Sherrone Moore and Jonathan Smith soon went their separate ways. But early Thursday morning, they were in lockstep, walking side-by-side as they quickly left the floor at Wayne State Fieldhouse, where they each delivered some brief remarks before a group of high school prospects at the National College Showcase.

This is the dawn of the frenetic recruiting season, which means there is now little time to waste for the two new leaders of Michigan football and Michigan State football.

Then again, there never really was.

They have each inherited their own set of burdens and encountered varying degrees of turbulence as they’ve worked to usher their respective programs into a new age within a deeper, mightier Big Ten. In that sense, there is more in common between Moore and Smith than there are differences. Together, they have the unique distinction of becoming the first head coaches to begin their tenures at U-M and MSU in the same season since 1995, when Lloyd Carr replaced Gary Moeller in Ann Arbor and Nick Saban succeeded George Perles in East Lansing.

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“For me, I never really want anything but to be in a situation that challenges you,” said Moore, who took over the Wolverines in January.

Smith has approached his career with the same dogged mindset. His work history has been marked by rebuilds, after all. At Oregon State, he resuscitated a Pac-12 doormat that won one game the season prior to his arrival, lifting the Beavers to bowl eligibility by Year 4 of his regime and then guiding them to 10 victories the following fall.

Now, Smith is attempting to revive MSU after it crashed to a 4-8 record in 2023 following the scandal-ridden dismissal of his predecessor, Mel Tucker, this past September.

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It is an enormous project, and Smith has already confronted his share of obstacles since its launch. Thirty-eight Spartans, including starters on both sides of the ball, left during this transition phase. Their departures opened the door for 24 incoming transfers that reshaped key sectors — from the quarterback room to the secondary to the linebacker corps. Now, six months into his new job, Smith is finally starting to develop a firm picture of his team.

“That’s why I’m excited about this month, diving back into the weight room, reinstalling, getting around our guys with clarity of this is what the roster looks like,” he said.

Since his arrival last November, Smith has projected a positive outlook and professed a can-do attitude. He has refused to bemoan his fate, perhaps recognizing that his peers are all dealing with their own specific problems as they try to successfully navigate a sport gripped by constant upheaval in this era of NIL, unfettered player movement and seismic reforms.

That even includes Moore, the 38-year-old former offensive lineman who was promoted to Michigan’s top post 18 days after the Wolverines won the national championship.

While no one would dispute that Moore began at a far better starting point than Smith, he won’t exactly have it easy in his new role. As the successor to his former boss, Jim Harbaugh, he is saddled with enormous expectations. After a remarkable three-year run, when the Wolverines won 40 of 43 games and back-to-back-to-back conference titles, fans have been conditioned to believe Michigan is a perennial contender. Along those lines, there will also be added pressure for the Wolverines to make the College Football Playoff with the field expanding to 12 teams this year.

But qualification is no guarantee. Michigan faces an arduous schedule this fall, with matchups against Texas, USC, Oregon, Washington and Ohio State.

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The Wolverines will surge headfirst into that gauntlet with a rebuilt roster that no longer features a seasoned cast of contributors who accounted for the bulk of the team’s total output last year. According to ESPN, Michigan is tied for the ninth-lowest percentage of returning production in the nation. Walking out the door were quarterback J.J. McCarthy, running back Blake Corum, receiver Roman Wilson and seven other starters on offense.

Since the confetti dropped in Houston almost five months ago, Moore has been tasked with rebuilding the entire blocking front and picking McCarthy’s replacement among five unproven candidates. He also was forced to hire a completely new defensive staff after Harbaugh’s move to the Los Angeles Chargers triggered a wave of assistant coach departures from that side of the ball. The turnover across the board has raised questions about whether Moore can sustain Michigan’s recent success and prolong the program’s golden age.

“It’s just another chip on our shoulder,” Moore said to a group of reporters.

Minutes before, in a more colorful way, he channeled that defiance in his message to campers.

“Everybody is going to have haters,” he told them. “Your haters are holding their breath for you to fail. Your job is make their asses suffocate.”

It stands to reason that it has become Moore’s responsibility, too.

He is eager to tackle it.

“He’s a great football coach,” Wink Martindale, Michigan’s new defensive coordinator, told the Free Press. “And he has a vision for what he wants it to look like.”

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Down the road at MSU, Smith does, too.

But vis-à-vis Moore, it may take a bit longer for him to see it materialize.

In the meantime, he won’t rest until it does.

That much became clear when Smith cut off a group of media members seeking the latest scoop on his team.

“I’m gonna go to work, guys,” he said.

He then made a beeline for the exit. There was no time to waste, as he has come to realize. Moore, Smith’s counterpart at Michigan, could probably understand that better than anyone.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan's Sherrone Moore, MSU's Jonathan Smith linked by challenges