Michigan HC Sherrone Moore discusses recruiting and NIL philosophy: 'You have to have a plan'

Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore is into his first summer replacing head coach Jim Harbaugh and putting his stamp on the program. Operationally and fundamentally, most things are the same, but every new regime comes with its own voice.

Moore joined Jake Butt on Champions Circle’s The L.A.B. podcast and discussed his approach on talent acquisition via the recruiting trail. Recent classes have been criticized by fans and pundits across the country, but Michigan has the type of guy they’re looking for, and they will continue to focus on fit over flashiness.

“You look at the types of guys we just won a national title with, we didn’t have a whole bunch of five-stars,” Moore said. “We had some. We want to have elite talent, don’t get me wrong, but I think there’s enough of it out there that you can find that also fits the culture. Got the chance to talk to one of the greats in any sport, Derek Jeter, the other day. He talked about alignment, he talked about the whole unit that he had when he was playing with the Yankees. It was really about the mentality that they all had. They said that they would have first or second-round draft picks coming in and say, well, you’re not gonna fit here, you’re gonna have to leave. It’s all about the culture, the fit and the alignment of the university, organization, even in business.

“You talk to businesspeople, it’s all about alignment and how that does. It starts at the top. It starts at the top and then it goes to the bottom and then it goes up and down, you can flip it either way. Everyone has to be aligned with the vision. When you have that, you have something that is super powerful. We’re definitely going to try and bring in the right type of guys here, the right type of families to become Michigan Men, and Michigan Women, and continue to keep this program at the highest level.”

Moore, his coaching staff and the front office department led by general manager Sean Magee have their own sets of criteria and organization when it comes to finding fits for Michigan, the head coach says. It also comes with a thorough evaluation of the person, not just the skill-set.

We have a lot of databases, a lot of services that can find names, players and people. There’s people that watch it. For us, once we dig deep into who we want to look at and who we want to recruit, there’s a lot of questions that you gotta ask. You’re asking players but you’re not only asking them but you’re asking parents, you’re asking the people in the lunch room, you’re asking the janitors there, you’re asking people in the front office, you’re asking everybody that’s involved with the kid. I’ve gone as far as going to the local gas station, you know about this kid? How is he when he comes in?

“You’re trying to dig deep on every players because you’ve gotta figure out the player and what the mold is inside. You really find out how somebody is going to react to adversity when you do that. Obviously, we’ve faced some quote, unquote, adversity this year and we continue to just smash it in the face because our players are all built, and we’re all aligned and we all have the same vision. We’re going to continue to bring in those type of people. For us, that’s a huge piece of it, the type of person. Obviously, you want talented guys and you want to recruit talented guys to be a fit from a program standpoint here for sure.”

NIL is at the forefront of a lot of the conversations these days, whether it be on the recruiting trail or through the transfer portal. Michigan’s NIL operation has proven it can help retain in-house talent and reward guys for what they have done as it continues to evolve. Moore says he is grateful for what has taken place so far and knows how important it is.

“You have to have a plan for NIL,” Moore said. “That’s the game now, that’s where college football is. There are a lot of other things with revenue sharing which we’re all for here, I’ve always been for it, I know [former head coach Jim Harbaugh] has been for it. I think the players deserve to get a piece of it. NIL is a part of it.

“Champions Circle has done an outstanding job with all that and that fund to keep our players here who have excelled at the highest level and took us to where we are, they deserve it. They deserve to be rewarded for that. We’ll use it as a tool and to help us as we go forward.”