Analyst says 'agents have expected Michigan job to come open for several weeks'

On Wednesday, Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel announced the decision to fire head football coach Sherrone Moore.

Moore's firing was due to his engagement in an "inappropriate relationship with a staff member," according to the school.

The news sent shockwaves across college football and drew reaction from numerous analysts and people who closely follow the sport.

One of the strong reactions came from renowned college football analyst Josh Pate, who said on his show the news didn't come as a total surprise to him.

In mid October after the Wolverines' loss to USC, Pate suggested that Michigan could move on from Moore if things started to spiral in a downward direction.

So when Wednesday's news struck the college football world, Pate said he wasn't as shocked as many considering what he knew behind the scenes.

Moore's situation 'widely speculated'

In the nearly nine-minute video Pate discusses Moore's firing, he first explained why this wasn't a surprise to him.

"First reaction is not a surprise at all," said Pate. "I have said not a word about this publicly—this has been—I'm not going to say well-known, but it's been pretty widely speculated behind the scenes for weeks and weeks. To the point where, when I was watching Michigan, back half of the season, there were two purposes. Number one, I just like watching Michigan football. The second was I believed Michigan was taking a 'wait and see' approach. There was also an investigation going on behind the scenes. But I thought they were taking a 'wait and see' approach because there's one world where the team just doesn't perform on the field and it absolves you of even having to fire someone with cause, if you don't want to is the way I will put that. "

Pate says the "clock was ticking" on Moore after USC game

Michigan's game at USC did not go well and ended in a 31-13 loss to what was a good, but not great Trojans' team this season as Lincoln Riley's squad also finished the regualr season at 9-3.

"When they lost against USC, clock was ticking and this was already bubbling behind the scenes by then," said Pate. "That was October 11th, and in subsequently, the Michigan State game was kind of weird looking but they won it. The Purdue game was close—way too close, but they won it. Northwestern—way too close, but they won it. And I thought if any of those games were losses, and they were going to go on and lose to Ohio State—that was going to be an 8-4 season, I could easily see that having been enough for them to just say 'we're firing Sherrone for performance based reasons.'

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore watches a play against Ohio State during the second half at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"They ended up squeezing out some wins there—they did lose to Ohio State, but people aren't getting fired for 9-3. Sorry, that's just ot happening. Then, you find out, after signing day—which I think was timed purposefully, that he is fired for cause."

Agents, according to Pate, have expected Michigan job to come open

Pate further explained, with the situation with Moore boiling behind the scenes in Ann Arbor, that the question was going to be whether Michigan pulled the trigger on firing Moore for cause. Pate noted "just because you have cause to fire someone, doesn't mean you do."

"Let me put it this way—agents have expected the Michigan job to be coming open for several weeks now, Pate said. "That's been expected behind the scenes. Therefore, just because they made the move (Dec. 10), does not mean anyone's being caught off guard about this on December 10th."

Moore described to Pate as a 'bridge head coach'

According to Pate, sources he talked to described Moore as a "bridge head coach" at Michigan. In other words, a coach who was going to help steady the waters through the aftermath of the in-person scouting scandal involving Connor Stalions and one who would provide overall continuity.

At the same time, according to Pate, Moore wasn't seen by many people at Michigan as the long-term answer, and when Moore's alleged inappropriate relationship with a female staffer came to light, the Wolverines were able to use this as an easier way out to move on from Moore.

"He (Moore) was always described to me as a bridge head coach," Pate said. "And I always thought 'eh, that's kind of disrespectful but I get where you're going with it.' What they meant around Michigan when they said a bridge head coach was, obviously you're coming out of a period where Jim Harbaugh moves on, and you have an investigation and you needed to have a head coach during that period.

"And Sherrone stepped in on an interim basis and they just made him the permanent head coach. At the time, it's really cloudy. Remember, you're in the midst of a big scandal, a big investigation and you don't know how it's going to turn out. So, you need someone to sort of guide you through the fog. And then, the thinking at Michigan was: once we get through the fog, we'll just figure the rest of it out. And if things go terrible, we're going to fall off a cliff and it won't matter who the coach is. But if we work this out, which they ended up doing, and they came out of it and the fog lifted and it was fairly sunny—then that's not going to be our long-term answer at head coach.

"And they way it was put to me was, 'if you wonder why we feel that way, consider this: Consider we snap our fingers and just pretend Sherrone is on the open market today. How many places would fire their current head coach to hire him?' And I sat there and I knew the point they were making and I couldn't push back on it. "

Recent scandal was a "trap door" for Michigan to escape from Moore

Pate added that in light of many at Michigan not buying into Moore in as a long-term answer at the University, the scandal that came to light recently gave the program a way out to move on from him without owing him any buyout money.

Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore leaves the field following the NCAA football game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Nov. 29, 2025. Ohio State won 27-9. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"So now, there was this scandal thrown into the equation more recently that gives Michigan a trap door that they escaped through. It's not that they couldn't technically afford to fire him, but you never want to spend money you don't have to spend. So, there's this exit door that just kind of presents itself through undesirable methods, but it presents itself. Michigan ends up taking it, they get out of this thing.

"If anyone is waiting to see if this 'for cause' portion of this is challenged—no. There are a few things that Michigan may fall short on, but legally having their affairs in order before they put out a press release or a statement like that is not one of them."

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