Michigan Football Coach Headlines Continue to Shape College Football Discussions

Look, November 2025 was a weird month for Michigan football. Both programs in the state — Michigan and Michigan State — ended up firing their head coaches within a few weeks of each other. The reasons had nothing to do with each other. One coach got caught up in a criminal case. The other just couldn't win Big Ten games. But the result was the same: both fanbases spent December wondering what comes next.
Here's the rundown, as clearly as I can lay it out.
The Sherrone Moore thing
Start with this detail, because it kind of explains everything: when Moore became Michigan's head coach in January 2024, it wasn't because he applied somewhere and got picked. He was already there. He'd been Harbaugh's offensive coordinator, and when Harbaugh left for the Chargers — which surprised no one who'd been paying attention — Michigan didn't really go looking. Moore was in the building, the players trusted him, and he'd run the team twice in 2023 when Harbaugh got suspended. Both times he went 1–0, including once against Ohio State, though those wins technically went on Harbaugh's ledger. The whole thing was strange.
He signed a five-year deal, $27.5 million. Became Michigan's 21st head coach — and the first Black head coach at a program that's played football since 1879. That gap matters and people noted it.
His first year as michigan football coach was honestly better than most people gave him credit for. 8–5, sure, but: he beat Michigan State in his very first game, something only one Michigan coach had pulled off since 1948. He took the Wolverines into Columbus as 20.5-point underdogs and won 13–10, fourth straight in The Game. Then on New Year's Eve 2024, they beat No. 11 Alabama 19–13 in Tampa as 16.5-point underdogs. No program in college football history had ever beaten Alabama twice in the same calendar year. Michigan now has that on its list.
Going into 2025 the optimism was real. Then two things happened at once.
The Connor Stalions sign-stealing investigation kept expanding. Moore was named in the NCAA's formal allegations — one of seven people implicated — and in August 2025 he got a two-year show cause penalty and had to sit out two games. Biff Poggi coached Central Michigan and Nebraska in his place. Michigan football coach news that fall barely involved football.
The season itself went fine on the field — 9–3 regular season, which had Michigan in the CFP picture going into the final week. Then Ohio State came to Ann Arbor and won 27–9. The Buckeyes had dropped four in a row to Michigan and they were clearly done absorbing that. Michigan went to the Citrus Bowl instead. Anyone tracking the Big Ten lines throughdb-bet-uz.com had watched the Ohio State number move all week — the market knew.
December 10, the university fired Moore. The stated reason: a university investigation had found credible evidence he'd been in an inappropriate relationship with Paige Shiver, a staff member who reported directly to him, and that he'd lied about it when asked. The relationship had apparently been going on since 2022. Multiple reporters confirmed through sources that it was broadly known about within the program. After Shiver ended things in early December, Moore went to her house. That produced two misdemeanor charges.
He pleaded no contest in March 2026. Washtenaw County District Court Judge Cedric Simpson gave him 18 months' probation and, at one point during sentencing, looked at Moore and said the person "saving you from the full wrath of this court is the one you betrayed." Moore's wife Kelli was sitting a few rows back. They left the courthouse holding hands, said nothing to reporters.
As head coach, Moore went 17–8. Beat Ohio State three separate times in some capacity. Won a bowl game over a top-15 Alabama as a double-digit underdog. Career likely done at 40 years old.
Kyle Whittingham
Michigan hired him December 26th — sixteen days after Moore was fired. They were not going to drag out the search.
Whittingham had just finished year 21 at Utah. He'd been with the Utes for 32 straight years total, starting as defensive line coach in 1994. Head coach since 2005. His final record there: 177–88. Made 11 bowl games, won 11 of them. Two Rose Bowls. His 2008 squad went 13–0 and beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, which is how he won AFCA national Coach of the Year.
He's 66 and still wanted to coach. When he stepped down at Utah he said he wasn't retiring — he was "entering the transfer portal." That line got shared around a lot.
Michigan signed him for five years at $8.2 million annually.
The first couple weeks at his new job weren't glamorous. He got on the phone with every committed player in Michigan's 2026 recruiting class, individually, went through it one by one, made his case. Most of them stayed. He also brought five Utah players with him through the transfer portal. The 2026 class ranked 12th nationally and 4th in the Big Ten — which, honestly, given the circumstances of a mid-December head coaching change with the signing period looming, is a solid outcome.
What Whittingham's teams look like: physical, defense-first, run-heavy, low on splash but also low on mistakes. Utah didn't put up 50-point games under him. They also didn't hand opponents free possessions and they won in November when games get hard. Eighteen of his 21 seasons at Utah ended with a bowl game. He never had a major off-field scandal. Not one.
That last part is doing a lot of work as a selling point right now in Ann Arbor, and you can understand why.
Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2026 class, stayed committed through all of it. He's a Michigan kid, recruited before any of this started. He didn't flip. That matters more than most roster analysis could right now.
Jonathan Smith's two years at Michigan State
The michigan state football coach situation was different. Just losses.
Smith came from Oregon State in late 2023. He'd turned the Beavers from a 2-win team into a program that nearly made the CFP, and Michigan State paid big to get him: seven years, $52.85 million, plus the $3 million buyout he owed Oregon State covered by MSU on his way out.
First season in East Lansing: 5–7. Not good, but program rebuilds take time. His second year opened 3–0 and things felt like they might be turning.
Then eight consecutive Big Ten losses. Program record for consecutive defeats. The only conference win of the entire 2025 season came in the last regular-season game at Ford Field in Detroit — 38–28 over Maryland, in front of 30,317 people, with fans in the upper deck audibly chanting "Fire Smith" while the game was still going. After it ended, a reporter asked Smith if he'd be back. He said three words: "Don't have that."
He was fired two days later. Record in East Lansing: 9–15 overall, 4–14 against Big Ten opponents. Michigan State owes him around $33.5 million to buy out what remains of his deal.
Pat Fitzgerald is the new michigan state football coach for 2026. He had actual success at Northwestern — two Big Ten Championship Game appearances between 2018 and 2020, five top-25 finishes, built something real at a school that doesn't have the resources of its conference peers. Then a hazing scandal ended that in 2023, a lawsuit against Northwestern followed, eventually settled, and he's been away from coaching since. Now he's got another shot in East Lansing, which is probably as close to a second chance as college football offers at this level.
MSU has had four head coaches since 2019. Dantonio retired. Tucker got fired after a misconduct investigation blew up his career. Smith couldn't win enough games. Now Fitzgerald. This is a program with a College Football Playoff appearance in 2015 and a top-10 AP finish in 2021. The gap between that program and this one is real and it's been widening.
2026
Michigan, in an ideal world: no news. Nothing to report except football games. Whittingham's record on that particular front — 32 years with Utah, zero major off-field controversies — is the closest thing to a guarantee that exists. Whether he actually wins the Big Ten is a separate, open question. Ohio State is very good. Penn State is very good. Michigan's roster has talent, especially with Underwood now in the quarterback room, but it'll take a full cycle before the personnel is fully his.
Michigan State needs Fitzgerald to be the coach who built Northwestern into a competitor, not the one who went 4–20 in his last two seasons there. The Spartans were a real program not long ago. The Paul Bunyan Trophy has been going to Ann Arbor regularly. Their fans remember when that wasn't the case and they want it back.