped Moore would put aside the way Harbaugh did things and volunteer some new ideas. 

“I’m excited about it,” Moore said when asked about the public-facing side of the job. “The staff that I hire, I’m just going to trust in them to do that football piece. I’ll have an impact on looking at it from an overall standard, but I’m excited about that new phase and doing it. I understood that that’s going to come with the territory. So again, I’m going to be myself — I’m not going to be anybody else — in whatever phase that is.”

Manuel was sold. He never interviewed another candidate and offered Moore the job a few hours before the public announcement on Friday night. The two sides agreed on a five-year deal starting at $5.5 million per year with up to $3.5 million per year in bonuses tied to postseason performance. The base value places Moore just below the midway point of annual compensation for Big Ten head coaches, according to a database maintained by USA Today, but Manuel said the number is slightly higher than what his research showed for the average among first-time head coaches in the Power 5 conferences.

With a financial commitment that pales in comparison to what the school would have paid Harbaugh after an extension, there’s a chance Moore could be given a larger salary pool for his assistant coaches and the opportunity to add more manpower behind the scenes, especially when it comes to recruiting. Moore said he believes programs that enjoy sustained success are typically led by head coaches who embody their school’s aggression when it comes to player acquisition. He wants to build on the example Harbaugh set and take his own involvement with recruiting “to another level.”

“I want to attack it every single day,” Moore said. “[I want to] be recruiting, be talking to kids, making sure that we have the resources that we need here on campus from an NIL standpoint, from a football standpoint and [for] the players who get here.”

His most pressing task is building a staff that can coalesce as well as Harbaugh’s did in 2023, a process about which Moore was vague during Saturday’s media session. The expectation is that Moore, who said he’s unlikely to continue calling plays for the Wolverines, will need to hire three new coordinators following his promotion and the rumored departures of Jesse Minter (defense) and Jay Harbaugh (special teams) to the Chargers. Several new position coaches could follow. Moore did say he’s optimistic about keeping director of strength and conditioning Ben Herbert, a pillar of the cultural change at Schembechler Hall.

Amid all that moving and shaking — and after getting very little sleep the last few nights — Moore addressed his team for the first time on Saturday morning. He told reporters that he spoke from the heart, that he explained to the players how he feels about them and that he outlined what the team can achieve next season. He told them how excited he is to be leading Michigan football into the future.

“We will continue to attack every day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind,” Moore said, borrowing one of Harbaugh’s oft-repeated lines. “And I promise you, we will smash.”

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Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

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