Is Sherrone Moore a repeat offender or does any of this matter? We are about to find out and even when we get the official Notice of Allegations against the Michigan Wolverines, people will continue to take sides.
Moore already negotiated with the NCAA in August of 2023 and received a slap on the wrist for contacting recruits during a COVID-19 recruiting dead period. The end of the world? Nope. Contacting recruits during the dead period is a no-no and during COVID it was especially frowned upon as every program was supposed to have the same dire disadvantages when in-person recruiting was shut down. But overall, not a big deal. But I’ll state this clearly — Moore knew the rule and broke it anyhow. That doesn’t make him the only one at all, but it’s clear as day. He knew and did it anyhow.
Now with a leaked copy of the NCAA Notice of Allegations regarding Michigan and the Connor Stalions saga, ESPN is reporting that Moore deleted 52 text messages between himself and Stalions the same day the Stalions sign stealing controversy broke. That’s not good. Even if the texts were innocuous, why delete them? The program-wide denial that no one knew what Stalions was up to when it came to advanced scouting and stealing signs has held up so far it seems, but it could come crashing down.
We’ve always maintained that Jim Harbaugh and others knew. Simply based on experience with college football programs, a rogue effort like Stalions seems far fetched to be a lone wolf situation. Once the NOA hits, we will finally know what the NCAA knows.
Whether Moore was part it all is kind of irrelevant when you’re talking about this now. Illegal recruiting contact makes him a first time offender and deleting text messages from the guy “working alone” is a second and damning offense. It’s another cover up. Clearly what Moore had on his phone was something he didn’t want anyone to see. Once again, he knew what he was doing was wrong and he did it anyways.
More Sports News
This could lead to show-cause and perhaps a suspension, making him the second head coach to be suspended for something “no one knew about”. As we know, former head coach Jim Harbaugh was suspended for the last three games of the season.
I’m still of the opinion that Michigan was the best team in the country last year and won the national title without any help from Stalions. But that doesn’t mean that Stalions didn’t cheat and everyone on this planet knows what deleting text messages immediately upon discovery of a scandal means — it means covering up some sort of guilt. That’s just common sense.
So both things can be true. Michigan won the national title because they were the best and many of their coaches will have been suspended for covering up attempted cheating. But to me, based on what we are seeing from ESPN and the NCAA, Sherrone Moore isn’t the innocent dude we all saw crying on the sidelines after he won as interim coach replacing Harbaugh. He could very well be on his way to becoming one of the more notorious cheaters in college football.
