Michigan Football wasted no time replacing former head coach Jim Harbaugh, announcing just 48 hours after Harbaugh said his goodbyes to take the head coaching job of the Los Angeles Chargers that offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore would be its 21st head coach in program history.
Moore already has a 4-0 record as the Wolverines’ interim head coach with wins over Bowling Green, Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State.
His deal is five years, starting at $5.5 million per year. That’s a hefty stack of bills, but seems a bit insignificant compared to what they were offering Harbaugh to stay and be the face of college football with the retirement of Nick Saban down at Alabama earlier this year.
So, Kalen DeBoer (formerly at Washington) has replaced Saban at Alabama.
If you were counting, there were seven NFL job vacancies when the regular season ended. So, what about the “Goat”?
No, not Tom Brady, the quarterback. his coach with the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick. He stepped away from his tenure with the Patriots that includes six Super Bowl titles between 2001 and 2018.
It doesn’t help since Brady’s departure, following the 2019 season, the franchise has missed the playoffs three times in four years. Ouch.
The Atlanta Falcons were the only team to interview Belichick, primarily a defensive coach, since he parted ways with the Patriots on Jan. 11. He was interviewed twice, but team owner Arthur Blank decided to go in a different direction, on Thursday, hiring Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.
Morris was on the Falcons coaching staff from 2015 to 2020 and took over for Dan Quinn as the team’s interim head coach during the 2020 season, after Quinn was let go.
Thoughts are Bill wanted roughly the same type of control he had in New England: the full scope of football operations, personnel and coaching. It worked there, but you just don’t see that in the present-NFL. His stay in New England was more the exception instead of the rule.
So, Morris is onboard in Atlanta and Tampa’s offensive coordinator Dave Canales is the new head man of the woeful Carolina Panthers.
There are only two vacancies left a couple of weeks prior to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas between the AFC’s Kansas City Chiefs and the NFC’s San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11. Those are Washington and Seattle. And, his name hasn’t come up in either place.
His name could easily arise, though, in 2024 or especially 2025 if teams who made the playoffs this season struggle early and decide to make a change.
Sitting out a season might be his wisest choice, even though he’s 71 years old, and none of us are getting younger. He could be a broadcaster, or a consultant or even fit into a defensive coordinator’s role comfortably if it was to his liking.
He’s just 15 shy of passing Don Shula (347-333) as the winningest head coach in NFL history. So, my bet is he’ll wind up somewhere at some point in time.
Follow Joe on X (formerly Twitter): @joeyballgame.jh
