Biff Poggi to serve as interim coach during Sherrone Moore’s 2-game suspension

It’s been two years since the Michigan football team and former staffer Connor Stallions’ infamous sign-stealing scandal, and the Wolverines are still reeling from the effects. Most recently, Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was officially penalized by the NCAA last month with a Level II failure to cooperate violation, resulting in hefty financial penalties and an additional one-game suspension for Moore — on top of the self-imposed two-game suspension — among other things.

Now, with games 1 and 2 in the books, it’s time for Moore to serve his suspension. And Monday, he officially named associate head coach Biff Poggi interim coach. 

“(Poggi is) always with me, he’s always around me, he’s in all the meetings, he’s right there by my side,” Moore said Monday. “He sees it, he understands exactly how I feel. Obviously, he’s not me, but the players have a lot of respect for Biff, and they love being around Biff.” 

Poggi joined the Wolverines during the offseason, but this isn’t his first time working with the program. He’s been here many times before.  

In 2016, Poggi spent a year as an analyst for Michigan before returning to Baltimore to coach high school football for three years. He then rejoined the Wolverines from 2021 to 2022, serving as associate head coach under former head coach Jim Harbaugh. After that stint, Poggi left to become the head coach at Charlotte, where he was fired after two seasons and a 6–16 record. During the offseason, Poggi returned once again to Michigan to reprise his role as associate head coach, this time under Moore. 

Poggi has big shoes to fill, but not everything is going to be thrown at him at once. Technically, Moore is allowed to coach throughout this upcoming week with his suspension officially beginning at 12:00 a.m. on Saturday — something he intends to take full advantage of.

“I’ll be coaching,” Moore said. “I’ll be coaching hard. This week’s about the how, not necessarily the what. We’re going to really attack that, attack all the details.”

After an otherwise bleak performance against Oklahoma, Moore — and the rest of the Wolverines — are looking to make changes ahead of the rest of the season. While maintaining Moore’s presence in practice, Michigan will have to rely on Poggi to set the tone through its matchup against Central Michigan and, more importantly, its first conference game against Nebraska.

“What I learned (was a) little bit different because I was calling plays, I was the coordinator then,” Moore said of his time as interim coach. “But I think it’s just, you have to work together as a unit, and you can’t try to stray away from the plan that you’ve talked about earlier in the week. So we’re gonna do that, we’re gonna stay together as a cohesive unit, as a team, as a family.” 

Indeed, Moore knows firsthand the weight of stepping into a head coaching role during the season. In 2023, during Harbaugh’s three-game suspension, Moore served as the interim head coach tasked with guiding the Wolverines through their matchups against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State. His experience held much higher stakes against top-conference opponents than what Poggi is set to face. While their titles may appear similar on paper, Poggi’s challenge lies in steadying a fresh team that has yet to gel completely.

Two years later, and Michigan is still navigating the aftermath of the sign-stealing scandal, both on the field and in the locker room. As Moore serves his suspension, Poggi will seek to steady the Wolverines as an interim coach with both experience and knowledge of the program. Whether or not that stability will be able to keep Michigan on track, however, is a question that can only be answered in the weeks to come.

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