Tell me if you’ve heard this before, but University of Michigan Athletics Director Warde Manuel has another mess he needs to clean up.
Sherrone Moore’s firing — and subsequent alleged assault investigation and arrest
— on Wednesday afternoon was the end of a short-lived era for the Michigan football program. It was also the latest entry in a concerning and long pattern under Manuel that the university can’t afford to ignore any longer.Michigan has now watched four significant head coaches — Jim Harbaugh,
Juwan Howard, Mel Pearson, and now Moore — leave the university under chaotic and embarrassing circumstances. Each situation is completely different, but under Manuel’s “leadership,” Michigan Athletics has repeatedly lurched from one crisis to the next, never fully in control, never fully proactive, and too often caught reacting to problems once they’ve already metastasized.
Following up on the Moore situation, specifically, journalist John U. Bacon put out more information on social media Thursday morning. In his post, he reported the university conducted an internal investigation over the summer — again, over the FREAKING summer — regarding Moore’s potential relationship with the staffer. They both denied what was going on, and the “investigation” seemingly ended right there and then.
I imagine this is how the investigation was handled by Warde.
At the end of the day, this is yet another incident that happened right under Warde’s nose. Another scandal going on while his back is seemingly turned. Another national story that has rival fans laughing at the university AGAIN.
So at this point, the question basically asks itself — when will Warde face the same scrutiny as the coaches he continues to hire and, inevitably, lose in embarrassing fashion?
With Jim Harbaugh, we had Connor Stalions, Matt Weiss, Shemy Schembechler (somehow) being hired, and recruiting violations during COVID. With Juwan Howard, it was an altercation with his strength coach, the slapping incident with Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard, and threatening then-Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon. Mel Pearson told his players to lie on COVID contact tracing forms before the NCAA Tournament in 2021 so they wouldn’t have to forfeit, created a toxic environment (especially for female staff members) AND lied to investigators.
The list of crap that has happened directly under his watch is longer than a CVS receipt at this point. So when will it end? When will he be held accountable? How many more scandals need to occur to justify firing him?
The best opportunity to fire him was yesterday. The best opportunity now is to do it today. Warde should no longer be allowed to oversee a department that supports young adults — more than 900 student-athletes across 29 teams, in fact — go through the early portion of their adulthood.
Universities occasionally deal with some drama. It’s part of the business. But four high-profile, messy, reputation-damaging coaching exits in a single athletic director’s tenure? That isn’t a coincidence or bad luck. If Michigan expects championship-level athletics, it must demand championship-level oversight.
