Report: Michigan assistants Sherrone Moore, Grant Newsome also facing one-game suspensions

News broke on Tuesday that Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA are expected to negotiate a four-game suspension to open the 2023 season due to recruiting violations within the Wolverines program.

According to Austin Meek of The Athletic, Harbaugh isn’t the only Michigan coach facing a suspension.

Meek reports that offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore and tight ends coach Grant Newsome are expected to receive one-game suspensions. That means that the two assistants will miss the season opener for Michigan when the Wolverines host East Carolina on Sept. 2.

Moore is entering his sixth season on the Wolverines staff and his first as offensive coordinator. He is also entering his third season as the offensive line coach at UM.

Moore started his time at Michigan as the tight ends coach, before transitioning into the offensive line coach role. He led the Wolverines to back-to-back Joe Moore Awards in 2021-22. The award is given annually to the best offensive line in college football.

Newsome is entering his second season as a full-time assistant on the Michigan staff. He was a student-assistant who worked with the tight ends in 2018 and 2019, before spending the 2020 and 2021 seasons working with the offensive line as a grad assistant. He helped Luke Schoonmaker finish second on the team in catches with 35 for 418 yards and three touchdowns last season in his first year as a full-time assistant.

The suspension of Harbaugh and two of his assistants stems from alleged false statements Harbaugh made to NCAA investigators. It centered on an NCAA investigation into recent recruiting violations committed by Wolverines’ staff members.

The NCAA alleged Harbaugh was dishonest about the violations in his initial meeting with investigators, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.

“Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh and NCAA are working toward a negotiated resolution that is expected to see him suspended four games this season in penalties stemming from alleged false statements he originally made to investigators, sources tell Yahoo Sports,” Dellenger wrote on Twitter.

“A quick resolution broke down in January after Harbaugh refused to admit that he lied to NCAA staff,” Dellenger wrote regarding Harbaugh. “The 59-year-old coach has maintained he didn’t recall the events when first speaking with investigators but that he was never purposefully dishonest.”

Former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, who’s now with the Baltimore Ravens in the same position, is expected to receive a one-year show cause.

“Harbaugh’s alleged initial cover-up was worse than the crime itself from the NCAA’s perspective,” Dellenger wrote. “In a notice of allegations sent to Michigan last year, the association cited four Level II violations, including meeting with two recruits during a COVID-19 dead period, texting a recruit outside of an allowable time period, having analysts perform on-field coaching duties during practice and having coaches watching players work out via Zoom.”

According to the report, Harbaugh acknowledged the program committed Level II violations but refused to sign any document or publicly state he was untruthful. But as Dellenger put it, the negotiated resolution is a “signal” the coach acknowledged he was partially dishonest.