-
Jack Trotter, ESPN Senior Writer
A common refrain heard around the Oklahoma locker room and team hotel on the evening before game day: “Ask Sharon.”
Long before Jim Harbaugh succeeded him as Michigan’s head coach, Sharon Moore was the Sooners’ backup guard. He never started a game, but Moore proved to be a beloved, sought-after and ultimately valuable member of Oklahoma’s 2006 and 2007 Big 12 championship teams. Still, those Sooners now say they see a future head coach.
“He was incredibly bright, a great communicator … a team guy and that’s important,” recalled Bob Stoops, Oklahoma’s head coach at the time. “Everything about him was great.”
Moore, 38, is less than two weeks away from debuting as Michigan’s permanent head coach. He faces the enormous task of replacing Harbaugh, as well as 13 key players from last year’s national championship team selected in the NFL Draft; No program lost more draft picks this year.
Moore is also being investigated after the NCAA implicated him in a sign-stealing operation orchestrated by former Michigan staff member Connor Stallion. According to a draft of the NCAA’s notice of allegations to Michigan obtained by ESPN, Moore could face a suspension and other penalties for allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with the Stallions in October 2023. Moore’s texts were later recovered and he turned them over to NCAA enforcement personnel, according to the draft. Moore said last week that the school is fully cooperating with the NCAA violation process; In the Stallions text thread, he added: “I’m looking forward to their release.”
Moore, however, showed last season as offensive coordinator and later interim head coach that he could weather the storm and lead the Wolverines to success and a cloud hanging over the program. While Harbaugh served the suspension, Moore went 4-0 with wins over Penn State and Ohio State, as Michigan remained undefeated en route to the national title.
During that stretch, Moore’s former teammates said they saw the same passion from his time at Oklahoma.
“When they won that (Penn State) game and he cried in the interview and people were giving him a hard time, I thought, ‘That’s because you all don’t know the type of person he is, the type of love he has for his teammates, the school he’s at. Yes, the kids he’s coaching,'” said former Oklahoma All-American defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, who was a six-time Pro Bowler with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “He’s very loyal. And she’s going to be the biggest cheerleader.”
During his two years in Norman, Moore was Oklahoma’s biggest cheerleader from the sidelines. Moore grew up in Derby, Kansas just outside of Wichita. After a career at Butler (Kansas) Community College, he joined the Sooners as part of a star-studded signing class that included McCoy, San Francisco 49ers All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams, former Dallas Cowboys Pro Bowl DeMarco Murray and the 2008 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback. Sam Bradford.
Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson, then Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator, recruited Moore out of junior college to fill out the Sooners’ depth shortly after Moore’s father was sent to Iraq to work as a field manager for an oil company. Immediately, Wilson was impressed.
“A rock-solid guy,” Wilson said. “I didn’t really think when he was younger, ‘OK, coach this kid.’ But you go back and (think about) what a great teammate he was, the multiple positions he played and the ease with which he adapted, he showed a lot of these coaching traits as a young kid.”
On a loaded Oklahoma offensive line that paved the way for an offense that broke several FBS records, Moore wound up backing up two-time All-American left guard Duke Robinson.
Moore rarely played. But, as Stoops noted, Moore was always ready to go.
“A lot of people don’t handle that situation optimally,” Stoops said. “And he did. He always had a great attitude. That’s what I mean by a great team guy.”
Moore didn’t get many chances to help the Sooners on Saturday. Instead, he focused on trying to help those achieve their potential. Robinson especially relied on Moore for advice in practice, camaraderie in summer workouts and encouragement in games with the rest of Oklahoma’s players.
“He definitely could have played somewhere else. It just so happened that we had an elite offensive line,” Robinson said. “But he came in as a dog, and fit right in. He was very smart, he helped me and the other guys when it came to understanding certain plays and why the play went the way it did and why certain calls were made. He saw things that we didn’t and He helped us when we made a mistake or missed an assignment.”
McCoy and Oklahoma defenders were often frustrated during preseason practices because Moore knew what the defense was going to do in every snap.
“You try to move all over the place to try not to give in to what’s happening,” McCoy said. “But he was calling all the blitzes. He knew if we were running a stunt play, he knew all our calls, all our checks, he knew everything. He knew everybody’s job. He could play any position. … Some teammates are about playing football. There’s been so much progress in knowing and Sharon has always been that person.”
Despite his football intelligence, Moore was not the most athletic offensive lineman at Oklahoma. During summer workouts, strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt had players miss their goal times on a shuttle run for an hour on a Stairmaster for every second. They have to run the shuttle again.
“Usually me and Sharon (were) the last ones, and we had to root for the whole team to finish,” Robinson said. “We’d literally be falling over each other, stumbling. We really needed each other, like, ‘Damn bro, we’re gonna make it better this time because I’m not doing it again— again, I’m not getting that stairmaster, None of that bro.’
Moore didn’t always make his time. But unlike other tired teammates, Moore never stopped running, even though he knew he wouldn’t make it in time.
“There were a lot of better athletes in better shape than Sharon, but Sharon wouldn’t give up,” said former Sooners All-Big 12 center John Cooper, now the tight ends coach at Mississippi State. “He might be a few seconds late. But he’ll go and not finish late but quit.”
Trent Ratterri, an instate walk-on tight end, remembers Moore taking him under his wing during Ratterri’s freshman year. The two had a mutual friend in Wade Weibert, who played with Moore at Butler before going to Kansas State. Weibert asked Moore to look up to Ratteri, and he did just that, becoming a “big brother type” to her.
“When I got to OU the workouts were shocking,” Ratterri said. “I used to throw up because I was so anxious. Sharon picked it up and coached me through it. … I always looked up to her because I thought she was a very nice person. She would lift people up. It was just for morale. It’s good to be surrounded.”
This was especially true during difficult and crucial moments during the game. Moore earned a reputation for lifting teammates’ spirits while slapping them on the shoulder pads.
“He was always Mr. Positive,” Cooper said. “He was always about the boys, always talking to us, always trying to spread positivity.”
Cooper recalled a time in the 2007 Big 12 championship game when Moore’s positivity helped Oklahoma overcome a slump offensively. The Sooners trailed No. 1 Missouri 3-0 after the first quarter. The game was tied at half time.
“We’d come (off the field), and he’d be out in numbers every time like, ‘Hey, y’all got it,'” Cooper said. “You could see that look in his eyes and it was infectious. He was like, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing — it’s going to break.'”
As Michigan’s co-offensive coordinator in 2021, Moore had another similar moment. After a first-half grind against Washington, Moore repeatedly chanted, “Smash.” The Wolverines embodied that mentality and steamrolled the Huskies in the second half, rushing for 343 yards (#smash is now on Moore’s X bio).
In that Big 12 title game 14 years ago, Moore reminded the Oklahoma offense that it was “on the verge of breaking.” Then, it did. The Sooners scored three touchdowns in the second half en route to their second Big 12 championship.
After winning the Big 12 title the year before against Nebraska, Moore danced in front of wide receiver Malcolm Kelly’s famous victory rap.
After the Missouri win, Moore was the first to dance again.
“He was high-hipped with skinny legs and — I don’t know how to explain this dance — but he did this dance when we won a big game,” Cooper said. “And everyone would cheer him on because he was that kind of guy on the sidelines.”
Moore’s infectious personality and relentless positivity carry over off the field. In a locker room that could be positionally tight, Moore was friendly with just about everyone, from the freshman walk-on tight end to the punter. Teammates called him “the connector” that players could confide in when they were in trouble. As a result, Moore’s house became an informal off-campus hangout for the entire team, whether he or roommate DJ Wolf, an Oklahoma defensive back, were there or not.
“If a group of people were laughing, you can bet your money Sharon was somewhere around,” McCoy said. “He’s that kind of person, he brings so much joy and love. … You want to be talking about the life of the party as practice ends.”
Yet when it came to football, Moore was all business. Before each pregame walkthrough, each player had to take a written test on that week’s game plan. Inevitably, several players will wait until the last minute to fill them.
“They’ll be in the locker room rushing, trying to hustle, pages all torn up, just looking a mess,” McCoy said. “And if they didn’t know the answer, it was always, ‘Ask Sharon.’ Everyone will go to Sharon because she will know.”
After Moore graduated from Oklahoma, Stoops said he wanted to recruit him. But his staff did not have an empty space. Instead, Moore went to Louisville, where he began his rapid ascent in the coaching ranks — all the way to Michigan.
“When you take a guy who knows the game of football with that kind of passion, it’s hard to keep him from being a head coach,” McCoy said. “Sharon is a born leader.
“He was born to be a coach.”
