On Wednesday, the University of Michigan fired head coach Sherrone Moore for cause after a university investigation found he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a university staffer. Moore had just finished his second season as Wolverines head coach and went 18–8 in two seasons and 9–3 in 2025.
The school named Biff Poggi interim head coach to replace Moore.
“Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement. “Following a university investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and UM maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”
It’s rare for a school to get specific about such a transgression when firing a coach.
Shortly after the school’s announcement, ESPN reported that Moore had been detained in Saline, Mich., and handed over to a second police department in Pittsfield, Mich.
Pittsfield police said they were investigating an allegation of assault.
Moore, 39, played offensive line at Oklahoma and previously coached at Louisville and Central Michigan. He took over for Jim Harbaugh, who led the school to the 2023 national championship and left to coach the Los Angeles Chargers shortly after. He signed a five-year contract that paid roughly $5 million annually. He had been on staff at Michigan since 2018, starting as a tight ends coach and eventually being named offensive coordinator in 2021, a title he held until Harbaugh’s departure.
Despite taking over immediately after a national championship, Moore inherited a program with some shortcomings after an NCAA investigation for sign-stealing and recruiting violations led to a set of fines worth at least $20 million, show-cause orders for Harbaugh and Moore, and a 10% reduction of the football program’s budget, among other penalties.
Moore served as interim coach in 2023 while Harbaugh served a four-game suspension for recruiting violations. Moore was also suspended for two games this season for his role in Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.
While working with a smaller budget, Moore still found ways to recruit at a high-level, landing the nation’s top quarterback recruit a year ago in Bryce Underwood through an NIL donation from billionaire Larry Ellison, whose wife, Jolin, is a Michigan alum.
Underwood was underwhelming under center this season, but showed promise as an 18-year-old freshman and kept Michigan in the College Football Playoff hunt throughout the regular season. The Wolverines finished No. 18 in the final College Football Playoff rankings. The Wolverines are slated to play Texas in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31.
But the allegations against Moore reportedly led some of Michigan’s biggest boosters to become tepid on donating, according to CBS Sports. Michigan called a sudden team meeting on Wednesday afternoon to announce Moore’s firing, according to On3.
Moore in September 2024 signed a five-year contract that he signed and was paid an average of $5.7 million annually. The contract came with a $500,000 retention bonus, which raised his pay to $6 million this season, according to USA Today. If Moore was fired without cause, Michigan would have owed him $16.5 million for the remaining years on his contract. It’s unclear what the school owes Moore under the terms of his contract because he was fired for a violation of university policies.
Michigan begins its search for a coach after multiple major Power 4 programs just filled their own vacancies including Penn State, Florida, Kansas State, UCLA, and LSU among others.
