ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Somewhere between a week and 10 days before Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel received the call from head football coach Jim Harbaugh, he wanted to speak with offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. At that moment, Manuel was uncertain whether Harbaugh would be leaving for the NFL, be that with the Los Angeles Chargers, the Atlanta Falcons or some other organization. Negotiations between the school and Harbaugh over a lucrative contract extension were still ongoing, like they had been for months.
But if Harbaugh moves on after three straight wins over Ohio State, three straight Big Ten Championships and the program’s first national title in 26 years, Manuel knows who his top candidate will be. So he called Moore and gave him the lay of the land.
“I told him before Jim made the announcement,” Manuel explained, “I said, ‘Just know, you’re going to be the first person I sit down with. I promise you that. So just be patient. Be prepared. I want to know your perspective on how you’re going to do things.'”
The phone call that so many Michigan fans were expecting finally happened on Jan. 24, at which point Harbaugh explained to Manuel he was departing to become head coach of the Chargers. That call ignited a race against the clock for Manuel, university president Santa Ono and the Board of Regents to identify and lock down whomever they believed should lead the Wolverines into the post-Harbaugh era.
A deal with Moore was struck within 48 hours. An official announcement was made on Friday evening. And by 11 a.m. on Saturday, with his wife and two daughters in attendance at the Junge Family Champions Center attached to Michigan Stadium, Moore was formally introduced as the 21st head coach in program history. The audience included Manuel, several members of the Board of Regents, a collection of current Michigan players and most of Harbaugh’s coaching staff, though Harbaugh himself did not attend.
“I can’t be Jim Harbaugh,” Moore said. “So I’m going to be me. And I think in this business, in any world, if you’re not yourself, then you’re going to lose the people around you. So I’m definitely going to be myself, be who I am, my leadership style, how I’m going to approach things. But I’m definitely going to lean on [Harbaugh] hugely because of what he built and what we’ve built here.”
Once Harbaugh finalized the decision to leave Ann Arbor after nine years, returning to the NFL for the first time since 2014, this was the succession plan he wanted for his alma mater. Manuel said Harbaugh had “talked effectively” about Moore before the season began, entrusting him as acting coach against Bowling Green during a three-game suspension that was self-imposed by Michigan. Then Manuel said Harbaugh raved about Moore again as the season progressed, certain that he could lead the Wolverines against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State after the Big Ten imposed another suspension. And when Manuel spoke to Harbaugh again on Wednesday, with the latter informing his boss of an impending preferred move to the NFL, where his aspirations of winning a Super Bowl couldn’t be passed up, Harbaugh stumped for Moore a third time to make his choice crystal clear.
It was then that the never-ending contract negotiations between Michigan and Harbaugh were officially cooked, even after the school offered to make him the highest-paid coach in the country. The two sides had reported clashed over Harbaugh’s request for an immunity clause that would preclude him from being fired for cause pending the results of multiple ongoing NCAA investigations into the football program. Harbaugh’s attorney, who spoke to The Detroit News, said it took “until the proverbial 11th hour on Wednesday for Michigan to give in on certain contract language.”
When asked on Saturday how he’d characterize the negotiations with Harbaugh’s camp, Manuel said he was aware of how things were being portrayed on social media and that outsiders weren’t privy to everything that happened behind the scenes.
“I can’t judge how close we were or weren’t [to keep Harbaugh],” Manuel said. “I know we had constant communication, great effort — myself, the president, the board — and we made our best effort. Ultimately, Jim made a decision that he wanted to make for the next phase of his life. And I’m at peace with it. I’m happy with what we tried to do. He knows how much I loved him, we loved him. But ultimately, he made a choice to go to the Chargers as a head coach.”
