First-year Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, who was elevated to the head coaching role following the off season departure of Jim Harbaugh back to the NFL, is one of seven Michigan coaches from the 2023 staff accused of violating NCAA rules, according to a report today from ESPN.
A draft of the Notice of Allegations was obtained by ESPN and reportedly states that Moore could face a show-cause penalty and a possible suspension for allegedly deleting over 50 texts with former Wolverines staffer Connor Stalions back in October of 2023 as media reports began to share the now infamous scandal involving Stalions.
Those texts were reportedly later recovered and Moore later provided them to NCAA enforcement staff, but the violation would be a second for new Wolverines head coach, as he previously contacted recruits during a COVID-19 dead period before negotiating a resolution and served a one-game suspension to open last season.
Ironically, it was the unprecedented in-season suspension of Harbaugh that opened the door for Moore to step into the head coaching seat in the first place, as he led the team to an early season win against Bowling Green before stepping in as acting head coach again late in the season and winning monumental games against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State.
Harbaugh, former linebackers coach Chris Partridge, and former staffer Denard Robinson are listed alongside Stalions as accused of the most serious Level 1 violations.
Meanwhile, former assistants Jesse Minter and Steve Clinkscale are accused of recruiting violations that are unrelated to the Stalions investigation.
The initial draft of allegations does not provide any proof that Harbaugh was involved in the Stalions operations, or that he had any knowledge of it going on - something that Harbaugh has maintained since day 1, however the draft does state that Harbaugh failed to actively look for, or evaluate "red flags," the ESPN report shares.
Among the allegations against Stalions in the draft are that back in October he removed hard drives fro the Michigan football offices and gave a player a sheet containing signals for a future opponent asking that player to deliver the sheet to a team intern's house until he could grab it later.
The draft states that a total of 58 games were illegally scouted in the Stalions operation.
As for Patridge, who was let go back in mid-November, he is accused of pressuring a player to lie or mislead NCAA investigators to protect the staff as the probe into Stalions actions began, and he's also accused of several lesser Level II violations not associated with Stalions that state during the spring and summer of 2023, Partridge held on-campus training sessions with four prospects.
On a much lesser scale considering the previous accusations, Robinson (who was let go following a DUI arrest back in May), Clinkscale and Partridge are all accused of providing impermissible benefits to recruits in 2023 that amount to paying for a recruit's meal and providing team gear, helping a recruit get verified on social media. Former defensive coordinator Jesse Minter is accused of sending texts to a high school sophomore, a Level II violation.
While the reports from ESPN are just a draft of the allegations, the full Notice of Allegations will have a lot more to share, and many are hopeful that the upcoming Netflix documentary "Sign Stealer" starring Stalions will answer a lot of questions as well.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.