Did Sherrone Moore just sign up for playing with fire by taking the job as the Michigan Wolverines’ head coach? After all, the ceiling has been too high for him last season. Courtesy? THE GREAT JIM HARBAUGH. It did not take him much time to realize the legend’s hold in Ann Arbor. That’s because as soon as he went off to the NFL, an army of players left Ann Arbor. But was Harbaugh to be blamed? After all, the transfer portal came up with more woes for Moore. Michigan has now lost 31 players who have jumped into the transfer portal. In December, they have lost 21 players. Just when Moore thought that spring is going to usher in some good news, here he faced with back-to-back two blows. Meanwhile, Warde Manuel makes it harder for head coaches like Moore.
Moore must be having a fire burning bright within him. That’s because he has yet to prove himself to the Michigan fans who still worship Harbaugh putting him on a pedestal. After all, it was under the legend that the Wolverines could bring home the Nattty. Forget the National Championship title, with Moore at the helm, the defending champions could not even make to the playoffs last season. Not just this, their rankings too stooped low. For instance, they finished with a 131-ranked passing offense and a 113th-ranked scoring offense. Just when Moore thought of arranging his chessboard to checkmate his opponents this season, he started to lose his King, Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight, and Pawn. Some flew off to the NFL, and the others got hunted down by the portal.
Michigan defensive line transfer Kechaun Bennett has signed with UCLA, @chris_hummer and I have learned for @cbssports/@247Sports.
Former four-star recruit who had four tackles at Michigan last season. pic.twitter.com/TTM3kekWgy
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) April 30, 2025
Among them, one of the costly losses for Moore was their undisputed WR1 last season, Tyler Morris, who jumped to Indiana. Even before the spring portal opened its gates, defensive lineman Alessandro Lorenzetti shared his intention to swap wagons. And till the very end, the portal continued to pester Moore. They lost their defensive lineman Kechaun Bennett, who had spent the last four seasons with the Wolverines. In that case, he has been part of Harbaugh’s championship-winning team, whom the ex-head coach had signed out of Suffield Academy being a 4-star recruit. Bennett was rated as the No. 2 player in the state and a top-50 player at the position. As he gets on the UCLA wagon, Michigan fans would be remembering him for his four tackles, a quarterback hurry, and a blocked kick on special teams in 13 games in 2024.
Even in the spring games, he left his mark by totaling three tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. The 6-foot-5, 241-pounder is now part of DeShaun Foster’s squad which has added 25 transfers. While Moore was yet to wrap his head around the loss of Bennett, another Wolverine fell prey to the portal. That’s none other than Michigan football wide receiver and cornerback Amorion Walker, who has signed with Middle Tennessee. Having spent three seasons in Ann Arbor, he appeared in 15 games. The past season saw him playing four games with one start all at receiver this past season to finish with three catches for 34 yards.
Back in 2023, he was hailed in spring ball as ‘a unicorn’ after switching to cornerback. Even though it has been a to-and-fro journey for Walker, from Michigan to Ole Miss and again back to Michigan, it has been a costly loss after losing Morris. While Moore is yet to clear the transfer portal mess, here comes another hoopla.
Sherrone Moore to walk on a tight rope as a roster cap reality hits him
Now, head coaches like Moore, who had a stormy transfer season, are going to face a double-edged sword. Right now, they have been mindful about not biting too much than they could swallow. In that way, they have cut the players’ roster. Often, we get to hear from the coaches, ‘We no longer have room for you on our roster.’ More so, because they prepare to meet new roster limits imposed as part of the House settlement agreement. In that case, many athletes’ names got slashed out from the portal intentionally, or they chose to leave voluntarily.
In that way, Moore will have to be extra careful about seeking replacements. As he had lost some of the key weapons this season. For instance, they can’t repeat the mistake they made with Josh Conerly, who got hijacked by Oregon. During meetings this week among NCAA and power conference executives and attorneys, a proposal to phase in the new roster limits has emerged. As Manuel shared, “Kids have made a lot of decisions. Some have transferred, some have not. We’ve already made budget decisions, in our case, expecting to have almost 140 fewer student-athletes. When it came out yesterday, I asked my staff to run the numbers about what it means and what we have to put back into the budget. It does have a financial implication.”
So, Warde Manuel is a proponent of phasing in roster limits. However, amidst all the odds, ON3 analyst J.D. PicKell believes that Sherrone Moore has the potential to keep the Wolverines’ boat floating. He stated, “Jim Harbaugh era also included Sherrone Moore and what he did on the recruiting show.” Let’s hope that the Sherrone Moore era hits the pedal soon.
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