What they're saying about Warde Manuel future, Sherrone Moore investigation, Michigan coaching search: 'This is an elite job'

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Sherrone Moore was fired for cause Wednesday, after an investigation uncovered an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Later Wednesday evening, Moore was arrested and is currently in jail, slated to be arraigned and potentially dropped with charges Friday.

Here’s a look around the internet at what they’re saying about all the different layers to the story, including on how athletic director Warde Manuel has handled it, the investigation into Moore, the coaching search and more.

Josh Pate, On3

This is an elite job. The Michigan job is an elite job. It attracts a lot of attention. Now, I think that about the Michigan job. I think enough candidates think that about the Michigan job. We’re about to find out.

I can’t make this clear enough, agents, far and wide, have expected the Michigan job to come open for weeks. The only question was timing, and whether Michigan would truly pull the trigger, which they, of course, have. So, everyone’s already got their lists of candidates, everyone has sort of probably gauged the interest of their candidate list.

I don’t know how long this will take. The only thing that could maybe prolong it is, are you going after a guy that is in the playoff, and does he keep winning? That’s the first thing. The second thing could be that the Michigan job is not quite as desirable as someone like me thinks it is and someone gets way down the road on considering taking it but then they just say, at the last minute, nope, I’m going to stay here. And that could be anyone. That’s what could prolong this search.

The Michigan job is open. It’s a little bit later in the cycle. I, personally, am very on board with how they timed it. I thought it was very smart to get past signing day. Now, that doesn’t mean your kids still may not bail on you, but you get past signing day and you assess the situation, you know who’s in the playoff and who’s not. It doesn’t hurt to wait a little while. 

They could’ve done it like the day after the Ohio State game, but doing it now gets you past signing day. No one really knows how to operate in this world, because it’s a whole new world, it’s a brand new world because of the calendar the way it is.

Andy Staples on ‘Andy and Ari On3’

Given everything that’s happened, I would imagine that the people in charge at Michigan — and I mean the people that are above athletic director Warde Manuel — need to do a pretty thorough investigation of who in the athletic department knew, what and when, and determine what the best course of action is going to be. 

These rumors have been out there for a long time. We first heard about them in August. People in Ann Arbor had heard about them long before that. Clearly, it was pretty common knowledge that there were these rumors out there. 

There’s not much you can do, acting upon them if you’re a player on the team. But if you’re the Michigan athletic department, that’s something you should act upon. So, I am very curious to hear the answers and the timeline of what was investigated, when. Why did they decide Wednesday that he was fired?

If we’re going to have conspiracy theories about when you decided to fire him, I don’t necessarily think this is a case of you had Sherrone Moore coach through the season and you were trying to decide if he won enough games for you to keep him. Because if that was the case, if let’s say, we know something’s going on, but we’re going to see if we’re going to push that to the side or not, if he’s really good, well, if you decided you weren’t going to keep him and you wanted to get rid of him and this gave you an excuse to fire him for free, you would’ve done that two weeks ago. You would not have waited until after national signing day.

Doug Karsch on 97.1 The Ticket’s ‘Karsch and Anderson’

The athletic director, Warde Manuel, and his staff … the university needs to take a look and see, OK, how thorough was this investigation? How seriously did they take it? Did they do their due diligence, because if they didn’t, then yeah, I don’t want that person leading the search. They need to clean house if indeed they find that is the case. If they did their jobs, did what they’re supposed to do to the letter of the law and followed university policy, then that’s a different thing. Now, you may make that decision anyway, and that’s up to people to decide and the university to decide.

But whatever it is, they need to do that quickly. I wouldn’t rush into hiring a new coach. I would rush into who’s making the decision. I don’t think I would leave that long. Because, let’s say you’re going to replace him — now you’ve changed the focus of your search. Your search is on an athletic director, because that’s the person making that decision.

And there is a timeline that I wouldn’t be 100 percent adherent to, but I would certainly be trying to have some respect to that timeline: A week from tomorrow, Alabama plays a football game. Now, is Kalen DeBoer the No. 1, with a bullet, candidate for this job? He may be. Would he take it? There have been reports that he lobbied for the Michigan job in the past. If indeed you can get Kalen DeBoer, you — with respect to his current situation — have eight days to have the person in place, if it’s not Warde Manuel. And I suspect we’re going to find out soon whether or not it’s going to be Warde Manuel.

For a place with a lot of smart people — the University of Michigan has a lot of smart, well-educated people — there have been some terrible decisions made that have accumulated. And the brand, the block ‘M,’ can only carry you so far. Right now, the university has an interim president. Maybe that’s the first move, is figuring out who the president of the university is. Then figure out who the athletic director is, then figure out who the football coach is. 

I have no idea how to run a football team, coach a football team. Never claimed to. I have no idea how to run an athletic department. Never claimed to. No idea how to run a university. I think I know what lack of leadership might look like, and it might look like what’s going on at Michigan right now. They need to get that in order. The self-inflicted wounds have to stop.

Rich Eisen on the ‘Rich Eisen Show’

If there was an investigation going on, could they have wrapped it up before everybody else signed everywhere, including two Big Ten spots for teams that are coming for Michigan when they do play one another, including, you bet, Michigan State.

That cycle of hiring is now done and in the books, and now Michigan’s going to go into that market with this hanging over the program’s head, and try to figure out who that person is? Because if that person is currently getting set for a College Football Playoff game, well, I don’t think that person’s going to be available. And if you think it’s somebody, maybe, from the National Football League — there are some names that are being thrown around out there — what are they going to do, just leave their teams in the middle of the December run to take the University of Michigan job in the middle of all this just to make sure that everybody understands not to enter the transfer portal?

What happens if you want a coach who’s actually winning football games that matter? Well, that coach won’t be available until, say, January, or in the National Football League, maybe February.

When this all went down, it’s amazing that in the history of this show, as we’re sitting here from the seat of Disney in New York City, we came on the air and I was caping for Jim Harbaugh, ‘He’s got to come back.’ At the time, though, it was clear that things were not working out between him and the San Francisco 49ers, and that Michigan had the ability to potentially wait for him, and it all worked out.

The timing here couldn’t be worse, and I’m saying this with a heavy heart and completely conflicted, because when it all comes down to it, me sitting here wondering about the timing about the football program, when there are people staring into the abyss about how their lives have been completely upended by the choices that have been made by others, completely out of their control — and that includes a wife, apparently, and three daughters, apparently, and whatever’s going on between the temples of Sherrone Moore. Lives shattered. It makes it feel like I’m being a small person, wondering about what about a football program.

John U. Bacon on Fox 2 in Detroit

On if there will be charges brought for Sherrone Moore:I don’t think there’s any way to avoid that. I know this is a relationship. However, once you break and enter someone else’s home and it involves potential threats — and I’m hesitant, always, to get into too many details without knowing absolutely everything — but I’m very confident the police are investigating this right now and charges are very likely.

On why the script flipped on Moore’s fate from an earlier investigation: Great question, and I’ve got partial answers to that but none right now that I can share with authority, not because I’m trying to hide or protect anybody. But we can certainly assume that from the investigation this summer, when both parties said no how, no way, and yesterday morning, when she came with the receipts, lock, stock and barrel exactly to who you’re supposed to take it to, the general counsel and the administrators, that clearly something had soured between those two to make her do this. Now, what that was is open to speculation. But clearly there was not a healthy relationship, in any way, at that point, and of course got almost tragic last night.

On what players are thinking and the timeline for Michigan coaching search: What happens in these situations, certainly when it’s this tumultuous and this sudden and, frankly, this unexpected on the grand scale, some will leave, some will stay. But, probably, most of them are going to wait around. I’m willing to bet — and I have this on good authority, actually — they’re going to hire a coach within five to 10 days. Now, if they hire an AD before that, I don’t know. But that’s going to be a relatively fast process, if that goes as fast as I’m told it’s supposed to go. Then, the players are far more likely to stay. If it drags out, then they’re far more likely to leave, because these players have offers.

On who will hire the next head coach: That is the biggest question right now, and I don’t know. It depends on what the regents and the president decide about Warde Manuel’s future. It’s not the first time that his leadership has been called into question. But, by the same token, he’s won a whole lot of Big Ten titles, a record two years ago, and they’re making big money. Those are, obviously, factors, but those should not be the only factors. The hockey program, the basketball program, now the football program, have all fired coaches in scandal. So, how much of that can you take?

Former Michigan TE Jake Butt on Big Ten Network

I think about the players. These guys are 18 years old, 20, 22 years old. I played in college and the NFL, and there’s a big difference. When people get into college coaching, you do it to help mentor young people become grown men. You get into that mentorship type role, and all of the sudden, these players get left in a really uncomfortable situation, an uncertain time. That part is, of course, unfortunate.

And then for Michigan as an institution, you just get over the Connor Stalions situation with the sign stealing gate. It’s already messy there, and now you’re having to deal with this again. Certainly, not the best time.

The good thing is for Michigan in the short term with the players specifically and as it applies to the bowl game against Texas, part of that statement was that Warde Manuel says Biff Poggi will be the interim head coach. He is an outstanding leader, he is beloved by the locker room, he has the trust of the locker room and his staff, and he’s been there through all the ups and downs of these negative situations. So, having Biff there is beneficial.

The benefit they have is this is one of the best jobs in all of football, not just college. So, Warde has that in his back pocket. If you’re a potential candidate for this job, you understand you’re walking into a team with a talented young core, just signed a great recruiting class, resources that can compete with anybody. So, Warde does have that going for him.

I was a part of the transition from Brady Hoke to Jim Harbaugh, and what our interim AD at the time, Jim Hackett, did is he came and met with us and answered questions from us. He asked our opinion on what we wanted from a head coach. And the magic in that is suddenly we’re invested in the process.

Joel Klatt on the ‘Joel Klatt Show’

First of all, as a standing job, that is absolutely a top six, seven job, I would say, in the country, maybe eight. So, it’s right up there. We’ve had some major jobs like LSU, Penn State, Michigan, Florida come open this year.

It’s been a wild carousel. And I would make a strong argument that it has been a weird year because of the thin talent pool in terms of the prospective head coaches. We had so many coaches say ‘no’ or sign extensions, that even the LSU-Lane Kiffin saga kind of dragged on a little bit. And I’m sure Lane is going to have a lot of success at LSU — I’m sure of it, and maybe that was the best decision for Lane — but do I still love it? No, and Lane knows that, and that’s OK. You’ve got Matt Campbell going to Penn State, you’ve got guys signing extensions, you’ve got some movement from the Group of Six up into the SEC, so it was a bit of a weird year carousel-wise.

And now Michigan is going to be thrust into this at what feels like the back end of the carousel. Which, you never want to be at the back end. It’s not a very advantageous position to be in, when you feel like everybody has either signed extensions or taken new jobs, because what’s the pool like?

So, let’s talk about this. What do they need? Let’s talk about philosophy first here for Michigan, in terms of their head coach. Michigan has won a very specific way, and I think this goes back a long ways, but certainly of recent vintage, since COVID, winning a national championship under Jim Harbaugh, winning those games even under Sherrone Moore this year going 9-3 and being right there. They were a 9-2 football team playing Ohio State.

And they have done it with physicality and toughness. We all know that. That is the nature of their program. So, I’ve always argued that the best coaches don’t win the press conference, but it’s the guy that’s the best fit for your program and your players — the location, the fan base, all of it, the fit with the administration and all the ins and outs that come with every job, because every job is unique in college football.

So, now you’ve got to understand fit at Michigan, and obviously the old cliché from Bo Schembechler is ‘I want a Michigan man.’ And I understand that, certainly. But the first thing that if I was an athletic director I would always do is I don’t want to pin myself into a corner. See, you’re already at the tail end of the coaching carousel, so there’s no reason to put artificial restrictions on your search, so I would never say, as an athletic director, nor do I think Warde Manuel should say as the Michigan offensive coordinator in this search, ‘I have to have an offensive guy, I have to have a defensive guy, I have to have a guy that was a head coach.’ The more parameters you’re putting on it, you’re just continuing to thin out what is already a thin pool of candidates. So, make it a national search and make it a broad search. Don’t put artificial barriers on your search. I think that’s a smart way to go, and I think I would do that as an athletic director at any school.

Because of that, you have to understand who you are and the type of guy that you want to maximize who you are. Michigan is a very specific program, and in their history, they got a little outside of their lane, and hired a guy that was a very good football coach and wasn’t a great fit for Michigan. Maybe they’ve done it a couple times. But certainly, when Lloyd Carr left Michigan and they hired Rich Rodriguez, that was seen widely as a home-run hire because of Rich’s success at West Virginia. They were doing incredible things at West Virginia; they were a play or two away from playing for a national championship. So, not a bad coach. Great coach. Won the press conference. But it wasn’t a great fit at Michigan. It just wasn’t. And I think it wasn’t a great schematic fit, a philosophical fit. So, who are we, where are we going and how are we going to get there?

So, if you’re Michigan, you win with toughness and physicality. That’s what they do! That’s what they do, and that’s how they won a national championship, and they talk about their brotherhood and how connected they are and they talk about pointing at Ohio State and all these different things. You have to retain some of that. Now, schematically, I don’t think it matters whether you hire an offensive-oriented coach or a defensive-oriented coach. You’ve got to hire a coach, however, that has toughness and physicality built into his DNA. That’s paramount.