Yeah, that guy was getting the head coaching job if Harbaugh ever left.
And when Harbaugh left UM for the Los Angeles Chargers, the 38-year-old Moore — who played at Derby (Kan.) High School — indeed landed the role. He’d earned it, too, beating Penn State and, later, rival Ohio State while Harbaugh sat at home.
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Moore’s a new coach in charge of the defending national champions that won 40 games over the last three years.
There hasn’t been a first-year head coach quite in this spot since, well, 1998.
Maybe you remember it.
Nebraska had won 49 games — and three national titles — in its previous four seasons. Tom Osborne handed the job to a trusted assistant, Frank Solich. Since that season, every coach who won a national title returned the following year. Moore gets the distinction of landing his dream job — right at the moment when it’s most unlikely Michigan will repeat.
When discussing Big Ten offseason storylines, that’s the logical place to start.
The Wolverines have 19 players headed to the NFL Combine. That’s 19 guys who won’t play for Moore this season. Unlike Osborne — who retired from coaching at 60— the 60-year-old Harbaugh raided Michigan’s staff for his Chargers adventure. Moore promoted from within for his offensive coordinator, and hired the Baltimore Ravens’ Wink Martindale to call defensive plays.
Moore won’t have quarterback J.J. McCarthy in the fold — he’s off to the NFL — and Michigan, in pursuit of a national title, had little time to land a transfer portal quarterback.
Ohio State got one — Kansas State’s Will Howard. Oregon did, too, with Oklahoma starter Dillon Gabriel and UCLA starter Dante Moore. Washington landed Mississippi State’s Will Rogers when Kalen DeBoer was still the coach, and kept Rogers after DeBoer left for Alabama.
