Earlier today, the Michigan Wolverines fired head coach Sherrone Moore:
Moore took over a couple of seasons ago when Jim Harbaugh bolted for the NFL to avoid sanctions from the Connor Stallions sign-stealing scandal, and he went 8-5 in 2024 and improved to 9-3 this year.
Michigan is firing Moore “with cause” for violating code of conduct. The long and the short of it is that
he had an affair with an admin staffer and nearly doubled her salary this year (seriously, what a dead giveaway). After Michigan announced his firing this afternoon, a few hours later the news broke that he had been arrested.
Ex-Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore has been detained by police, arrested and booked in Washtenaw County Jail, according to court record.
Moore was booked at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 10, and as of 9:40 p.m. was still in custody.
A reason for his arrest was not listed.
Earlier on Wednesday, ESPN’s Dan Wetzel reported police in Saline, Michigan “assisted in locating and detaining Moore” and turned it over to Pittsfield Township for an investigation into potential charges.
There’s a lot of tweets going out there claiming to know what happened, and you can look them up yourself. But to this point there hasn’t been any official reporting on what exactly Sherrone did to get himself arrested, other than that it is an alleged assault charge this is “not random in nature.”
In any case, there’s a lot of smoke that Michigan officials have known about this affair situation for quite a while, and, if true, it’s pretty low for the program that they waited until after National Signing Day to to announce things.
For all of that, suddenly there’s a shiny new head coach opening at one of the top 5 jobs in all of college football. And, of course, the rumors are already flying. On3’s Pete Nakos has already reported that Michigan has Alabama head coach Kalen Deboer as one of their top targets.
Currently in his second season with the Crimson Tide, Kalen DeBoer was rumored to be tied to the Penn State opening earlier this cycle. That was never going to be a factor. But DeBoer will surely be a factor in the Michigan search, sources have told On3. He has consistently won as an FBS head coach, bringing Washington to a CFP title game berth and now having Alabama in the playoff in his second season in Tuscaloosa. He would have been a popular name at Michigan when Sherrone Moore was hired, but he accepted the Alabama job before the Wolverines were in the market.
Are there any credible reasons to believe that DeBoer has any interest in the job? Not really. Michigan is absolutely a premier job – but Alabama is likely a smidge more prestigious, and the two universities have pretty similar resources and fanbases. It would be a lateral move at very best for him, and job hopping that fast for a lateral job would likely hurt his reputation more than help it.
Will Michigan make the call? Of course. Will DeBoer entertain it? Unlikely. But will his agent make sure it gets leaked out there to make Alabama (both the university and the fans) get a little jealous and parlay it into salary increase? Absolutely.
Still, this is going to be a fascinating story to watch develop over the next few weeks/months. The Wolverines are going to do their best to poach someone good.
And hey, if nothing else pans out, I hear Brian Kelly is open to work these days.
