Who is Biff Poggi? Michigan interim coach background, more

Michigan Wolverines associate head coach Biff Poggi will serve as the program’s interim head coach during Sherrone Moore’s school-imposed two-game suspension, Moore announced on Monday.

Poggi, who served as Charlotte’s head coach from 2023-24, is one of the most fascinating men in college football. He is a former hedge fund manager turned football coach who built Baltimore high school powerhouses, became Jim Harbaugh’s right-hand man, and is now back in Ann Arbor.

Moore’s suspension begins on midnight on Saturday and runs through 11:59 p.m. after the Nebraska game on Sept. 20, so Poggi will lead the program and have the main headset for 8 days. Michigan’s coordinators will lead their respective sides of the ball as their roles remain unchanged.

Here are some facts and background on the man who will lead the team in its gameday operations over the next two Saturdays.

Personal background and coaching career

Poggi is 64 years old and from Baltimore and played offensive line at the University of Pittsburgh in 1978 and Duke in 1979. As a businessman, he made his fortune in investment banking and hedge funds before devoting his life to coaching football. His company, Samuel James Limited, was founded in 1986 and made him a multi-millionaire. Poggi later turned the firm over to a handful of his former players.

Poggi cut his teeth in the coaching ranks at Brown, along with stints at The Citadel and a spring with Temple. He joined Gilman School in Baltimore in 1988 as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, a position he held until 1996, when he was elevated to head coach. Poggi stayed at Gilman School through 2015 and won 13 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association titles and produced several Division 1 players. Former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh hired Poggi as an analyst in 2016, and his son, Henry Poggi, played for the Wolverines from 2013-17.

Poggi left Michigan to coach another Baltimore HS powerhouse in St. Francis Academy, where he was from 2017-20. During his tenure, the program produced players like Blake Corum, Nikhai Hill-Green and Derrick Moore in addition to Eyabi Okie-Anoma, who was a five-star recruit who started at Alabama before spending his final season at Michigan in 2022.

Poggi returns to Ann Arbor, leaves again, returns

Poggi came back to Michigan in 2021-22 as the associate head coach and right-hand to Harbaugh. He was credited as a major force in helping turn the program’s culture around, coming off the 2-4 COVID-impacted campaign in 2020. With Poggi back in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines won a pair of Big Ten Championships, made two College Football Playoff appearances and grabbed two wins over the Ohio State Buckeyes.

“Biff’s a great mentor and has been that for me,” Harbaugh told The Athletic in a Poggi profile in 2022. “He likes to scheme it up, and he knows how to coach and helps coach the coaches. … As far as helping me personally, there aren’t too many decisions that I make that I don’t run by Biff and we talk it out.”

“…He’s got it all. I’d work for Biff. His relationship to everybody else is never king-to-subject. It’s friend-to-friend. It’s collaborative and always about the team.”

Poggi left before the 2023 season to take the head coaching job at Charlotte, where he went 6-16 over two seasons before being fired before the end of the 2024 season. Following his firing, he spent a game weekend at Michigan in November and was re-added to the coaching staff this offseason in his previous role as associate head coach, this time working alongside Moore.

What Michigan coaches have said about Poggi

Former head coach Jim Harbaugh (2015-23), current head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers
“Biff has been a tremendous asset to our University of Michigan Football program, providing support and mentorship to our coaching staff and players. He has a great football mind, knows how to prepare a team during the week and on game day, and is a coach that aims to change the lives of his players in a positive way. Biff is a trusted agent and known friend…”

Former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald (2021), current head coach of the Seattle Seahawks
“He’s really the only guy that is willing to hash it out with (Harbaugh)… They’ll argue a lot, but it’s a good healthy relationship. He’s willing to disagree with Jim and vice versa, and he’s great with the players.”

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore after Poggi was re-hired
“Obviously, he’s been in the program before. He was a huge help for me when I was an o-line coach at first, and just a general feeling of how the program goes. The knowledge of the players, specifically, was huge. And then, obviously, his experience as a high school head coach, as a head coach. But just in general, his love for the players, importantly, his knowledge of everybody in our building, and keeping the cohesion in the building was huge. And I also wanted our coordinators to be able to do what they do, and continue their jobs as they go through the season. Let me come back and let there be no hiccups, and not have to do anything extra. And I think that’s gonna be important, so that they can do that at a high level.”