Michigan Football: What about Sherrone Moore of Jim Harbaugh leaves?

Rumors continue to swirl about Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh and if he leaves, Sherrone Moore might make the most sense as a replacement. 

At this point, it’s still up in the air whether Jim Harbaugh will be the Michigan football head coach for the 2023 season and beyond.

The two sides are negotiating and have been. It sounds like the negotiations weren’t really going well until new President Santa Ono stepped in.

To me, it’s pretty baffling. Jim Harbaugh won back-to-back Big Ten titles, made two playoff appearances, and beat Ohio State twice. He needs to be the highest-paid head coach in the Big Ten and the assistant pool needs to be much, much larger.

There isn’t a single Michigan football assistant making $1 million. That’s not sustainable if the Wolverines want to compete with the big boys. Georgia’s offensive coordinator makes over $2 million, which is more than Michigan football’s Sherrone Moore and Jesse Minter combined.

It’s pathetic and quality coaches won’t stick around. There has been no plan for NIL except to basically shrug shoulders and say we are too good to do pay-for-play.

Well, Notre Dame, an institution very similar to Michigan, doesn’t seem to have any problems. In fact, Michigan is the only major program that can’t seem to figure it out or get out of its own way.

That leads me to the point that I could easily see Harbaugh leaving for Denver. Reports indicate that Denver wants Sean Payton as No. 1 and that Harbaugh could be No. 2.

Honestly though, why would Sean Payton go to Denver? There is no draft capital, plus an aging quarterback, and the Broncos would have to pay the Saints a first-rounder too.

Denver is probably coming hard after Harbaugh and if a deal isn’t signed by Jim by the end of this week, I think his chances of returning drop dramatically.

So what happens if Harbaugh does leave? Chris Balas reported on Wednesday night that many Michigan football players want the replacement to be Sherrone Moore and that it could be a realistic option.

There are some outside candidates but no slam dunk I can think of. Moore would definitely be on the shortlist and we’ll make the case for why he should replace Jim Harbaugh if he leaves.

What about Sherrone Moore as Michigan football head coach?

If Harbaugh leaves, it will be one of the weirdest situations in recent college football memory. You’ll have a team projected by just about everyone as preseason top three, looking for a new head coach but returning a Heisman favorite and a five-star quarterback.

The core of J.J. McCarthy, Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards, Will Johnson, Mike Sainristil, and others like Junior Colson is a pretty good place to start.

Of course, when a head coach leaves, it usually causes an exodus via the transfer portal. Michigan football could possibly prevent that by hiring Moore.

Moore would need to hire an offensive coordinator since Matt Weiss will surely be going with Harbaugh to the NFL. But hopefully, he could keep some of the other coaches, especially Minter and Steve Clinkscale to run the defense.

It would be the best for continuity. Jim Harbaugh said Sherrone Moore was ready to be a head coach and he received interest this offseason.

It’s only a matter of time before Moore moves on to be a head coach somewhere else and he’s been a huge part of the offensive line winning back-to-back Joe Moore awards.

Moore is also one of the best recruiters on staff. He wouldn’t be Jim Harbaugh, which would be a good thing and a bad thing — but he’s been exceptional in that area throughout his tenure.

It would obviously be a huge risk, but I don’t love the idea of hiring an outside head coach and losing a bunch of players to the portal. This team is loaded and if some key offensive linemen such as Zak Zinter and Trevor Keegan return, it will look even better.

College football teams also tend to do their hiring in December, not January or February. Moore might not be the big name everyone wants, but could a big name come in and give Michigan football the best chance to win a national title in 2023?

That’s the real question. If the new head coach could keep the talent in Ann Arbor, then yes. But that’s easier said than done. We’ve already seen a number of players on the fence about the draft, depart and Kris Jenkins, who said he was staying, is considering the NFL again too.

You’d hope key players wouldn’t leave in the portal. But hiring Moore is probably the best way to prevent that. He could be another Jimmy Lake, who failed miserably at Washington. He could also be Marcus Freeman, who despite some struggles, had a pretty solid first year at Notre Dame or Lincoln Riley who took over a machine at Oklahoma and didn’t skip a beat.

The bottom line is we don’t know. That’s why Michigan football needs to just get a deal done with Harbaugh. The fact that it hasn’t, should be a fireable offense for Warde Manuel and if Harbaugh does wind up back in the NFL, Manuel’s incompetence will be the No. 1 reason why.