Sherrone Moore debut season at Michigan given favorable grade by Greg McElroy

Sherrone Moore’s debut season went up a grade in the end for ESPN’s Greg McElroy as he evaluated the 2024 campaign as a whole.

An 8-5 season doesn’t seem like the best year for Michigan, but it was solid all things considered. Coming off Jim Harbaugh going to the NFL, Moore taking over, a ton of roster turnover and a national championship the year before, Michigan finished strong.

“Michigan took the interim tag off of Sherrone Moore. Well, he had the interim for about six games, filling in for Jim Harbaugh. And I think it made sense,” McElroy said on Always College Football. “I mean, you really couldn’t go anywhere else when this coaching search was going on … And you thought, hey, there’s going to be some reasons why this could pay off. The portal went down. It wasn’t great for them. 

“They lost 17 guys in the portal … And by the time they were in the market for the portal, and Jim Harbaugh decides to leave, and they bring in Sherrone Moore, the portal only had like three or four teams in it … The big problem wasn’t so much the portal, it was the amount of departures off a team that was very veteran laden that won the national championship their year.” 

Down the stretch is where Michigan improved. That was in spite of Moore’s offense being held back by lack of QB play.

“I’m not sure there was a coach that improved their grade more in the final few weeks of the regular season than Sherrone Moore,” McElroy said. “Because nobody anticipated them being back in the College Football Playoff, at least I didn’t … I didn’t think Michigan was going to have a great year. They just lost too many pieces. They also had too much uncertainty with the quarterback situation. You got to replace JJ McCarthy. They didn’t go out. They didn’t get a transfer quarterback to replace him … 

“Offensively, they were 130th in the country in passing. The only teams that were behind them were the three service academies and some of the decisions that were made by Sherrone Moore throughout the year. He didn’t ace the test, but it was far from flawless, but it was far from majorly flawed as well.” 

But in the end, Michigan beat eventual national champion Ohio State in Columbus., the highlight of the year before beating Alabama in the postseason.

“You just beat Ohio State. Ohio State’s about to go win the national championship. You just knocked him off in Columbus. Like doesn’t get any better than that,” McElroy said. “Well, you make things a little better by beating Alabama in the Relia Quest Bowl which only continued some of the momentum. Then you had a great recruiting class, which is a factor here. But all things considered, man with where I thought this grade was going to be compared to where it ended up, pretty remarkable turnaround there down the stretch for Sherrone Moore. I give his first year a B+.”