JUST IN:Sherrone Moore is promoted to head coach at Michigan.

Jim Harbaugh was replaced by Sherrone Moore, the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, on Friday, the national champion Wolverines revealed. It took just two days, in fact, for Michigan to make the move. Prior to his departure to become leadership of the Los Angeles Chargers, Jim Harbaugh has been praising his potential successor at Michigan. Before this month’s national championship game, Harbaugh declared that Moore was prepared to be a head coach, viewing his 4-0 record as an interim coach—which includes victories against Ohio State and Penn State—as “proven” in the run-up to Harbaugh’s repeated 2023 suspensions.

Two weeks ago, Michigan’s 15-0 victory over Washington in the College Football Playoff national championship brought an end to an odd and scandalous season that saw Harbaugh serve two bans for different rules infractions. As Michigan’s head coach, he was 86–25.

Moore now holds the position, which is a chance he has long desired. “I have been preparing my entire coaching career for this opportunity and I can’t think of a better place to be head coach than at the University of Michigan,” Moore stated in a statement. “As a TEAM, we will exert every effort every day to uphold the 144-year tradition of championship football played at the University of Michigan. We won’t be lowering our standards. We are going to be a championship-caliber football team that is hard, physical, disciplined, hungry, and plays with love for the game, the winged helmet, and each other.

“We’ll keep striving for success in the classroom, in our communities, and off the field. Working in this new capacity with our players, coaches, and staff excites me.”

The way Moore handled situations throughout his head-coaching stints this past season impressed athletic director Warde Manuel. “Sherrone has proven to be a great leader for our football program, especially the offensive line and players on the offensive side of the football,” Manuel stated. He is a vibrant, ferocious, and competitive person who brings out the best in the athletes he coaches. The players enjoy spending every day in the building with him and performing for him.

“This fall, Sherman took the reins as the team’s and the program’s temporary head coach when needed. Sherrone’s handling of that issue cemented my already developing faith in him. He always made it about the team, never about himself! We are overjoyed that Sherrone, his spouse Kelli, and the entire Moore family will be taking on this new position for the university community and football program.”

The 38-year-old Moore has never had a head coaching position at any level. He was a guard at Oklahoma during the prime of Bob Stoops, and he had expressed before the Rose Bowl that he valued the chance to get experience making decisions on the Michigan sideline. “The biggest difference is that when you’re the head coach you got to talk with the reps a lot, and that communication can be positive, can be a little negative,” Moore stated in Pasadena, Calif. “As a coordinator, I attempt to handle that as best I can, making snap decisions in certain circumstances, particularly when going for it on fourth down and depending on the head coach.”

“You kind of make that decision yourself when you’re the head coach. However, Harbaugh and I share the same perspective on what we would call for and how we would handle such circumstances. The main distinctions between being a coordinator and a head coach are those. After moving to Michigan in 2018, Moore was promoted to co-offensive coordinator in 2020. Although Moore isn’t what many in the fan base would refer to as a “Michigan Man,” he stated prior to the national championship game that he was happy to be at Ann Arbor and wasn’t looking to become a head coach because of his loyalty to the Wolverines. Moore was a finalist in 2023 for the Broyles Award, given to the best assistant coach in the country.