On Wednesday night, college football was rocked by a scandal involving Michigan coach Sherrone Moore, who was both dismissed from his position and subsequently arrested in a dramatic turn of events in Ann Arbor.

Moore, 39, who is married and a father of three, was relieved of his duties following the university’s revelation of evidence pointing to an “inappropriate relationship with a staff member,” costing him his $6 million annual salary.

Later that same evening, Moore found himself behind bars after being taken into custody over allegations of assault at a local apartment complex.

With Moore’s departure, Michigan is now on the lookout for a new head coach. The 10-time national champions have not been strangers to turmoil in recent years.

Moore initially joined the Wolverines in 2018 as a tight ends coach and was later promoted to offensive coordinator, marking a significant advancement in his career until this unexpected downfall.

Jim Harbaugh was the head coach when Moore joined the coaching staff and, incredibly, he is the sixth football staffer hired under the now-Chargers coach to have run-ins with police.

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was fired and then arrested in an astonishing few hours 

Moore, pictured with wife Kelli, was later taken into police custody over an alleged assault

Moore was hired by Jim Harbaugh (R), whose tenure in Ann Arbor was marred by scandal

In March, former offensive coordinator Matt Weiss was charged with hacking and accused by federal prosecutors of stealing thousands of private, intimate images of student-athletes. Weiss has pleaded not guilty to all 24 charges.

Director of football operations Jim Minick and assistant coaches Denard Robinson and Greg Scruggs were all arrested over DUI.

In 2018, meanwhile, Michigan’s ex-director of performance science, Fergus Connolly, was arrested for DUI – but was also hit with multiple counts of assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer. After being transported to a hospital, Connolly allegedly attempted to bite someone. He later pleaded no contest to five of the nine misdemeanor charges against him, with prosecutors dropping other counts.

In 2023, Glenn ‘Shemy’ Schembechler – the son of longtime Michigan coach Bo Schembechler – resigned three days after he was hired. 

Athletic director Warde Manuel revealed: ‘We are aware of some comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community.’

A few months later, Michigan fired a staffer shocking footage emerged of him allegedly soliciting a 13-year-old girl.

And last year, the authorities intervened on the field. Ohio State University Police launched an investigation after Michigan players were pepper-sprayed following a win over their rival, the Buckeyes.

Michigan’s huge upset win over Ohio State in November 2024 was marred by violent clashes, which led to police storming the field to try and break it up.

After the 13-10 Michigan win over the Buckeyes, a group of Wolverines players planted their school flag on the field – considered a major sign of disrespect in college football – and Ohio State players physically confronted them. In clips that quickly went viral on social media, officers can be seen deploying pepper spray into the air, after players begun swinging punches at each other in midfield.

Ex-head coach Harbaugh also found himself at the center of controversy while in Ann Arbor. In 2023, he was banned by the Big Ten for the remainder of the regular season amid an NCAA investigation into sign stealing.

Alex Yood – a former ‘low-level’ staffer on Michigan’s football program – allegedly solicited a 13-year-old girl in footage shared by online vigilantes

Connor Stalions is seen celebrating Michigan’s 2021 Big Ten title with the Wolverines 

The school was found to have violated the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy for ‘conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.’

Harbaugh was banned from the ‘game venue’ on game days, with Moore stepping up as interim coach. He led the Wolverines to three straight wins en route to Michigan lifting the national championship.

Harbaugh left at the end of that season, with Moore elevated to head coach, but the aftershocks of the sign-stealing affair continued until this year. 

Back in September, Moore was suspended for two games after he was found to have deleted text messages sent to Connor Stalions – the former Michigan analyst at the center of the scandal. 

He was slated to serve an additional one-game suspension for the start of the 2026 campaign.

Moore had earlier missed the 2023 season opener as part of the school’s self-imposed penalties for violating NCAA rules. Harbaugh also served a three-game suspension to start the season because of recruiting infractions. 

A year later, Harbaugh was handed a de-facto four-year ban from college sports after the NCAAA ruled he had impermissible contact with recruits and players during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NCAA said the now-Chargers coach ‘engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and violated head coach responsibility obligations.’

It was claimed Harbaugh met with recruits at a restaurant in Ann Arbor and paid for their hamburgers in an incident that was soon branded ‘Burger Gate.’

But an NCAA chief later insisted: ‘The Michigan infractions case is related to impermissible on and off-campus recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period and impermissible coaching activities – not a cheeseburger.’

In August of this year, meanwhile, the NCAA finally announced a series of punishments in relation to the scouting and recruiting violations in 2023.

The penalties over the sign-stealing operation totaled more than $30m, while Harbaugh (10 years) and Stalions (eight years) were handed de-facto bans from college athletics. 

Harbaugh has always maintained he knew nothing about the scheme but his 10-year show-cause order follows the conclusion of his previous four-year order effective August, 2028.

Harbaugh has always maintained he knew nothing about the sign-stealing scheme

Moore, meanwhile, faced a two-year de-facto ban and a three-game suspension. Two were self-imposed this season with the third set for the start of next season. 

‘I am glad that this part of the process has been completed,’ Moore said at the time. ‘I greatly respect the rules governing collegiate athletics and it is my intent to have our program comply with those rules at all times. 

‘I will continue to focus my attention on our team and the upcoming 2025 season.’

He never served the third game of that suspension after the school uncovered evidence of ‘an inappropriate relationship with a staffer’ and swiftly released him.

The identity of the staffer has not been revealed publicly. Moore has been married since 2015 to his wife, Kelli, the mother of their three children.

Michigan athletic director Manuel said Moore’s contact ‘constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.’

It caps a dramatic few weeks for the school. Last month, a Chinese scientist pleaded guilty to smuggling biological materials.

Yunqing Jian, 33, who was a temporary researcher at a University of Michigan lab, was arrested in June and accused of conspiring with a boyfriend to study and nurse a toxic fungus at a campus lab. 

A pathogen known as Fusarium graminearum can attack wheat, barley, maize and rice. Zunyong Liu was caught carrying small samples while arriving at a Detroit airport in 2024. It is illegal to bring it into the US without a government permit, which carries strict conditions. The university had no permits.

Jian was given no additional time in jail beyond the five months she already spent in custody. Instead, she was ordered to be released and quickly deported. A judge called it a ‘very strange’ case involving an ‘incredibly accomplished researcher.’