Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore to attend State of the Union as guest of Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore made a trip to Washington D.C. this week, where he’ll attend the State of the Union address given by president Joe Biden in front of a joint session of Congress on Thursday evening, congresswoman Debbie Dingell announced on Thursday.

Moore is a guest of Dingell, a Democrat who represents Michigan’s 6th district, including Ann Arbor, in the House of Representatives. It’s common for various elected officials to bring guests for the annual speech from the president, often with tie-ins to the speech itself.

Dingell chose Moore for his perch atop the Michigan football program and the reigning national champions following an undefeated 2023 season. Moore, who served as the offensive coordinator in 2023, was elevated to head coach after the season and the departure of Jim Harbaugh.

“Over the course of the last season the coaches and captains of the University of Michigan national championship team instilled the importance of teamwork across their entire program,” Dingell said in a release. “During the national championship celebration, I told the team and the gathered crowd that teamwork creates victors, and that Congress could learn a lesson from their success. I’m proud to host Coach Sherrone Moore as my guest for the State of the Union and am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the importance of teamwork and bipartisanship in delivering wins for the American people.”

Moore was also quoted in the release, expressing gratitude for the opportunity.

“I appreciate the invitation to attend the State of the Union address by our Congresswoman Debbie Dingell,” Moore said. “It is an extreme honor to attend on behalf of the University of Michigan, and I am excited to be part of one of the annual events in our governmental process.”

Moore will be at least the second Michigan head coach to attend the address, as Harbaugh attended Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech in 2016 as a guest of Michigan representative Justin Amash.

Aside from getting a gallery seat to one of the bigger annual political and governmental events, it’s possible Moore gets mention in the speech from the president, albeit an unlikely occurrence.

It also wouldn’t be the first presidential shoutout for Michigan football in recent memory. During a 2012 campaign stop at the University of Michigan campus, then-incumbent candidate Obama spoke inside Al Glick Fieldhouse where the football team practices. In attendance was then Michigan star quarterback Denard Robinson, who got a shoutout from the sitting president while seated with the pair of U.S. Senators from Michigan.

Plus, Michigan football has sent one of its own to occupy the Oval Office, albeit through notorious circumstances, as Speaker of the House Gerald Ford rose to the office amid resignations during the Richard Nixon Administration.

Ford won a pair of national championships as a center, linebacker and long snapper for the Wolverines in 1932 and 1933 during his time as an undergraduate.