Michigan football needs a fresh start. The athletic department needs one, too. That starts with Warde Manuel.
Michigan football needs a fresh start. The athletic department needs one, too.
Sherrone Moore’s firing is his own doing. But the timing and handling of it raises questions. Perhaps this unfolded to the letter of the law and to U-M's policy.
But does the school deserve the benefit of doubt at this point?
No, it doesn’t. Not after yet another controversy within its athletic department, this one particularly ugly and sad.
Whatever else happens moving forward, it’s time for the Jim Harbaugh era to end. The former U-M coach was hired in December 2014. He won. He brought investigations. He brought punishment. He bolted. And U-M opted to keep things going with his successor, promoting Moore from offensive coordinator to head coach.
But with Moore out, the school has a chance to reconsider its future. Though the decade-long run of making the wrong kind of news isn’t all at the feet of Harbaugh.
The issues involved other sports, which brings us to U-M athletic director Warde Manuel.
Too much has happened on his watch – he was hired in January 2016.
Here is Manuel’s statement after he fired Moore on Wednesday, Dec, 10:
“U-M head football coach Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately. 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 U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior."
Zero tolerance for such behavior?
It’s a phrase used too often in Ann Arbor.
It’s not Manuel’s fault that Moore apparently jumped into an impermissible relationship with a staffer. According to a report, Manuel fired him alone without a human resources representative or any security in the room. Moore was soon after arrested for alleged assault, which isn't Manuel's fault either.
Nor is it the AD's fault that Connor Stalions ran a “KGB”-style operation to help the football team break NCAA rules against in-person advance scouting.
It’s not his fault that former U-M basketball coach Juwan Howard slapped an opposing coach (and then lost 24 games in a single season), or that Mel Pearson ran the school’s hockey team by allegedly creating a toxic atmosphere for female support staff.
Or that Jim Harbaugh broke recruiting rules ... more than once.
It’s not his fault that Moore’s arrest Wednesday afternoon in Pittsfield Township marked the sixth time a Michigan football staffer or coach had been arrested since 2015 – the year Harbaugh was hired. (Among the arrested was Matt Weiss, an offensive coordinator for a season under Harbaugh; Weiss was charged with hacking into accounts in and stealing private images of student-athletes.)
And it’s not Manuel’s fault that Moore deleted text messages from his phone ahead of the Stalions-sparked NCAA investigation, which led to Moore serving a school-imposed two-game suspension this fall.
It is his fault that Moore stood on the sideline against Oklahoma back in Week 2 in the role of coach, rather than serving said suspension over the first two games of the season like Harbaugh did in 2023. Moore coached in Norman, Oklahoma, presumably because it was A) a huge game, and B) Moore’s alma mater. Here was a school that loves touting accountability and integrity, letting its football coach dictate his punishment.
Manuel allowed that.
It was a rough look then. It’s a worse look now.
Manuel had the chance to send a message that the athletic department was serious about change. Instead, he sent the message that the big game mattered more, that the football coach mattered more, that the school’s own image mattered more.
Moore had no business coaching that game. Just as Pearson had no business coaching as long as he did, nor Howard coaching as long as he did, nor the school refusing to cooperate as much as the NCAA wanted it to during the Stalions investigation, the result of which was an approximate $30 million fine and a host of show-cause penalties.
It’s a pattern, and an unsettling one – and the incidents keep piling up.
Ultimately, Manuel is responsible for all of it, fair or not.
It’s part of the job. The perception of his department is at stake.
So is the perception of the school, and what should be one of the best ambassadors this state has to offer.
It’s time to fix it.
Contact Shawn Windsor: [email protected]. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan, Warde Manuel need fresh start after Sherrone Moore news
Category: General Sports
