Michigan Football: Sherrone Moore Prepared To Lead Wolverines

Michigan's Sherrone Moore has done a phenomenal job as part of Jim Harbaugh's staff in Ann Arbor, and now he'll serve as head coach during the most critical stretch of the season.

It's official: Michigan's Sherrone Moore will serve as head coach for the three biggest games of the 2023 regular season. 

On Thursday, the University of Michigan and Big Ten Conference announced that the two sides had reached an agreement to avoid litigation proceedings on Friday. The agreement indicated that head coach Jim Harbaugh would accept a three-game suspension from the conference, and that the conference would no longer pursue further investigation of the sign-stealing saga surrounding the program. 

"This morning, the University, Coach Harbaugh, and the Big Ten resolved their pending litigation," read Michigan's statement. "The Conference agreed to close its investigation, and the University and Coach Harbaugh agreed to accept the three-game suspension. Coach Harbaugh, with the University's support, decided to accept this sanction to return the focus to our student-athletes and their performance on the field. The Conference has confirmed that it is not aware of any information suggesting Coach Harbaugh’s involvement in the allegations. The University continues to cooperate fully with the NCAA’s investigation."

Photo: Christopher Breiler

The decision by Michigan to agree to the three-game suspension is a vast departure from the University's stance earlier in the week. Meeting with the media on Monday, Harbaugh indicated that he was eager to fight for due process during a scheduled court proceeding on Friday. 

"I'm just looking for that opportunity; due process," Harbaugh said. "I'm not looking for special treatment, not looking for a popularity contest, just looking for the merit of what the case is.

"When I was a senior in high school, I had a civics class that talked about government and justice, and what I took away from that class was that you're innocent until proven guilty. That was 40 years ago, but I'd like that opportunity."

Regardless of what led to the sudden change of heart, the reality for Michigan now is that offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore will continue to serve as head coach of the Wolverines for the most critical stretch of the 2023 regular season. Meeting with the media on Wednesday, Moore made it clear that he was prepared for the moment. 

"We're prepared and ready to go regardless of the outcome," Moore said. "We're going to let that take care of itself. We all want him to be there and hope he is. If he isn't, we'll operate at the highest level we can."

Moore is already off to a great start as acting head coach in 2023, with wins against Bowling Green and No. 10 Penn State. He'll now look to move to 4-0 in that role this season, with Maryland and Ohio State still to come. Although the outside noise could certainly be a major distraction for most programs, Moore says that it's only brought this veteran group of Wolverines closer together. 

"Exciting, fun, comradery, team - all those adjectives, all those verbs, all those nouns put together to keep attacking the championship," Moore said. "All the craziness, all that stuff that is going on, it's just brought us closer and closer together. It's made us even more tunnel-vision, you can't let all of this outside stuff come in to play. You've just got to attack what's in front of you. So that's all we're doing, just worrying about today. How we can get better today, that's it."