Jim Harbaugh won’t be returning to Michigan to serve as an honorary captain for the football team’s season opener after all, Wolverines Coach Sherrone Moore said Tuesday.
“He called me and told me he didn’t feel like he could leave his team,” Moore said Tuesday, relaying Harbaugh’s explanation for not attending the Aug. 31 game against Fresno State. Moore said Harbaugh declined the offer to return to Michigan Stadium later this month because he is preparing the Los Angeles Chargers for their season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sept. 8.
Moore added that Harbaugh did not want to take away from this year’s Wolverines team in what will be Moore’s debut as Michigan’s head coach. Tuesday’s news comes six days after the NCAA announced a four-year show-cause order on Harbaugh due to impermissible contact with recruits and players during the COVID-19 dead period in 2021.
In its 48-page report, the NCAA said Harbaugh “engaged in unethical conduct, failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance, and violated head-coach responsibility obligations.” The school already had agreed to a three-year probation in April and was fined by the NCAA. The NCAA charged Harbaugh with a Level I violation of “misleading investigators.”
Moore was speaking with reporters Tuesday for the first time since the NCAA alleged in a notice that he violated rules in relation to its sign-stealing investigation involving former Michigan staff member Connor Stalions. It is alleged that Moore deleted a string of 52 text messages between himself and Stalions in October 2023. That alleged interaction came on the same day that media reports revealed Stalions was attempting to steal play-calling signals of upcoming opponents.
The text messages in question were later recovered via “device imaging,” and Moore produced them to enforcement staff, per the draft. Moore said Tuesday that he has and will continue to cooperate with the NCAA in its probe. With the alleged texts in question having been recovered, Moore said Tuesday that he looks “forward to them being released.”
The Wolverines capped a tumultuous season off the field with a perfect 15–0 record, defeating Washington 34–13 in the College Football Playoff national championship game Jan. 8.
Harbaugh was named coach of the Chargers on Jan. 24. Two days later, Michigan announced the promotion of Moore, previously the team’s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Stalions was suspended at midseason, on Oct. 20, and ultimately resigned from his job on the Michigan football staff.
