Joel Klatt claims Michigan coaching search will be impacted by investigation into athletic department

A week now since the firing of Sherrone Moore, there’s no doubt that this coaching search could be complicated for Michigan. That, in the opinion of Joel Klatt, will only be more so with the reported news of the investigation into the athletic department coming up for the Wolverines.

Klatt noted the effect of the self-inspection on the maize & blue’s ongoing search during his show on Monday. It’s obviously bad to that extent, though, as it’s never a positive to have to openly investigate your own building with what all has transpired the past few seasons in Ann Arbor.

“Unfortunately for Michigan, and Michigan fans, and the department, this search is now going to coincide with an announced investigation or query into the practices and culture of the athletic department,” said Klatt. “Not great.

“You want to find something in terms of culture? I mean, like, isn’t that fairly subjective? Probably. So, a vague investigation or query? Not great. Not great at Michigan. And, of course, they’ve had a lot of different things happen – the sign-stealing, assistant coaches getting in trouble in pretty severe legal cases, now obviously the Sherrone Moore incident that has happened over the last couple of weeks. So, we’ll see what happens at Michigan.”

On Saturday, ESPN’s Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel jointly reported, as well as those at the Detroit News, on the upcoming self-examination of “the practices and culture of its athletic department” at Michigan. Jenner & Block, a law firm in Chicago, will be handling the matter, as they look into the recent history of scandals, both on and off the field, and how they’ve been handled by the powers that be in the athletic department for the Wolverines.

That’s then one more thing they’ll have to focus on amid also, well, still having to hire a new football coach. It’ll be a point that could hang over the decisions of any candidate considering the job, and certainly so with what it could lead to, says Klatt.

“That’s going to be difficult for Warde Manuel as he’s trying to navigate this whole coaching search, and it might hamstring it pretty severely. Because, as a head coach or a prospective head coach, what you would want to do is be hired by the guy that you will work for ultimately,” said Klatt.

“This is going to impact the search, by the way, and we’ll see how dramatically it impacts the search here in the coming days and weeks.”

There’s a lot going on still right now at Michigan, despite it being still just less than a week since this all transpired with Moore. This investigation, though, will only add to that, as they look into themselves and what’s gone wrong in more than one instance now within their athletic department.