The dust is still settling in a lot of ways, but Sherrone Moore's arraignment is over and Biff Poggi has spoken.
At this point, everyone in the country knows about the Sherrone Moore situation, even non-football fans. Moore was fired on Wednesday, Dec. 10 for having an inappropriate relationship with a female staffer. That would've been unfortunate enough, but then Moore snapped, making a bad situation worse.
Moore ended up going to the female staffer's house, forcing his way in and reportedly threatened himself and her with knives and scissors. After leaving, he was detained by police and charged with three crimes: felony home invasion, stalking in a domestic relationship, and breaking and entering.
Moore spent two nights in jail before being released on $25,000 bail. Now, Moore must wear a GPS tether, have no-contact with the victim, consume no alcohol and also adhere to area restrictions, and mental health treatment requirements. His next hearing is January 22.
If convicted of all three charges, he could face up to six years in prison.
Now, it's all about interim head coach Biff Poggi, who was in that role earlier this year while Moore served a two-game suspension for the games against Central Michigan and Nebraska. There are some who liked how the team looked better under Poggi's command, so there isn't much worry about the team right now.
However, a new head coach needs to be hired and it needs to happen soon. Michigan is preparing for a big bowl game matchup against Texas, and also has to pay attention to the transfer portal, which opens up on January 2.
Poggi recently spoke at at a promotional event the Cheez It Citrus Bowl and delivered a pretty strong message when asked how things are going inside the program right now.
"It has been a tumultuous time. A lot of anger, first disbelief, then anger," Poggie said. "The kids, quite frankly, feel very betrayed, and we’re trying to work through that."
This is a tough position for any coach to be in, but Poggi has a way about him. He has been playfully described as the "cool grandpa" by players and seems to be the perfect kind of person to guide these young men through this difficult time.
"I've met individually with all the players multiple times and with the parents — Zoomed with the parents multiple times. And the message has been listening, right? I want to listen to them. I want to understand what the kids are feeling and what their parents are feeling. So, a lot of listening," he explained.
"And there's been a wide range of emotions as you can imagine and we kind of are going through those steps.
"They're not over yet and I don't expect them to be over for a while, quite frankly, but our main message is the mandate that Warde Manuel gave me as the athletic director when he asked me to be the interim coach: To love and take care of the kids. And so that's what I'm spending all of my time doing is loving kids."
And it's real. You can tell when you talk to Poggi that he wears his heart on his sleeve. If he's showing love to the players, they're feeling it and it's helping. Now, it's just about Michigan turning the page, finding its new permanent head coach. Until then, Biff is the man for the job.