Sherrone Moore and Jonathan Smith soon went their separate ways. But on Thursday morning, they were in sync, walking side by side as they quickly exited Wayne State Fieldhouse, where they each made a few brief comments before a group of high school students at the National College Showcase.
This is the start of the frantic recruiting season, which means there is now little time to waste for the two new leaders of the Michigan Football It is Michigan State Football.
Then again, there never really was.
They each inherited their own set of burdens and encountered varying degrees of turbulence as they worked to lead their respective programs into a new era within a deeper, more powerful Big Ten. In this sense, there are more things in common between Moore and Smith than differences. Together, they have the unique distinction of becoming the first coaches to begin their tenures at UM and MSU in the same season since 1995, when Lloyd Carr replaced Gary Moeller in Ann Arbor and Nick Saban succeeded George Perles in East Lansing.
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“For me, I never want anything more than to be in a situation that challenges you,” said Moore, who took over the Wolverines in January.
Smith approached his career with the same single-minded mindset. After all, its work history was marked by reconstructions. At Oregon State, he resurrected a Pac-12 doormat who won one game the season before his arrival, elevating the Beavers to bowl eligibility in the 4th year of his regime and then guiding them to 10 wins in the following autumn.
Now, Smith is trying to revive MSU after it fell to a 4-8 record in 2023 following the scandal-plagued firing of his predecessor, Mel Tucker, last September.
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It’s a huge project and Smith has faced many obstacles since its launch. Thirty-eight Spartans, including starters on both sides of the ball, left during this transition phase. Their departures opened the door for 24 transfers that reshaped key sectors – from the quarterback room to the secondary to the linebacker corps. Now, six months into his new job, Smith is finally starting to develop a solid picture of his team.
“That’s why I’m excited about this month, getting back in the weight room, resetting, getting around our guys with clarity that this is what the roster looks like,” he said.
Since his arrival last November, Smith has projected a positive outlook and professed a can-do attitude. He refused to bemoan his fate, perhaps recognizing that his peers are all dealing with their own specific problems as they try to successfully navigate a sport dominated by constant upheaval in this era of NIL, rampant player movement and seismic reforms.
That even includes Moore, the 38-year-old former offensive lineman who was promoted to Michigan’s top job 18 days after the Wolverines won the national championship.
While no one would dispute that Moore started at a much better starting point than Smith, he won’t exactly have an easy time in his new role. As the successor to his former boss, Jim Harbaugh, he faces enormous expectations. After a remarkable three-year run when the Wolverines won 40 of 43 games and consecutive conference titles, fans have been conditioned to believe Michigan is a perennial contender. In that sense, there will also be added pressure for the Wolverines to make the College Football Playoff, with the field expanding to 12 teams this year.
But qualification is no guarantee. Michigan faces a tough schedule this fall, with matchups against Texas, USC, Oregon, Washington and Ohio State.
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The Wolverines will head into this challenge with a rebuilt roster that no longer features an experienced cast of contributors who accounted for the majority of the team’s total production last year. According to ESPN, Michigan is tied for the ninth-lowest production return percentage in the country. Heading out the door were quarterback JJ McCarthy, running back Blake Corum, receiver Roman Wilson and seven other starters on offense.
Since the confetti fell in Houston nearly five months ago, Moore has been tasked with rebuilding the entire frontcourt and choosing McCarthy’s replacement from among five unproven candidates. He was also forced to hire a completely new defensive staff after Harbaugh’s move to the Los Angeles Chargers triggered a wave of assistant coach departures on that side of the ball. The widespread turnover has raised questions about whether Moore can sustain Michigan’s recent success and extend the program’s golden era.
“It’s just another weight on our shoulders,” Moore told a group of reporters.
Minutes earlier, in a more colorful way, he channeled this challenge into his message to campers.
“Everyone will have enemies,” he said. “Your enemies are holding their breath for you to fail. Your job is to make them suffocate.”
Of course, this also became Moore’s responsibility.
He’s looking forward to tackling it.
“He’s a great football coach,” Wink Martindale, Michigan’s new defensive coordinator, told the Free Press. “And he has a vision of what he wants it to be.”
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Further down the road at MSU, so does Smith.
But when it comes to Moore, it may take a little longer for him to see that materialize.
In the meantime, he won’t rest until that happens.
That much became clear when Smith interrupted a group of media members looking for the latest news on his team.
“I’m going to work, guys,” he said.
He then headed straight for the exit. There was no time to waste, as he realized. Moore, Smith’s counterpart at Michigan, could probably understand this better than anyone.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.
This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press: Michigan’s Sherrone Moore, MSU’s Jonathan Smith linked by challenges
