Sherrone Moore was in the TSA line at an airport in Houston when he learned he was probably about to become Michigan's new head coach.
"It popped up on my phone, 'Jim Harbaugh to the Chargers.' I was like, okay," Moore told Joel Klatt on the most recent edition of Big Noon Conversations. "That second (phone notification sounds). Text messages, calls. Text messages, calls. Our AD, our assistant AD calls, 'Hey, you've got to come back right now.'
Recalling the chain of events months later, Moore got his dates mixed up. He recalled getting the job on a Saturday, but the Chargers hired Harbaugh on Wednesday, Jan. 24, and Michigan announced Moore on Friday, Jan. 26. Either way, Michigan's search -- if we can even call it that -- lasted less than 48 hours, but in reality Moore knew he was getting the job long before that.
In fact, at some point during Michigan's run to the 2023 national championship, Harbaugh told Moore he would become his replacement. "He said, 'I don't know when, I don't know what's going to happen, no man can tell the future.'"
Klatt then joked about Harbaugh giving Moore a Harbaugh-ism, but knowing Jim I'd bet he actually quoted Mark 13:32, when Jesus prepared His followers for the destruction of Earth: “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows."
Moore's ascension to the throne of Michigan football was not always outwardly obvious. He had only six seasons of full-time coaching experience when he joined Harbaugh's staff as tight ends coach in 2018. The next three seasons represented a valley in the Harbaugh era: Michigan went 21-11 over the next three seasons, did not win a bowl game, and saw the gap with Ohio State grow to a point where the Buckeyes dropped 62 and 56 points on the Wolverines during their 2018 and '19 games. Things dropped to a point where some believed, had the 2020 edition of The Game not been cancelled due to covid, the Harbaugh era never would've lasted to 2021.
Harbaugh instituted a number of changes following Michigan's 2-4, virus-shorted campaign, and the best of them was promoting to co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 2021. In 2021-22, Michigan went 25-3 with back-to-back defeats of Ohio State and back-to-back Big Ten championships.
At some point during that season, Harbaugh told Moore he was working to officially appoint him his head coach-in-waiting.
"He said, 'You're going to be the next head coach at Michigan.' I was like, what? He said, 'I'm going to put it in my contract that if I ever leave, that you're the next head coach at Michigan.'"
Moore said that conversation happened "at the beginning of the year." Even still, Moore's status as the next man up was not outwardly obvious.
Moore was appointed interim head coach during Harbaugh's 3-game suspension to open the 2023 season, but so was defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh, and running backs coach Mike Hart. Those four men split game day head coaching duties for the first three games of Michigan's season.
But when Harbaugh was suspended again, this time during the stretch run of Michigan's regular season, Moore alone was appointed the acting leader of the program.
Moore coached Michigan to a key win at Penn State, guided the team's efforts to its 1,000th all-time win against Maryland, and then earned plaudits for his gutsy play-calling while also serving as acting head coach for the Wolverines' 30-24 win over undefeated Ohio State.
As we know, that contract never got done. From Moore's perspective, though, it was a moot point. He didn't need Harbaugh's endorsement or a contractual booster to his claim for the throne. His performance alone -- specifically, that Ohio State game -- was enough.
"He trusted me and this offense to do everything possible to help him and this team win," Moore said. "I just worked as hard as I could this year."
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.