HOUSTON – Jim Harbaugh smiles as he says it, almost straining in his seat to demonstrate. He’s recalling the first time he met Michigan offensive coordinator, Sherrone Moore, then the 31-year-old tight ends coach at Central Michigan.
During an interview, Harbaugh asked Moore to demonstrate his teaching technique for a tight end to zone and gap block. Moore immediately blasted out of his seat and went through a progression. Four simple steps. Four learnable steps. One lasting impression.
“I was blown away,” Harbaugh said during media days ahead of a national championship matchup between Michigan and Washington. “Knocked my socks off.”
Six years and several titles later – Moore’s moved from tight ends to offensive line, to co-OC to offensive coordinator and eventually to interim head coach – Moore continues to blow the Wolverines away with his ability to teach and scheme. The conductor of the nation’s 14th ranked scoring attack and an offense that’s led Michigan to the doorstep of the program’s first national championship since 1997, Moore is someone whose play-calling acumen still occasionally causes awe among his players.
Michigan first-team All-Big Ten left tackle LaDarius Henderson gushed about a call Moore made in the team’s 24-15 road win over No. 10 Penn State. The Wolverines closed that game with 32 straight running plays, a devastating display of physicality against what had been the nation’s No. 1 overall defense.
Running time after time matched the angry mood of Michigan football as Harbaugh had just been suspended after the Big Ten ruled the Wolverines had been involved in a sign-stealing scheme. But it’s the first run of that sequence, a 22-yard touchdown by Donovan Edwards midway through the second quarter of a 7-3 game, that truly sticks with Henderson.
Faced with 3rd-and-11 in the red zone, Moore called a timeout and took over in the huddle. He’d seen the way Penn State’s defense had reacted early in the game to some of Michigan’s tendencies. Diagraming a play in the huddle, one Michigan hadn’t practiced all week, Moore ended things with a confident statement: “This will be a touchdown.” There was eye candy at the line, the linemen all signaled as if they’d do something else and then a few seconds later … touchdown.
“We saw some high-level football thinking from him, from like a chess match standpoint,” Henderson said. “Not just the play calling but the acting involved with the play was so deep. I was like, ‘This guy might be the smartest college football coach.’”
That afternoon marked the beginning of Moore’s second 2023 stint as interim head coach. He held the title for a game against Bowling Green while Harbaugh served a self-imposed three-game suspension. His second stretch, which spanned key regular season games against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State, came far more suddenly when the Big Ten sidelined Harbaugh the night before a showdown with the Nittany Lions.
Moore didn’t see it coming. Few did. When thinking back on his thought process in that moment, Moore said he had to hold himself to the same standard as he does his players.
“We tell them don’t flinch,” Moore said. “So as coaches we have to do the same and attack the moment.”
After beating their opponents by an average of 34 points per game in a breezy first nine weeks of the regular season, Moore’s task in the final three games would prove anything but easy. Each of Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State provided a different sort of scare. But the Wolverines, piloted ably by Moore, survived to finish the regular season 12-0.
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Moore resonated with the entire roster, leading them through perhaps the most adverse conditions – Michigan vs. Everybody, after all – in college football this year.
Those around Michigan describe Moore’s ability to connect with people, from his o-line to walk-on defensive players, as his superpower. Fifth-year offensive lineman Trevor Keegan said his relationship with Moore goes beyond player and coach. Keegan considers Moore a friend. Michigan tight ends coach Grant Newsome, who began his career as a student-coach under Moore in 2018, said Moore’s play-calling abilities are matched, and perhaps exceeded, by his skill at managing and interacting with people.
“I don’t think there’s a single person in the building who doesn’t enjoy spending time with him,” Newsome said.
Moore felt that way about Bob Stoops and his staff during his first season at Oklahoma as a JUCO transfer in 2006. He couldn’t shake the way Stoops managed to influence and shape his players. That’s why he wanted to become a coach. His goal has been to become a head coach pretty much ever since.
Those around him expect that opportunity to come soon.
“He’s phenomenal,” Harbaugh said. “So smart, works so hard at it. Knows what it’s like to be a player. Really composed. Something goes wrong, three, two, one let it go. He’s tremendous at that.”
“I think it’ll happen sooner than later,” Newsome said. “He kind of already is, and coach being suspended has vaulted him into the spotlight more. But it’s something I’ve seen in the building since 2018. It was one of those, ‘Don’t be surprised when this guy is the head coach of [an] NFL or top 5 team and people are wondering where he came from.’ But I think people in the building will know why.’”
There’s even a possibility that opportunity comes at Michigan if Harbaugh decides to depart the program this offseason; Harbaugh’s post-CFB Playoff championship future is murkier than ever, with both interested NFL teams and the NCAA nipping at his heels.
Midway through his answer to a question at Saturday night’s media event about what he’s learned this year as a head coach, Moore was interrupted by the emcee’s voice blasting over the loudspeakers: “Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh in the house!”
Moore smiled, clapped and said, “Yes sir!”
Indeed, Moore is happy to slide back into Harbaugh’s shadow. But after Monday night? Who knows. As Harbaugh would tell you, Moore’s near future involves a head coach title without the interim label: “We’ve already seen it, right? … You’ve already got a glimpse at the shining star that he is.”
