As hard as Sherrone Moore tries to ascend out of the metaphorical quicksand that is the Harbaugh era, he seems to get hauled further in. The standards Jim Harbaugh set for his successor weren’t exactly easy to reach anyway. But the circumstances he left behind in Ann Arbor fanned the flames of an already scorching furnace. Coach Moore has a lot of external heat on him. Not merely for Michigan’s relatively poor season, either. So much so that this heat has permeated inside the school. Even his own employers have it in for him! 

That infamous sign-stealing scandal continues to cast a cloud over the Big House. It blemishes Michigan’s national championship in 2023, putting an asterisk on their achievement. But all this time later, there’s still no definitive conclusion. All the documentaries and discourse, but still no result for the NCAA’s ongoing probe. Well, there’s finally a line in the sand—ironically drawn by Michigan itself. Unfortunately for him, though, Sherrone Moore has been left stranded on the other side of it.

“Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore is expected to be suspended for two games for the upcoming 2025 season as part of self-imposed sanctions by the university for the Connor Stalions advanced scouting scandal,” reports ESPN’s Dan Wetzel. “The advanced scouting scandal,” of course, refers to the aforementioned fiasco more commonly known as the sign-stealing scandal. Connor Stalions is the former Wolverines’ defensive analyst who’s alleged to have played the most prominent role in said scandal. Even orchestrated it, according to some. That’s up for conjecture, but then offensive coordinator and current head coach Sherrone Moore is facing reprimand. This begs the question: What exactly is the extent and scope of this suspension?

Michigan faces fellow bluebloods Oklahoma in Week 2, which also happens to be Sherrone Moore’s alma mater. So since this is a self-imposed suspension via the school, they had some room for maneuver. “The suspensions will be for Michigan’s third and fourth-week opponents — Central Michigan and Nebraska — and will include being barred from any team-related duties during those weeks,” reads the ESPN report. Maybe it’s pure coincidence that the sanction kicks in after the Oklahoma game, but it sure adds a wrinkle to affairs. Alas, that bit about Coach Moore being barred from team-related duties in their entirety is particularly fascinating.

Back when the scandal surfaced in ’23, the NCAA did suspend then-HC Jim Harbaugh. This was a bit of a slap on the wrist before they could flesh out the exact details of what went down and conjure the real punishment. Well, Harbaugh won’t actually face it anymore since he’s out on the Pacific Coast with the LA Chargers now. But that’s secondary. The fascinating bit is that Michigan’s suspension of Sherrone Moore is relatively harsher than the initial NCAA suspension of Jim Harbaugh! Coach Harbaugh was permitted to take part in practice leading up to the games he was suspended for. But Coach Moore’s suspension is more comprehensive. This preemptive step from Michigan seems like a teaser of what’s going to transpire once the NCAA brings down its proverbial hammer.

The scandal itself, Connor Stalions’ role and why Sherrone Moore is implicated in the ‘crime’

This entire ordeal stems from Connor Stalions allegedly sending people to games of Michigan’s prospective opponents. There, they’d illicitly film the coach’s signals and gestures for play calls. Stalions would then assimilate the footage and bring it back to Ann Arbor for them to decipher and gain an edge. There’s an elephant in the room here—Stalions was possibly a mere pawn in a much bigger operation. But that’s neither here nor there. Plus, he takes ownership of his actions. Although that doesn’t mean Stalions retrospectively feels guilty about them. He’s stayed ten toes down about how this is commonplace around the CFB landscape. How Michigan was simply trying to fight back, rather than instigate a war.

In an interview with On3, Stallions said, “Let’s not kid ourselves here. I would say 95 percent of teams have 95 percent of teams’ signals… We were getting taken advantage of. Ohio State was really abusing us in 2018 and 2019.” He even stated how every time Michigan called a play, Ohio State seemed to run the exact antidote to it. He claims things got so bad that OSU waited for Michigan to call a play so that they could react to their signal. “We’re just looking at each other, and our minds [are] like, ‘Delay of game’s on you, buddy, so you might wanna start calling your play.’ You could tell that’s what got them rattled, because they were so reliant on knowing your signal,” he claimed. But amidst all of this, what makes Sherrone Moore culpable, with enough evidence, to get suspended?

“Moore’s suspension ties back to Moore allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with Stalions,” read an excerpt from the Dan Wetzel-ESPN report. “The alleged deletions came in October of 2023, the same day that media reports detailed that Stalions spearheaded the advanced scouting scheme.”

Sherrone Moore’s actions were deemed a Level 2 violation of the NCAA bylaws. Michigan getting ahead of the NCAA in imposing sanctions on its staff could be shrewd. But it inadvertently casts a spotlight on the scandal and invites dormant criticism. It remains to be seen what, if anything, the NCAA eventually imposes on Michigan and its personnel. Harbaugh may be in the clear, but Moore is still very much in the firing line.