What on Earth Is Going On With Michigan’s Football Coach?

The college-football world was rocked on Wednesday by the revelation that University of Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore had been fired for having an inappropriate relationship with an employee. Hours later, Moore was taken into custody as a suspect in an alleged assault that reportedly took place at the home of a woman who claimed he had been “stalking her for months.” Moore, who has been married to Kelli Moore for ten years and has three children, was charged with alleged home invasion, stalking, and breaking and entering on Friday. Here’s what we know about the biggest debacle in college sports right now.

Who is Sherrone Moore?

Until Wednesday, Moore was the star head coach of the University of Michigan’s football team. Previously serving as offensive coordinator, Moore was named acting head coach in 2023 following coach Jim Harbaugh’s suspension for a cheating scandal. (Football cheating, not marital.) Moore was successful in the role and was officially promoted to head coach for the 2024 season, making him the first Black man to ever hold the position. For those of you who don’t follow the sport, being the head coach at a school like Michigan is one of the top jobs in college football. You could easily use it as a springboard to the NFL, or you could just comfortably make millions of dollars in Ann Arbor for years and years.

So why was he fired from the University of Michigan?

On Wednesday, the University of Michigan announced that Moore had been fired for having an “inappropriate relationship” with a member of his staff. “U-M head football coach Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately,” the school said in a statement. “Following a University investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”

ESPN reported that Moore had previously been investigated earlier in the fall, but no credible evidence of wrongdoing was found. On Wednesday, though, the school was reportedly given “overwhelming” information that led to his termination. Rumors circulated online that a DoorDash driver had tipped off the school about a delivery of Plan B to Moore’s office, but that seems to be unfounded. However, according to publicly available records, the woman alleged to be Moore’s mistress (whose address police responded to on Wednesday) did receive a 55 percent raise in salary between 2023 and 2024.

Since Moore was fired with cause, the school does not need to pay out any of his five-year contract, which netted him around $5.6 million annually, per “The Athletic.”

Why was he arrested?

Mere hours after UM announced his firing,  ESPN reported Wednesday evening that Moore was in custody at Washtenaw County Jail as a suspect in an alleged assault. Initially detained by authorities in Saline, Michigan, Moore was turned over to the police in Pittsfield Township “for investigation into potential charges,” according to officials.

In a statement, the Pittsfield police said that they responded to a situation “for the purposes of investigating an alleged assault.” “A suspect in this case was taken into custody,” the statement read. “This incident does not appear to be random in nature, and there appears to be no ongoing threat to the community.” Moore was not named in the statement, but records later indicated that he was in custody at the Washtenaw County Jail.

The full details about the incident behind the arrest are still emerging, but we do have some sense of what went down. After Moore was fired on Wednesday, police responded to a 911 call made from a Michigan football team employee’s address, according to TMZ. The outlet obtained the dispatch audio, in which the dispatcher says that the woman who called said that a “male was at the location in the house attacking her” and that he had been “stalking her for months.” The dispatcher also noted that the suspect’s wife had called 911 and said he was “suicidal” after “losing his job today” and that he had “walked out with a knife.” Moore is not named in the call, but the conversation took place at around 4 p.m. on Wednesday shortly before he was arrested and refers to the block where police say the incident occurred.

On Friday, Moore was charged with alleged home invasion, stalking, and breaking and entering. The home invasion charge is a felony, while the other two are misdemeanors. During his arraignment, prosecutor Kati Rezmierski revealed disturbing details of the events that led up to his arrest. “Our victim broke up with the defendant on Monday morning,” Rezmierski told the court, per People. “She eventually presented herself to the University of Michigan and cooperated in some form of investigation there.” Upon breaking into the victim’s home, Moore allegedly forced himself inside, grabbed butter knives and scissors, and threatened suicide, telling the woman, “I’m gonna kill myself! I’m gonna make you watch! My blood is on your hands! You ruined my life.”

According to Rezmierski, the woman told Moore she was calling her attorney, which prompted him to flee the scene. Moore was arrested after police received a call about an individual having suicidal ideations in a church parking lot 15 miles away from the victim’s home.

Moore was granted pretrial release with his bail set at $25,000. He will be back in court on January 22 for a probable cause hearing.