It seems the Michigan Wolverines navigated their football coach's entire suspension around their looming matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners.
ESPN's Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel reported Monday that Michigan will suspend head coach Sherrone Moore for two games during the 2025 college football season because of his involvement with the Connor Stalions scandal in 2023, when the Wolverines won a national championship while Moore was offensive coordinator.
Oklahoma matchup causes Wolverines to rethink Moore suspension over Connor Stalions scandal
According to ESPN, Moore deleted 52 text messages with Stalions after news broke that Stalions had been sending friends and family to games to record signals from future opponents. Michigan could face further consequences from the incident, but for now, the school imposed the two-game suspension on its head coach.
During the two-game suspension, Moore will not only be absent from the sidelines during games, but he will also be banned from any team-related duties during those weeks.
However, the oddest thing about Moore's suspension is the timing. Instead of just suspending Moore the first two weeks of the season, Michigan chose Week 3 and 4, when the Wolverines play Central Michigan and Nebraska, respectively. Apparently the Wolverines aren's as worried about Central Michigan or Nebraska in a Big Ten game as they are about a nonconference matchup with Oklahoma.
The Sooners will host Michigan Week 2 on Sept. 6 at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The Wolverines open their season against New Mexico at home, while OU will kick off 2025 against Illinois State in Norman.
The meeting will also be Moore's first chance to lead a team against his alma mater. Moore was an offensive lineman for the Sooners in 2006-08 under Bob Stoops. He appeared in only 14 games during his OU career while blocking for quarterback Sam Bradford.
Moore will return to Memorial Stadium for the first time on Sept. 6, then after that, he'll be off work for the next two weeks while the Wolverines take on opponents they're less fearful of.
Even those outside of Sooner Nation see it's obvious what Michigan is trying to do and what a joke it is.
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