Where Michigan's Sherrone Moore stands in CBS Sports' ranking of top Power Four head coaches
Michigan Wolverines football‘s Sherrone Moore ranked 52nd on CBS Sports’ list of the top head coaches in the Power Four coming into his first season in 2024, but he’s dropped six spots to No. 58 out of 68 coaches ahead of the 2025 campaign.
Coming off a national championship season in 2023 and 40-3 stretch from 2021-23, Michigan lost an immense amount of talent from the roster and coaching staff. Jim Harbaugh departed as head coach to the Los Angeles Chargers, and Moore — then the offensive coordinator and line coach — was promoted to the big seat. He hired an almost entirely new assistant coaching staff and was tasked with replacing most of the players in the starting lineup
Michigan had a rocky, up-and-down 2024 season, to say the least. The Wolverines were 5-5 after 10 games, but ended on a high note with three-straight victories over Northwestern (50-6), Ohio State (13-10) and Alabama (19-13).
Moore was 52nd last season, ahead of some returning coaches, because he had proven he could lead a team while serving as interim head man while Harbaugh was suspended in 2023. But after one season in the full-time role, CBS Sports’ panel isn’t as high on him.
“Moore was an interesting case last season as nobody was entirely sure where to put him,” CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli wrote. “On one hand, he had very little head coaching experience, which usually leads to a low ranking among our crew. On the other, he already had a career win over Ohio State!
“Well, now that we have a full season in the books, our panel didn’t seem overly impressed with his first year at the helm in Ann Arbor.”
While Michigan didn’t have the type of season Moore or anyone in Ann Arbor envisioned, success was still had — just not enough of it. The Wolverines won all their rivalry and trophy games and beat two other blue bloods in USC and Alabama.
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The 13-10 win over Ohio State was special, Michigan winning as three-score underdogs — marking perhaps the largest upset in the history of the rivalry. Moore was the acting head coach on game day for a victory over Ohio State in 2023, as well, so he’s taken down Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day on two different occasions. Ohio State went on to finish fourth in the Big Ten and win the national championship as the No. 7 seed in the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff.
Day checked in No. 2 among Power Four head coaches, behind only Georgia’s two-time national championship-winning coach, Kirby Smart.
The other Big Ten coaches ahead of Moore are Oregon’s Dan Lanning (No. 5), Penn State’s James Franklin (No. 7), USC’s Lincoln Riley (No. 13), Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz (No. 19), Indiana’s Curt Cignetti (No. 21), Illinois’ Bret Bielema (No. 23), Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck (No. 27), Nebraska’s Matt Rhule (No. 32), Washington’s Jedd Fisch (No. 39), Wisconsin’s Luke Fickell (No. 40), Rutgers’ Greg Schiano (No. 43), Michigan State’s Jonathan Smith (No. 49) and Purdue’s Barry Odom (No. 51).
The Big Ten coaches Michigan’s man is ahead of are Maryland’s Mike Locksley (No. 59), UCLA’s DeShaun Foster (No. 61) and Northwestern’s David Braun (No. 64).
