Michigan Football turned the college football world upside down on Wednesday night with the firing of head coach Sherrone Moore, who took over the Wolverines’ program after the departure of Jim Harbaugh in early 2024. Moore’s tenure has ended in controversy and scandal, though. According to a report from The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach on Wednesday evening, Moore was fired with cause after engaging “in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.”
Moore is now in police custody as “a suspect in an alleged assault,” according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel.
The Moore situation is a mess, but the Wolverines will also have business to handle on their own end. They’ll need to begin working to find a new head coach for the program.
Michigan is late to the party when it comes to the fast-moving coaching carousel, but a big-name program such as itself will certainly draw some attention. The biggest question is if the Wolverines will steal a sitting head coach from a Power 4 conference or if they’ll look elsewhere, such as the NFL, for their next target.
One potential source of candidates is the SEC. The conference saw its own coaching chaos with Lane Kiffin, the Florida job, and the LSU job over the last few weeks, but it also reportedly saw poaching attempts for its own coaches from other conferences. The now-concluded Penn State search being the main culprit.
On Wednesday evening, following the news of Moore’s firing, On3 Sports’ Pete Nakos fired up a coaching hot board that included four familiar SEC names. Three of those are current coaches, and the other is a recently fired one. Nakos’ hot board included Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, and former LSU coach Brian Kelly.
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Lea and Drinkwitz signed new contracts during the 2025 football season. Lea inked a new six-year deal with Vanderbilt before the Tennessee game this season, while Missouri signed Drinkwitz to a six-year deal in late November. DeBoer is still on his original contract from early 2024, but he very publicly dismissed any rumors of leaving Tuscaloosa last week before the SEC Championship game.
“Yeah, we’re extremely happy at Alabama,” DeBoer said about the then-Penn State opening last Thursday. “This is the first time I’ve been asked. I appreciate you, Charlie. We’re extremely happy here. Love the challenge, love the grind, love this place. There’s never been any link, there’s never been any conversation, there’s never been any interest either way. I’m glad we can put that to bed right now.”
Michigan is obviously a marquee job, but is it big enough (and good enough) to take away any of those three coaches from their current SEC positions? DeBoer has the Tide in the playoffs in just his second year, Lea just finished the best season in Vanderbilt history, and Drinkwitz has two 10-win seasons in his last three years.
The other SEC tie that Nakos noted in his article was former LSU coach Brian Kelly, who was fired by LSU in late October. The Tigers have since hired Lane Kiffin to lead the program. Kelly went 34-14 during his three-and-a-half seasons with the Tigers, including a 5-3 mark before his firing in 2025. Prior to that, though, Kelly spent several years up north with Notre Dame. In 12 years with the Fighting Irish, Kelly tallied a record of 113-40.
There are a lot of different directions that Michigan could go with its vacant head coaching position, but the SEC certainly seems like a possibility to at least knock on the door of. We’ll see what comes up in the coming days.
Check out Pete Nakos’ full hot board here.
