Josh Pate reacts to Sherrone Moore firing, reveals agents expected job to open

Wednesday afternoon, news broke of Sherrone Moore’s firing as Michigan’s head coach, and the school announced it was with cause. It shook the college football world with a top-tier job opening up, but Josh Pate said the situation had been brewing for some time.

Michigan AD Warde Manuel announced Moore’s departure came after a university investigation found evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. That was a violation of school policy, and Manuel said it presented grounds for a termination with cause.

But even before the announcement, Pate said agents have been expecting the Michigan job to open. While the investigation was going on, the sense was a change might have been on the way, and that came down Wednesday.

“This is one of those really interesting dynamics where there was a wild rumor circulating behind the scenes and it was accurate,” Pate said. “This is what myself, several other people have heard a month ago. So the only question was going to be, do they really pull the trigger on it? Just because you have cause to fire someone doesn’t mean you do. I wasn’t privy to the inner workings of Michigan, and I didn’t know if they were. But the word was they were going to.

“Let me put it this way. Agents have expected the Michigan job to be coming open for several weeks now. That’s been expected behind the scenes. Therefore, just because they made the move today … does not mean anyone’s being caught off guard about this on Dec. 10. So any names that you throw out there, any speculation, it’s not coming as a surprise.”

Sherrone Moore situation was ‘bubbling behind the scenes’

Michigan put together a 9-3 record in Sherrone Moore’s second season as the full-time head coach, capped by a loss to Ohio State. The Wolverines are currently getting ready for the Citrus Bowl against Texas on New Year’s Eve.

But Pate said throughout the year, some close losses could have led Michigan to make a change and say it was for performance-based reasons. After the USC loss, the Wolverines rattled off five wins in a row heading into “The Game” against Ohio State, and Pate indicated a loss during that stretch could have changed things for Moore and the UM program.

“Remember … they lost the Oklahoma game, but they went and beat Nebraska on the road. But then, when they lost against USC, the clock was ticking – and this was already bubbling behind the scenes by then. That was Oct. 11. Then subsequently, the Michigan State game was kind of weird-looking, but they won it. The Purdue game was close – way too close – but they won it. Northwestern, way too close, but they won it. And I thought if any of those games were losses and then they were going to go on and lose to Ohio State, that was going to be an 8-4 season. I could easily see that having been enough for them to just say, ‘We’re firing Sherrone for performance-based reasons.’

“They ended up squeezing out some wins there. They did lose to Ohio State, but people aren’t getting fired for 9-3. Sorry. That’s just not happening. Then, you find out after Signing Day – which I think was timed purposefully – that he is fired for cause.”