Michigan football’s off-field troubles from the past couple of years continued Monday, with coach Sherrone Moore facing a two-game suspension for his involvement with the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal from 2023.
It’s just the latest development from Michigan’s historic 2023 season, when the Wolverines won their 10th national championship and first in the College Football Playoff era.
The win has come with a lot of off-field investigations, however, with massive coaching turnover in relation to the multiple scandals coming out of Ann Arbor.
Here’s a roundup of all the ongoing scandals, suspensions and trouble from Michigan’s 2023 national championship-winning season:
Michigan football recruiting violations
On April 16, 2024, the NCAA put Michigan on a three-year probation for allowing non-staffers to participate in recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period, which is a rules violation. The school was stamped with Level II violations, while coach Jim Harbaugh was hit with a more serious Level I violation for not cooperating with investigators.
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Harbaugh was given a one-year NCAA suspension and a four-year show-cause order from Aug. 7, 2024-Aug. 6, 2028. The punishment means if Harbaugh were to be hired by any NCAA school within that window, he would have to serve a one-year suspension before being able to work.
Harbaugh left Michigan two weeks after the national title to become the coach of the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers before he could serve the one-year suspension.
Harbaugh served a three-game suspension imposed by the school at the beginning of the 2023 season as a result of the recruiting violations.
Two former Michigan assistant coaches recently settled with the NCAA as a result of the recruiting scandal. Former Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, now the defensive coordinator for the Chargers under Harbaugh, agreed to a one-year show-cause order.
Meanwhile, former defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, who is also working on Harbaugh’s staff with the Chargers, received a two-year show-cause order and must serve a half-year suspension if an NCAA institution hires him.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines, this is the less controversial of the two big scandals from 2023 with ongoing repercussions for the program.
Michigan sign-stealing scandal and Connor Stalions
On Oct. 19, 2023, it was reported Michigan was under investigation for alleged sign-stealing.
The investigations revolved around staffer Connor Stalions, who was accused of attending games featuring Michigan’s future opponents and filming the sidelines to steal signs, which is a violation of NCAA rules.
The NCAA also said it had evidence Stalions was on the sidelines of a Central Michigan game against Michigan State dressed in CMU coaching gear to spy on MSU.
Michigan announced Stalions resigned Nov. 3, 2023.
One week later, the Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season, though he returned to coach Michigan to wins over Iowa (Big Ten championship game), Alabama (Rose Bowl) and Washington (national championship game), then professed the school’s innocence after winning the title to complete a 15-0 season.
Earlier in the season on Nov. 17, the program fired linebackers coach Chris Partridge for his part in the sign-stealing fiasco. Partridge was alleged to have destroyed evidence in connection with the scandal.
And on Monday, May 5, the Free Press confirmed the university will suspend Moore for two games in the 2025 season for his part in the scandal. Moore is accused of deleting 52 text messages with Stalions around the time of the initial investigation, which is against NCAA rules.
Moore is expected to serve the suspension during the the team’s third and fourth games of the season against Central Michigan and Nebraska, allowing him to coach the Week 2 matchup at his alma mater, Oklahoma.
The Matt Weiss criminal case
On Jan. 20, 2023, Michigan fired co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss for “computer access crimes” that have turned into a full-blown FBI investigation and class-action lawsuit.
The lawsuit includes 42 female student athletes who have accused Weiss of illegally accessing and downloading photos and other personal data from the athletes. Weiss is also facing a criminal case stemming from the same accusations.
The lawsuit lists the university and its board of regents as defendants along with Weiss, as the plaintiffs accuse them of not doing enough to protect the student athletes’ data and for negligence in their hiring of Weiss.
THE STORY: Feds indict ex-Michigan coach Matt Weiss: He hacked computers to spy on women
Michigan’s other scandals
On May 20, 2023, Glenn “Shemy” Schembechler, son of legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, resigned three days after being hired as an assistant director of recruiting. Schembechler was found to have “liked” racist posts on public social media accounts.
On March 16, 2024, defensive line coach Greg Scruggs was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated and resigned five days later.
On April 15, 2024, former star quarterback and then-recruiting staffer Denard Robinson was suspended after crashing a car at 3 a.m. in Ann Arbor while intoxicated. He is no longer with the program.
With the Weiss trials and Stalions investigation still ongoing, this may not be the last of the Wolverines’ problems from the past few years.
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