Michigan is launching another investigation.
Per the Detroit News and ESPN, the school has hired a law firm to begin an investigation into the way numerous things have been handled by the athletic department in recent years. Michigan has been scandal-plagued for years, and that statement was accurate even before head coach Sherrone Moore was fired with cause Wednesday for an inappropriate relationship with a staffer.
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Moore, who was detained by police shortly after his firing, has been charged with felony home invasion, stalking, and breaking and entering or entering without breaking. He allegedly went to the staffer’s residence after he was fired and, per prosecutors, grabbed butter knives and kitchen scissors while threatening to take his own life because the staffer “ruined” Moore’s life.
Prosecutors added that the victim broke up with Moore on Monday and then told the school that they had been in a relationship.
Moore, a 39-year-old married father of three, has been released on bond, and his next hearing is set for January. He recently concluded his second regular season as Michigan’s head coach. The latest UM investigation will be conducted by the law firm Jenner & Block. The firm was hired to investigate Moore’s relationship with the victim. An investigation had been ongoing before the woman went to the school, and the broader investigation will include the way Moore’s firing was handled.
Michigan’s athletic department has been led by athletic director Warde Manuel since 2016. On Thursday, NBC Sports reported that Michigan had known Moore was dealing with mental health issues, yet no one else was present when Manuel fired Moore.
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Moore was promoted from offensive coordinator after the 2023 season following Jim Harbaugh’s departure to the Los Angeles Chargers. Moore served as the team’s interim coach during two different Harbaugh suspensions over the course of that national championship season.
Harbaugh served a self-imposed three-game suspension at the start of the year regarding recruiting violations and was suspended for the final three games of the season by the Big Ten because of the Connor Stalions advance-scouting scheme.
In August 2024, Harbaugh was suspended a year and given a four-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA for the recruiting violations. This past August, Harbaugh got a 10-year show-cause penalty. The show-cause penalties (and the suspension) do not affect Harbaugh’s employment in the NFL in any capacity.
As Harbaugh was hit with a decade-long show-cause, Michigan was fined all its postseason revenue from the 2025 and 2026 football seasons and received additional penalties.
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In March, former Michigan assistant Matt Weiss — who was co-offensive coordinators with Moore in 2022 — was indicted on more than 20 federal charges for allegedly hacking into the accounts of thousands of college athletes and students across the country to access their photos and videos.
Weiss, who was fired in January 2023, allegedly “gained unauthorized access to student-athlete databases of more than 100 colleges and universities that were maintained by a third-party vendor,” U.S. attorneys said. From there, “Weiss was able to obtain access to the social media, email and/or cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 target athletes” along with 1,300 other students, according to prosecutors.
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Weiss, who worked for John Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens before joining Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan, began his alleged hacking while with the Ravens before continuing at Michigan.
In 2024, Michigan fired men’s basketball coach Juwan Howard after an eight-win season. While Howard was recovering from heart surgery in September 2023 and in the midst of his return, he had an altercation with the team’s strength and conditioning coach. Howard was not punished for the incident. In 2022, he was suspended for five games for hitting a Wisconsin assistant in the face after a game.
