It’s never easy to replace a championship coach. It is even more difficult to replace a champion coach who leaves a complicated legacy. What about when the coach leaves during NCAA investigations, as Jim Harbaugh did last winter?
Welcome to the world of Sherrone Moore.
Then again, Michigan Football The first-year coach knew the world he was entering. Especially since he spent the last six years on Harbaugh’s staff.
Still, watching Moore answer almost as many questions about rule-breaking and optics as he did about football on Tuesday afternoon inside the Michigan football complex was watching a coach with a lot to navigate, particularly the long, confusing shadow of its predecessor.
An old saying in coaching says that it is better to replace the coach who replaces the legend than to replace the legend. But it’s hard to say no when a program like Michigan offers to hand over the keys to your team, no matter the timing.
Under normal circumstances, replacing a winning coach usually means trying to live up to title-worthy expectations. This is true for Moore. But this is not the only expectation. He needs to find a way to win and keep the show out of the headlines for reasons other than winning or losing.
In other words, Moore must balance maintaining the best parts of the culture that Harbaugh built inside the locker room and on the field: player development, strategic adaptability, selflessness and competitive spirit, while also ensuring everyone understands and follows the rules that govern Division 1. college football.
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This includes himself; Moore served a school-imposed one-game suspension in last year’s season opener for his role in NCAA-Mandated Level II Recruiting Violations During COVID-19 recruiting dead period in 2021. He could face another suspension this season, according to reports that suggest he deleted texts related to Connor Stalions; these texts were eventually recovered and turned over to the NCAA.
Moore said Tuesday that he and the university are cooperating with the NCAA investigation into alleged sign theft. He also said: “I’m looking forward to (the texts) being released. That’s it.”
A former Michigan recruiter told NCAA investigators that Harbaugh’s culture was about pushing the limits and sometimes overstepping them. Harbaugh, of course, denies intentionally violating recruiting rules.
“I make no apologies,” Harbaugh told reporters at Los Angeles Chargers headquarters last week.
As for the culture the former employee questioned?
Moore said he couldn’t control what others said about the program. He also said this:
“When you’re at the bottom, they don’t respect you. When you’re in the middle, they ignore you, when you’re at the top, they hate you. So for us, let’s just keep it rolling.”
The hate angle is, of course, tiresome. Yes, many college football fans “hate” Michigan football. And many people in this state, football fans or not, bristle at the “leaders and best” dogma that emanates from campus…or from those who have spent time on campus.
In many ways, especially locally, Michigan is an easy target, although it is a phenomenon that the school has obviously helped. But the “hate” isn’t just because the Wolverines won the title last season. And Moore knows this.
It’s because of the occasional piety that Harbaugh displayed, the apparent hypocrisy. Pointing fingers at other “cheaters” without keeping your own house in order.
We bet university president Santa Ono and athletic director Warde Manuel don’t much care if Moore stays on top in the same way his former boss did. And I suppose they don’t much care if Moore — like Harbaugh — makes the school easier to ridicule by rival fans.
What they do — and should — care about is that Moore follows the rules and keeps the NCAA out of Ann Arbor. Of course, some minor infractions will happen. And if they do, Ono and Manuel could help Moore by encouraging him to self-report, as so many other programs do.
It will also help Moore if the university shows a little more transparency. For example, Harbaugh will not return for the season opener. He may one day serve as an honorary captain, but not when the Wolverines take the field against Fresno State in late August.
Harbaugh, according to a Free Press report, has decided his current team needs him more, and he will stay in California to give his full attention to the Los Angeles Chargers. As far as coaching decisions go, it’s probably a smart one, the Chargers need help.
As public relations decisions go, that’s probably even smarter, although Harbaugh insisted — at least according to Moore — that his choice was all football-related.
Maybe it was.
But if was, asking Moore to announce the news as he did Tuesday during his press conference was not fair to Moore. The university has an athletic director, a sports communications office, a provost’s office, and any one of them could have issued a simple press release.
Yes, Moore may still have been asked about it. But he would not have been responsible for breaking the news. He has a lot more to worry about.
Let’s face it, the timing of Harbaugh’s return was not good. An NCAA investigation handed out punishments last week (related to recruiting violations) and another NCAA investigation recently sent the school a “notice of allegations” about its alleged — and illegal — off-field scouting operation.
You can debate the merits of both cases and howl at the NCAA all you want, but this was arguably Harbaugh’s program when both violations happened. Bringing him back to Michigan Stadium so soon was a bad idea. The school knew this. Harbaugh must have known this.
Good thing he backed off. Moore’s job is quite complicated.
“Yesterday he called me and said he didn’t feel like he could leave his team, in true Coach Harbaugh fashion, and he wanted to be in the fox hole with his team, and not make it seem like he was taking a long, deep bow. Moore said. “So he’s not going to be at the game, but we’re going to have some of our (former players) who are going to be there and then Jack and Jackie Harbaugh are going to take his place, I’m super excited about that.”
No doubt he is excited. He should be. He has one of the best jobs in college football and a roster with some future pros.
Again, it’s not easy to replace a championship-winning coach. It’s even harder to clean up their mess. The easiest way to sweep is, of course, to win. But winning should no longer be enough in Ann Arbor.
Harbaugh won. Still, much of the college football world outside the state thinks he won by breaking the rules.
Moore’s job is also to win, yes. It’s also about winning in a way that helps recalibrate the perception of the program. The games start in a few weeks.
Contact Shawn Windsor: swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press: Michigan’s Sherrone Moore Cleaning Up Jim Harbaugh’s Mess Isn’t Easy
