Michigan coach Sherrone Moore on 'humbling experience' of taking over for Jim Harbaugh, winning national championship

Michigan Wolverines football head coach Sherrone Moore joined FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt on his ‘Big Noon Conversations’ in a lengthy discussion about U-M’s 2023 national championship, taking over for Jim Harbaugh and more.

Below are some of the highlights from the interview, outside of what we already shared from Moore on the game-tying drive in the Rose Bowl against Alabama and more.

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Best part of being Michigan’s head coach

“Walking in every single day to this beautiful facility, with all these great kids and people, understanding and knowing that everybody looks to us, looks to me as the head coach of this great university, a great tradition. And just the players. Being around the players every day is the best part for me, so I love that.”

On when Moore realized he would be Michigan’s next head coach

“Well, I was in the Houston airport heading to Dallas — recruiting — and I just talked to Coach probably like three hours before that. He was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I think it could happen soon, it could happen in a day, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week.’ And I was like, ‘OK, it’s gonna happen at some point. I just gotta be ready.’

“I saw it. I was going through TSA, and it popped up on my phone — ’Jim Harbaugh to the Chargers.’ And that second, my phone — text messages, calls, text messages calls.

“Our AD, our assistant AD — ’hey you gotta come back right now.’ So I do the interview that next day and got the job on Saturday. Press conference, was on the road recruiting on Monday, and that was it. It was a humbling experience.”

On feeling the nearly-unanimous support from U-M players, fans, etc.

“I felt honored. I felt that all the hard work that I put in with the team and these players had come to fruition. It was something that you can’t really describe, but just very humbled to have Wolverine nation, all the people, all the players, coaches, you and some media that said, ‘Hey, he should be the head coach at Michigan.’ 

“When I first got here seven years ago, I just wanted to be the best tight end coach I could be. At some point, I wanted to call plays. I got a chance to do that with our young guys. The opportunity to be the head coach here was really not in my mind, so when this did take place it was very humbling for me.”

On when he first thought he could become Michigan’s head coach

“It entered my mind when Coach Harbaugh told me, ‘You’re gonna be the next head coach at Michigan.’ This year, he told me that. He said, ‘I don’t know when. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. No man can say the future, tell the future.’ But that’s how he is — he’s like that all the time. He just said, ‘You’re gonna be the next head coach at Michigan.’ I was like, ‘What?’ He was like, ‘I’m gonna put it in my contract that if I ever leave or go somewhere that you’re gonna be the next head coach at Michigan.’ He told me that at the beginning of the year. And I was just like, ‘What?’

“I just thought about that, and I was just like, this man who’s a legendary coach, who’s done it all and we have a chance this year to have a special run, is telling me that I’m going to be the next head coach here. What does that mean? It means I’ve gotta work my tail off for this man. He trusted me and this offense to do everything possible to help him and this team win. I just worked as hard as I could this year.”

On what he learned as acting head coach for four games in 2023

“I learned that you’re always in the spotlight — there’s always somebody watching you — but the decisions you make not only impact that side of the ball but the whole team. And how important, How diligent, how detailed you need to be in the preparation of all that.

“I was very humbled, again, to be in the position to do that. The first game that it happened was the Penn State game. It was an environment that’s close to unmatched in any college football arena, especially for an away team. It was loud, it was volatile, it was fun, invigorating — but it was something that our players kinds gravitated towards. They loved that, and they loved being the villain. It was a special, special game.”

On his emotional interview with Jenny Taft following Michigan’s 24-15 win over Penn State

“All the emotions that you could feel in anything exciting, that’s what I felt. The hard work, the dedication that the players put in, that Coach Harbaugh put in to this program all came out in that moment.

“For people on the outside to think that our players to win fairly or do something or do that, it was just kind of like, OK, bet. This is what we’re about. We’re gonna go attack the moment — we did — and now what can you say about us? Without our head coach. We proved ourselves right that we can go win in this big environment. It was a moment that was just unfiltered. Unfortunately, the bad words came out, but I apologized to my mom.

“Oh, yeah. I got reprimanded a little bit. It was my mom and my grandma, so I tried to make sure that they weren’t too mad at me, but they understood the moment. The players, I think, appreciated it, because I feel like in the world today that emotion is seen as weakness — but I don’t see it as that. People can say whatever they want, but we accomplished something pretty special last year.”

On how much players used off-campus scouting allegations against the program as motivation

“I think a little bit. They were motivated by that [national championship banner] more than anything. Winning the national championship, getting to the national championship, because that’s all they talked about at the beginning of the year, after the TCU game last year.

“We always talked about ‘process over prize.’ We knew what the prize was. Alright, let’s stop talking about the prize and attack the process of getting better every day. So we did that.

“And I think when all that stuff started to come out, it just added a little fuel to the fire — just a little bit. We didn’t need any, but you’re kinda glad you had a little fuel. It kept that chip, it kept that boulder on the shoulder even brighter. And they took it and ran with it.”

On Michigan’s College Football Playoff run

“It was something I had never been a part of. You knew that the team’s preparation was a little different. And we adjusted some things from our standpoint and Coach’s standpoint, how we approached bowl practice versus the previous, just a couple different things, whether it was meeting times and more time for themselves, a little bit of practice time adjusting. Still kept the physicality in what we did, but we just adjusted a little bit. That helped, but I think it was really the players’ mindset, how they approached everything.

“It’s funny, people talk about the reaction to the Alabama [draw during the selection show]. When those cameras turned off, the boys were like, ‘That’s who we wanted. That’s what we wanted to do.’ To be the best, they always say you gotta beat the best, and they’ve been the king of the hill for a long time. I know Georgia has won two national championships, but Nick had six of them. You knew if you had to get to the top you had to face a team like that to get there.

“They were excited for that game and ready, and the preparation that they had throughout that month was super special. I mean, I’d be in the office at 10 o’clock, and I’d see guys in the film room watching film, doing this, watching cut-ups, texting me at night, ‘Hey, Coach, what about this look? What about this look? What are we doing here?’ It was something that I had never seen.”

On the pressure of taking over for the defending national champions

“It doesn’t weigh on me that much. I mean, I think about it, but I’m not gonna let it put pressure on me. I just want to get better every day, just work on the process. We talk about that every day, still, with the players. I’m not gonna let it drain me or try to think about that too much. Just going to work on trying to get better at what I can do every single day to make the team the best it can be.”

On being himself and not trying to emulate Jim Harbaugh

“Yeah, I’m not gonna change; I’m gonna be who I’ve always been. I’ve always been a process-driven person. That’s who I’m gonna be; I’m not gonna change that. I’m gonna put the players first — always going to do that. And that’s something me and Coach were very close on together about how we did things, who this program was about. It was about the players. And even the philosophy of offense and defense, I was very close with him and talking about how we did things on a daily basis, how we conducted our defense, how the offense, defense and special teams look like.

“So that philosophy of how we do things will reign true the same of how we did it last year and the years in that past, because I had a big hand in that. But there will be some different changes in what we do, but to my core we’re gonna be physical, we’re gonna be tough, we’re gonna try to out-last people. We’re gonna be multiple in every phase, and we’re gonna be fundamentally sound and balanced in what we do.”

On maintaining the level of excellence that Michigan has set

“We’re gonna continue to work — just work. Work as hard as we can every single day, don’t look at the prize, don’t look at the games down the line, look at right now. Do whatever we can do today to get better. We know we got great talent here on both sides of the ball. We built it to sustain and not be up and down.

“Super excited for what the players have done this spring. I’ll tell you: it’s been a physical spring, it’s been a fun spring. Guys get after it. And sometimes you gotta pull them away like, ‘Guys, we can’t just keep pounding on each other like this.’ But it’s a great team to be around.”