Michigan coach Sherrone Moore assigned letter grade for first regular season leading Wolverines
Michigan Wolverines football ended an otherwise disappointing regular season on a high note, beating Ohio State 13-10 in Columbus, its fourth-straight victory over the arch rival. That propped up the level of success the Maize and Blue had in their first 12 games of the 2024 campaign under first-year head coach Sherrone Moore.
USA Today assigned letter grades for every head coach in the first year at their current stop, and the publication gave Moore a ‘B.’
Moore took over a Michigan program that had won 40 of its final 43 games under head man Jim Harbaugh. The Wolverines posted their lowest full-length regular-season win total since 2015 (5), going 7-5 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten play.
“Moore’s grade would’ve been much lower had he not led Michigan to yet another win against Ohio State,” USA Today’s Paul Myerberg wrote. “That changes the complexion of a season that had to that point been defined by missed opportunities and one of the worst offenses in recent program history.”
In fairness to Moore, Michigan did lose all but one offensive starter from the 2023 squad, with junior tight end Colston Loveland being the only returner. At the same time, Michigan averaged only 22.3 points (111th nationally) and 294.3 total yards (128th) per game — marking a drop-off that few saw coming.
Michigan qualified for a bowl game for the 10th-straight season and will take on Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl. The Crimson Tide is also helmed by a first-year leader in Kalen DeBoer, who had prior head-coaching experience at Fresno State (2020-21) and Washington (2022-23).
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Myerberg gave DeBoer a ‘B,’ as well, for the 2024 regular season that saw Alabama finish 9-3. While the Crimson Tide sits No. 11 in the College Football Playoff rankings, it failed to make the CFP field for the first time since 2019 and had two losses to 6-6 squads, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, two first-year head coaches brought their teams to the College Football Playoff in Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and Boise State’s Spencer Danielson. Cignetti earned an ‘A++’ and Danielson an ‘A+.’
Moore and Cignetti were two of XX first-year Big Ten coaches, joined by Washington’s Jedd Fisch (B-) and Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith (C-).
Here are all of the coaches who scored grades better than Moore:
• Indiana’s Curt Cignetti (11-1 record) — A++
• Boise State’s Spencer Danielson (12-1) — A+
• Syracuse’s Fran Brown (9-3) — A
• Duke’s Manny Diaz (9-3) — A
• Buffalo’s Pete Lembo (8-4) — A
• Texas A&M’s Mike Elko (8-4) — A-
• San Jose State’s Ken Niumatalolo (7-5) — A-
• Tulane’s Jon Sumrall (9-4) — A-
• South Alabama’s Major Applewhite (6-6) — B+
• New Mexico’s Bronco Mendenhall (5-7) — B+
