Where Michigan's Sherrone Moore stands in CBS Sports' ranking of top Power Four coaches
Michigan Wolverines football‘s Sherrone Moore has been a head coach before, serving in that role for four games during the 2023 campaign, but he’s entering the first season in which he’s actually in charge of the program both during games and on a day-to-day basis. Moore took over for Jim Harbaugh, who departed for the Los Angeles Chargers after nine seasons in Ann Arbor.
Moore guided the Wolverines to victories over Bowling Green (31-6), Penn State (24-15), Maryland (31-24) and Ohio State (30-24) in his acting head coach role while Harbaugh was suspended.
CBS Sports national writer Tom Fornelli released his annual rankings of the top power conferences coaches, and Moore checked in No. 52 of 68 coaches. Fornelli pointed out that first-year head coaches don’t usually show up that high. Moore, 38, got his first full-time assistant coaching gig at Louisville in 2012 and served just one season as sole offensive coordinator at Michigan in 2023. Now, he has the keys to the program and is viewed favorably by Fornelli.
“We don’t typically see first-year coaches start this high in the rankings, but Moore isn’t your typical first-year coach,” Fornelli wrote. “He served four games as head coach last season thanks to Jim Harbaugh’s various transgressions and won them all, including victories against Penn State and Ohio State.
“Plenty of coaches are ranked ahead of him without wins that impressive, but it’ll be interesting to see how Moore performs as captain of a ship coming off a national title.”
For context, UCLA’s DeShaun Foster, another first-time head coach in the Big Ten, ranked No. 68 on Fornelli’s list.
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Moore is No. 15 of 18 Big Ten head coaches, per Fornelli. The only head men ranked behind Moore are Northwestern’s David Braun (No. 53), Purdue’s Ryan Walters (No. 65) and Foster.
The Big Ten has some of the top coaches in the game. Ohio State’s Ryan Day checks in No. 2, while Oregon’s Dan Lanning and USC’s Lincoln Riley slotted No. 9 and No. 10, respectively. The others ahead of Moore are Penn State’s James Franklin (No. 11), Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell (No. 17), Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz (No. 18), Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith (No. 27), Nebraska’s Matt Rhule (No. 29), Washington’s Jedd Fisch (No. 31), Illinois’ Bret Bielema (No. 36), Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck (No. 39), Rutgers’ Greg Schiano (No. 40), Maryland’s Mike Locksley (No. 41) and Indiana’s Curt Cignetti (No. 43).
Smith, Fisch, Cignetti and Foster join Moore as the five new head coaches for current Big Ten programs. However, Smith (Oregon State), Fisch (Arizona) and Cignetti (James Madison) came to their new jobs after serving as a head coach elsewhere.
Harbaugh ranked No. 5 ahead of Michigan’s 2023 season in which the Wolverines won the program’s 12th-ever national title.
