PTI - Michigan Coach Sherrone Moore Fired!

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Sherrone Moore being fired/arrested, Notre Dame backlash, and Joe Burrow frustration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. But I'm Mike Wilbon on assignment in Chicago. I'm Tony Kornheiser. I feel like you're a beat reporter for Chicago's steakhouses.

I've been a pretty good beat, wouldn't it? Where else are you going? Starting it cut. Yeah, it would be. You know, I would go to Vivette's, but Bevettes never has a table available. They say call us back in six months, so to hell with them. There's a new place on North LaSalle. I don't even know the name of it yet, but I, you know, I'm after checking out.

But cut, I started cutting. I think you, yeah. I think you'll be getting free meals at all of these places. Now that you expose that other joint, they're going to invite you back. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Notre Dame faces backlash. Joe Burrow isn't having fun, and Booger McFarland joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with the stunning news from yesterday

that the University of Michigan has fired their football coach Sharon Moore for cause. It was described as, quote, an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, unquote. More was later arrested yesterday in alleged assault and spent the night in jail. We don't know any more than this, but we are a sports show and we will deal with the immediate concerns of Michigan football. Wilbon, where does Michigan go from here? Tony, they go as quickly as they can into the front of the line if they can get there where you have to hire a football coach. I have personal experience, and I know of at least one youngster, who will be a lot of. has been contacted already by the other school in that conference that sort of matters in

football terms more than any other just to say hey just checking in on you just checking in to see how you're doing and so tony there's going to be poaching and there there ought to be there's going to be a rush to the portal there's going to be michigan having to rush to the portal both maybe to block their own current players from running into it and to snatch players out of it and to look around and say, what do we do now that other schools in the conference and beyond are coming after our recruits and kids. So you've got all that going on, which means you've got to hire a coach and you've got to hire a coach that you think is going to keep you in the mix in these times that are very expensive. The profile of these

coaches is incredible. Where do they start and where do they end up? So this, of course, is an absolutely stunning story. It looked like Sharon Moore was a pretty good football coach. I think he was 8 and 5 the first year. He went up to 9 and 3 this year, but he's done. I'm not sure he will ever get a big-time head coaching job in college again. I'm not certain of that. I was so surprised this morning, Mike, when I watched the shows,

and so many people, there was not only did they quickly say this, but they almost unanimously said this. go after Kalin DeBoer. I know. Michigan should go after Kalin DeBore. And because he's a Midwesterner and because there's very little patience

with coaching in Alabama. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, wait a second, this is Alabama. Do you leave Alabama quite that quickly? Not only that, they're in the college football playoff. They play.

They also talked, I'm going to go for a while here. They also talked about the Iowa State guy who's going to Penn State. And I found that interesting because I have to admit, if I was choosing between Penn State and Michigan, I would choose Michigan. And this guy hasn't coached a game yet.

He probably hasn't brought his stuff there yet. He could just say to the movers, we're going to stop going east, we're going to go north, take a left at the light. You know, but it seemed to me, Mike, that everyone was in play, and my ultimate dream would be if Kailen DeBore took the job, left to go to Michigan,

and then Lane Kiffin told LSU, no, no, I'm going to Alabama. I'm going to Alabama. And I think they've got to get a guy soon. Well, the situation of divorce seems to be this. Do you jump before you are possibly pushed? That's what that is. Like if he loses three games next year, they're going to want to fire him.

Yes. And then you say, damn it, I could have had the Michigan job. And he's got some history in the state of Michigan. Wow, it's a wow. And I guess they may get who they want, but maybe not. Maybe somebody says no. Let's move. to the backlash down the road just a bit, down 94 at Notre Dame.

Yahoo reports that some conference athletic directors, some are threatening to freeze out the Irish when it comes to future scheduling. This comes in response to a Ross Dellinger report that Notre Dame has a memorandum of understanding with the playoff committee that grants Notre Dame an automatic spot in the playoff if it is ranked in the top 12 starting next year. year shameful tone do you think other schools would really freeze out notre dame i'll be really quick to that one no no i don't i mean i i i really don't because a game with notre dame is a financial bonanza i mean nobody writes on tv if it's at your place if it's at your place you know not if it's a

no you work a deal you work a deal where you get some of the benefits of that here's what i think's going to happen. I think as soon as they are contractually able to do this, Notre Dame will leave the ACC and go to your conference, the Big Ten, where I think they will be welcomed with open arms. They may even think about starting a conference with schools of similar academic and athletic excellence, because every network would bid on that from NBC to Netflix. I want to get to this memorandum, though. This is amazing to me that the committee would do that, that they would say Notre Dame can get in if they're in the top 12. They don't guarantee Alabama or Georgia or Ohio state that.

Tulane got in this year because they won a conference championship. This is says Notre Dame just gets in. I find that amazing. And the only thing I can think of is that other colleges think of Notre Dame as the Dallas Cowboys and they have to have them. Yeah, in terms of the memo, I'll wait until I get a copy of that, you know, and I see a copy of that from Pablo maybe. I'll wait until then.

Tony, I do think other schools, remember Notre Dame is not just football, and I know that carries the lion's share of the leverage. But there are other schools out there. I don't know how many other programs, I'm sorry, other sports programs, your Title IX implications, what are there, maybe between 19 and 25 other sports

where you have to schedule? And I do know this, that there are other commissioners and other athletic directors who are tired of Notre Dame, and I don't know about freezing them out. That does seem a little extreme, but leverage. And you mentioned, you said yourself just now, okay, well, you can, you know, work out a deal.

You work out a deal when you have some leverage. And you say to Notre Dame, you know, we can get rid of you. We're tired of you. Go somewhere else. All you do is come out and threaten us anyway, no matter how much goodwill is shown to you during your time. you wear out your welcome and you'll say anything to anyone. Why do we need that? So I think there are some people, not everybody,

who will tell Notre Dame where to shove it. I think there are. Well, if this memorandum is true, the committee didn't tell them that. The committee said, please stay here and we're going to give you a special dispensation that nobody else gets. Nobody.

Let's go to pro football now. Joe Burrough said yesterday, quote, if I want to keep doing this, I want to have fun doing it. I've been through a lot. If it's not fun, then what am I doing it for, unquote? Well, on yesterday on this show, I said, I think Burroughs the best quarterback in football,

and you said he's just a passer and you had him behind Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, if not more people. You compare him to Kenny Anderson. What do you make of Burroughs' comments? They're whiny. They're just whiny. It's okay.

And maybe they're just honest. It's fine. I'm not saying he shouldn't express these thoughts. I'm just saying how they sounded to me. A lot of quarterback gets sacked a lot, a lot more than him. I never heard Archie Manning whine. Maybe that's because people didn't have, you know, round-the-clock podcast when Archie Manning was playing.

You know, my own quarterback in Chicago right here got sacked 68 times last year. I didn't hear him whining. I just, I don't want to hear the whining when you make $50 million. And when you arrange it so that your guys, your wide receivers, the three of you get paid about $300 million more than that, maybe a total of like $500 million, and you neglect the other side of the ball, which has to play in order for you to win the games and have more fun. So you made your bed, so lie right there in it, and I don't particularly care as great

as he is as a passer. I don't want to hear the whining. Yeah, I think, as you know, I think he's a great quarterback. I think he gets hit a lot, much more than the average. quarterback. And I think that his offensive line has failed him and his defense is non-existent. And I think it's possible he could end up like

Andrew Luck and he could just walk away early and this happens. Barry Sanders, Calvin Johnson got tired of losing and they walked away from the Lions. Maybe Burrow doesn't want to keep losing 42 to 38 or maybe this is a strategy. Maybe he's trying to lay the groundwork to go somewhere else.

I mean, there's 32 teams in the league. I think 28 would would jump through fire in order to get Joe Burrow. He's in his prime. He's not aging like Matthew Stafford. He's not slowed down like Lamar Jackson. So it's got a very NBA quality to me. It sounds like Kevin Durant,

where every other year Kevin Durant's ready to move. You know, we need to, and like Giannis, it feels like Joe Burrow doesn't want to say I want to move, but he wants you to know that he wants to move. Maybe it's strategic. I don't know. I mean, again, I think 28 out of 32 would move having an early. Let me ask you a question before we move on.

Let me ask you a quick question. I don't remember Joe Burrow during the offseason stumping for any offensive linemen or defensive players in the off season. Do you? Well, no. I remember, I think he wants receivers number one, and maybe one, two, and three. Maybe he does. Let's take a break. Coming up, the bucks are back on the field tonight.

We're going to ask Booger McFarlane why they have swooned lately. We'll also ask him whether the Packers and Lions are likely to upset the conference leaders. they face Sunday. Yeah, you know, I don't know what Burrough is doing that. Burrow is saying right now, I wish there was a transfer portal for me. That's what he wants. The PTI investigative team has learned that week 15 of the NFL season

kicks off tonight, which makes it a perfect time to welcome back our great friend ESPN NFL and college football analyst, Booger McFarland. But we're going NFL today. Let's start with tonight's game between the Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay started six and two. They have lost four out of five, and Baker Mayfield has been struggling.

You pay attention to this team. You know where they are. Why have the bucks been slumping? Well, Tony, do you remember when Baker Mayfield was the early frontrunner for the MVP? Neither do I. That's how long ago it's been. The quarterback's not been playing well here lately,

and any time the quarterback doesn't play well, it snowballs down the entire team. Now, they've had a ton of injuries. I'm not going to blame the injuries because now, Everybody's got them. But now they're starting to get some of those guys back. But I think the biggest fact that the reason the bucks have been slumping is their defense.

And it's kind of strange. Todd Bowles is a defensive head coach. But the defense just can't get any pressure without the head coach and the defensive coordinator blitzing people all the time, which leaves their secondary vulnerable in one-on-one coverage. So they got to get a little healthier. And it sounds like Mike Evans, McMillan and Tristan Worse will be back for tonight's game. But more importantly, their defense has to play better, especially, when they're a defensive-driven team with a defensive head coach.

All right. Speaking of the defenses, I mean, we've got bills at Patriots Sunday, and so much of the talk is about Drake May and the Patriots' offense. But, Booker, I want to ask you about the Patriots defense and whether you think they're going to be up to the task or not dealing with Josh Allen and the bills. I think they are. They've already done it one time, and they did it in Buffalo.

Now they get the bills at their house. in Foxborough. And this defense is really good because the first thing they do Mike is they stop the run. And if you stop the run of Buffalo, you're taking away one of their superstars and that's James Cook. They only have two. They got the quarterback and the running back. If you take one away,

now you're going to force Josh Allen to be Superman and put the cape on. So this Patriots defense is fundamentally sound. They're built the right way. They got a superstar corner in Christian Gonzalez. They got a couple of guys up front led by Christian Barmore at the defensive line spot Harold Landry.

They stop the run, they get after the quarterback, and they have a shutdown corner. And they have possibly the best coach, or at least the guy, who I think is going to win coach of the year this year and Mike Brable. So it's a really, really good defense. They're going to stop the run and see if Josh Allen can go into the phone booth and put the cape on and beat him. If he can, then the bills have a chance. But if he can't, then the Patriots will win this game. Sounds like you're leaning right now toward New England, Booger. Strong lean.

Strong lean, okay. We'll see if you tip your hand that much on this next question. The conference leading Broncos and the Rams host the Packers and Lions respectively. Do you like the chances of my NFC Central teams, both or neither in these matchups this weekend? You know what? If you put it to me like that, I'd probably choose neither. But if you told me I could pick one, I take the Packers because I love what Green Bay is doing. It's a team led by Jeff Hathley, the defensive coordinator.

They can absolutely get after you on defense. We all know about Michael Parsons, but it's so much more. It's Roshan Gary. It's Quay Walker. They got guys at every level. They can play shutdown defense. And I think the key is Jordan Love putting some points on the board. Because when you give a defense that can get out to the quarterback, a lead,

we start licking our chops. And so if Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love can put 17, 21 points on the board and make the Denver Broncos play from behind, then you're going to see Michael Parsons like you've never seen Michael Parsons before. I think he wants to get back into the conversation with Miles Garrett as far as defensive player of the year because Miles Garrett is running away with it right now. Michael Parsons needs one of those virtuoso performances

where he goes out and get three, four, five sacks. So let's see if they can get a lead where the quarterback can be affected by their defense. We will get you out of here on this and we waited for the last question to talk about Philip Rivers. Colts are at the Seahawks, really good defensive team.

If you were on the D-line and you saw a 44-year-old grandfather, Philip Rivers, behind center right across from you, you would feel what? And first of all, Philip Rivers got to be bored as hell, guys. Like, if you're 44, you got 10 kids and grandkids, why the hell you go and chase a football? Like, what is going on in Philip Rivers' life

and he wants to come play football some more? Like, I mean, seriously, that's number one. Number two, if I lined up and I looked over there, the first thing I'm going to say, hey, man, you must be really bored at home. How's life being a grandfather? And then I'm going to line up, and I'm going to do my best to put him in the turf time and time again. And I'm going to help him up because I don't want him to leave the game, because I want to keep hitting him over and over and over.

It's almost disrespectful, guys, for 2,500 guys to be playing this game and going through training camp. and for a guy that hasn't played football in five years to get off the couch and come and do what we've been doing, that's almost disrespectful, guys. There you have it, Tone. You asked, Booger answer. It's a pleasure, Booger. It is.

By the way, Wilbon, Booger's got a Congreyshirt on. Next time you're in South Carolina, have Booger take you there. Booger, thank you so much. Thank you, man. Appreciate you. Anytime. Let's take one last break still to come.

We praise the third. Thunder yesterday and then last night they won by the biggest margin of the season. Wow. Is that just coincidence? I don't think so. Michael Jeffrey Jordan and NASCAR settled their differences telling them no. You were just waiting around for that court ruling results or out of court. Well, did they settle or did it actually get adjudicated?

Happy time, people. Happy 33rd birthday Jacoby Rosset. Reset has been mostly a backup quarterback over his 10 seasons in the NFL. and has a ring for backing up Tom Brady on the 2016 Super Bowl Patriots. Preset apparently isn't traumatized by the designation as he appears in one of those terrific commercials for progressive insurance where they specifically call for a backup in a tense situation. Reset is now starting for Arizona after Kyla Murray went on injured reserve after five games. On November 16th and a loss of San Francisco,

Reset set an NFL record completing 47 passes and 57 attempts. Though he has yet to be handed the ball and told you're our guy, Brissette has started for New England, Indianapolis, Miami, Cleveland, and Arizona, where he's one in seven this year. Overall, Brissette is 20 and 41 as a starter. Tony, doesn't Brissette seem like this generation Steve DeBerg? In that, you know, I know backup kind of describes who he is, but he's better than that. And your team could need him.

You could need him and be damn happy to have him. anniversary, Tampa Bay Buccaneers on this day 48 years ago. The expansion Buccaneers beat New Orleans for their first NFL victory after an abysmal 0.26 start, the longest losing streak in NFL history. The first year the bucks were 0 and 14. Steve Spurrier went 0 and 12 at quarterback. It was during this year, as the story goes, that coach John McKay was asked, what do you think of your team's execution? And McKay said, I'm in favor of it. The victory over New Orleans, as the story goes, came after Saints quarterback, Archie Manning allegedly said losing to the Bucks would be disgraceful. Dutifully inspired by Manning's proclamation, the Bucks jumped to a 13-0 halftime lead. They were up 27-0 in the fourth quarter. Years later, Manning denied ever saying any such thing. How about starting quarterback Gary Huff going seven for nine for 96 yards? But they three defensive touchdown Tampa had two pick sixes.

Amazing. Seven for nine. How about that for quarterback range? Just figure that out. Happy Trails, the last night's game for the Suns. Phoenix fell to Oklahoma City by 49, the most lopsided loss in franchise history and the biggest blowout of the season. Reigning MVP, Shea Gilgis Alexander, skipped the fourth quarter. He's only played in 11 of them all season, and yet is still second in the league at scoring at nearly 33 points per game.

As a team, the Thunder's now 24-1, has a record average margin of victory of 17.4 points per game, and is 72 and 10 over its last 82 regular season. games. Perk predicts the Thunder will top the Warrior's single season record of 73 wins, hands down. Have you started to come around fully on Shade Gilgis Alexander? Because I know

you were saying, hold on, hold on, let's not go too fast. Are you there yet on him? He's a great player. Let's go quickly to the big finish. The Steelers A T. K. Watt was hospitalized after experiencing lung discomfort. Your thoughts? I got one thought. I hope his lung is okay. That's it. Close with Robert

is leaving the Padres to the Braves of Free Agency. That's significant, right? Yeah, he led the league. You had 40 saves last year. Yeah. NASCAR settled the antitrust suit filed by Michael Jordan and others. Your thoughts? NASCAR ultimately caved and granted all its teams the permanent charters they wanted.

Another win for Michael Jordan. The NWSL will vote on a proposal to allow teams to exceed the salary cap for stars. Does that make sense to you? They want to keep Trinity Rodman. Yeah, last one, Celtics bucks tonight. Who you got? You know our route from my man, Dr. Rivers, but man, they're struggling. Hard not to take to Celtics right now.

We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. Happy birthday to my sweet Babu, Elizabeth. Happy birthday, Lizzie. I'm Mike Wilbod. Same time tomorrow, knucklehead.