The Michigan Wolverines were preparing for the Citrus Bowl when the university suddenly made one of the most dramatic decisions in recent program history. On Wednesday, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel officially announced the firing of head coach Sherrone Moore, confirming widespread reports that he had been terminated for cause.
The reason? A university investigation found that Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, violating established U-M policy.
And as the dust settled, Manuel immediately named Biff Poggi as Michigan’s interim head coach.
Why Michigan Fired Sherrone Moore
The university didn’t hide behind vague language or deflect the seriousness of the matter. Instead, Warde Manuel released a direct and unambiguous statement explaining Michigan’s decision.
Here is Manuel’s full statement, via On3 Sports.
“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.”
“Biff Poggi has been appointed head football coach in an interim capacity, effective immediately.”
The termination ends Moore’s Michigan tenure after just two full regular seasons, during which he compiled a 17–8 record and led the Wolverines to a bowl victory and several high-profile wins.
But Manuel’s message made one thing very clear: no level of on-field success overrides university expectations or policy compliance.
Biff Poggi Takes Over Immediately
With the Citrus Bowl against Texas less than a month away, Manuel moved quickly to stabilize the program. His statement concluded with the announcement that Biff Poggi would take over as interim head coach.
Poggi is not new to Michigan’s sideline leadership. Earlier this year, he served as interim head coach for two games, wins over Central Michigan and Nebraska, while Moore was unavailable.
Now he inherits the full responsibility of guiding the Wolverines into postseason play during one of the most chaotic weeks the program has experienced in years.
Despite the chaos, Manuel’s decision and his full statement emphasized that Michigan values accountability, transparency, and institutional integrity above all else.
22 Responses
The Team, The Team, The Team – not an individual.
I give the AD credit for transparency. I hope the staff member is gone also. Zero tolerance.
Good luck and Go Blue.
Damn shame how you can’t have a relationship because you work together so that means any university staff having a relationship with one another should be fired period this goes for all staff he shouldn’t be the only staff member fired Cause it’s plenty of them sleeping with one another smh 🤦🏽♀️
I’m not trying to be a smart ass, is he married? I’m an Ohio State fan and I hope Michigan comes back strong.
Yes, with three daughters
I agree 💯! Don’t disrespect your marriage, your family or your responsibility to be a role model for the kids you coach.
Well spoken!
It the infidelity that’s not tolerated. He is a married man. U of M upholds morals.
What about ex president Schlissel? He just took another job after stepping down…… hmmmm that’s odd
One of the dangers of relationships with staff that are below you in the org chart is how forced consent is. Is the releationship consensual or is it happening because the person below on the org chart feels fear of repercussions if they don’t comply (false consent). Furthermore, there’s concern that any advancement given to that person is a result of favoritism due to the relationship.
I’m not a U-M fan, I’ve worked at that ‘little brother’ school down the road for decades. We have similar policies and a pile of training that goes with it.
I’m saddened this happened, however I applaud “big brother” for not sweeping this under that rug as my school is accused of doing with our Mel Tucker scandal a few years ago.
He’s married and he threatened to kill himself his wife and his girlfriend after he broke into her house. He left a lot of the details out. This is why he got arrested as well. But I do agree with you that as long as they are of age you should be able to have relationships with whoever you want to.
Sherrone Moore fumbled Bryce Underwood, for Michigan!
I feel bad for his wife and kids.
It the infidelity that’s not tolerated. He is a married man. U of M upholds morals.
Well then they have to fire 80% of their employees.
If it was infidelity, why was he arrested?
Threatening to do harm to others and himself
Where did you hear that.
Where did you hear that.
You know what who cares what he does on the side, the stability of his home life has nothing to do with his job. As long as he didn’t do what he supposedly did on UoM property and expended no funds from the university then the perception of his “morality” is nobody’s business but his and his family’s. Now go through every single UoM’s employees backgrounds and private lives and fire all of those that are guilty of the same activities and let us see how many are left standing. My take is that the U just wants him gone because they don’t believe in him anymore and if they just fire him they must pay the rest of his contract.
Employers have standards to comply with that’s why business’s have employee handbooks with the rules to abide by. I don’t think they were trying to get rid of him. Two people did this . There is no one to blame but him and the person he was involved with. Let’s care now about his wife and family. It has to be very devastating and embarrassing to them
They just had on the CBS national news that when this female staff member called 911 to report that he had broken into her apartment, she also stated that he had been stalking her for months. So now there’s some questions as to whether it might have been consensual or she wanted to be left alone 😳