ORLANDO, Fla. —It was business as usual for Warde Manuel the last couple of weeks, helping lead Michigan’s search for a new head football coach.
While the school hired executive search firm TurnkeyZRG to compile and vet a list of candidates, it was Manuel who ultimately recommended the hire of 66-year-old Kyle Whittingham on Friday. In a conversation with The Ann Arbor News/ MLive on Sunday, Manuel said he began to zero in on Whittingham about a week ago before issuing his recommendation to interim president Domenico Grasso for final approval. Michigan’s board of regents were also looped in.
“I was the one who presented it to the president as the candidate,” Manuel said Sunday. “He agreed with that choice, and we’re here today.”
The move came after Manuel fired former football coach Sherrone Moore on Dec. 10 for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. It was the latest hit for a Michigan football program facing major scrutiny in recent years, from NCAA violations and probation to fines totaling tens of millions of dollars and coaches arrested. Moore was just the latest, charged with third-degree home invasion, stalking and breaking and entering following an incident at the staffer’s residence.
Manuel promoted Moore to head football coach in January 2024, touting his success as offensive coordinator, recruiter and interim head coach during Jim Harbaugh’s absences in 2023. He called it hard move personally, but the right one professionally.
“I’ve known him for seven or eight years,” Manuel said. “It was difficult to see him as a person to go through what he went through. But professionally, it was an easy decision to make because of the expectations that we have for everyone our staff.”
Turns out, Michigan had already been investigating Moore’s actions internally. Law firm Jenner & Block has since been retained to expand its investigation into the former coach and address the culture of the Michigan athletic department, mired in controversy for years now.
“I asked. The next morning, I asked the president to help with a cultural analysis and have somebody come in,” Manuel said. “So yes, I am very supportive of that. Because as a leader, I face reality. There are things that happened; I don’t step away from that. Never have, never will.”
Manuel declined to detail the scope of the probe and some of its early findings, but warned that “there may be some things that they find.”
“That’s why we do an investigation,” he said. “I’m very open to that. I wanted the cultural analysis to be done, to help us. To help us get better.
“We need to get better, and that’s part of it.”