Michigan football didn't need to look long or far for its next head coach.

Believed to be the man in waiting since November should there be a changing of the guard, Sherrone Moore, the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach from Michigan's 2023 national championship team, has officially been named Jim Harbaugh’s replacement and the 21st coach in U-M program history.

The school announced the hiring on Friday evening.

“Sherrone has proven to be a great leader for our football program, especially the offensive line and players on the offensive side of the football,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said in a released statement. “He is a dynamic, fierce and competitive individual who gets the best out of the players he mentors. The players love playing for him and being with him in the building every day."

Harbaugh's decision to leave Ann Arbor became official Wednesday evening. Manuel and president Santa Ono sent out statements which explained their desire to keep Harbaugh at U-M, but once it was clear he was leaving made it a point to keep staff continuity and name a successor in a timely fashion.

That left a rather clear choice for them; Moore.

It's been a meteoric rise up the coaching ranks for Moore, who just seven years ago was tight ends coach at Central Michigan, the highest position he’d held at the time. He took over the same spot in Ann Arbor in 2018, which he held for three years, before he was elevated to co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 2021-22.

“I have been preparing my entire coaching career for this opportunity and I can’t think of a better place to be head coach than at the University of Michigan,” Moore said in the statement released by the school. “We will do everything each day as a TEAM to continue the legacy of championship football that has been played at Michigan for the past 144 years. Our standards will not change. We will be a smart, tough, dependable, relentless, and enthusiastic championship-level team that loves football and plays with passion for the game, the winged helmet and each other. We will also continue to achieve excellence off the field, in the classroom and in our communities. I am excited to start working in this new role with our players, coaches and staff.”

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In his first two years on that job, Moore led U-M’s offensive line to consecutive Joe Moore awards as the nation’s top unit. He later became the sole play caller when Matt Weiss was fired in January 2023 and while his group didn’t get the nod for the Joe Moore Award this past year, it instead got the last laugh as perhaps the anchor unit of the national championship team that went 15-0.

Six members of last year’s group declared for the 2024 NFL draft which will be hosted in Detroit.

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For Moore, this will be his first go-round as a full time head coach, however not his first time serving as one. Moore became one of four different U-M assistants to serve as head coach in some capacity last year when Harbaugh served the first of a pair of three game suspensions for separate NCAA investigations.

However Moore became the front runner for the position based not only on the dominance of his particular position (the line) within his unit (the offense) the past few seasons, but how he handled the final three games of the regular season.

Moore officially found out he’d officially serve as head coach for the Wolverines' first ranked showdown of last year, a top 10 matchup at Penn State, when U-M was in the air on the way to Happy Valley, but never flinched.

Instead, he's credited with a shrewd in game decision when he saw his unit was overmatched by Penn State’s pass rush, and he abandoned the aerial attack entirely and called 32 consecutive rushes to end the game.

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"They don't get any better," Harbaugh said of Moore in late December, 2022. "There's been a lot of great line coaches. I mean, I can't think of one better than Sherrone Moore and he's a great teacher. I will start with that. "Teaching" and "coaching" is synonymous. Tremendous passion for the game and for our players. Bleeds Blue like nobody else. Just tremendous enthusiasm every single day. Smart, smart. Wicked smart. And just, in every way, a Michigan man.

"He's not afraid of any challenge or taking on any new challenge. But those are just to list a few."

Moore later guided U-M to its 1,000th program win, 31-24, in College Park the following week before he went toe-to-toe with Ohio State's Ryan Day and led his team to victory, 30-24, for the third consecutive time against OSU to keep the dream season alive.

The decision to elevate Moore felt like a formality from the moment Harbaugh's decision to bolt for the Chargers became official. Immediately, players took to social media to express their support for Moore, including former All-American guard Zak Zinter, who has declared for the NFL draft but still wanted to support his coach as he posted on social media, "No interviews needed. It’s Papa Moore’s time"

A three-sport athlete in high school, Moore primarily focused on basketball and wrestling before he turned his attention to football after his first two seasons. He played two years of football at Butler County Community College (Kansas), where he won two league championships at left tackle before he transferred to the University of Oklahoma where he appeared in 14 games across two years (2006-07), won two Big 12 Championships and helped OU reach a BCS bowl game both years.

He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Louisville (2009-11), then took over as tight ends coach (2012-13) the next two seasons.

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"I'll make a bold statement: Every one of our assistant coaches will be a head coach," Harbaugh said at a recruiting camp at Wayne State last June. "I would even say four after this season. Mark my words and mark them well. Sherrone Moore has knocked it out of the park at every step. He's checked every box."

Moore is the first full time African-American head coach in U-M football history. Running backs coach Mike Hart became the first African-American man to serve as head coach when he was the interim in the second half of U-M's Week 2 win over UNLV, while Moore led the charge the following week vs. Bowling Green.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sherrone Moore, former OU football player, promoted as Michigan coach