Editor’s note: Visit detroitnews.com on Saturday night for Angelique S. Chengelis’ wider-ranging interview with Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel.
Ann Arbor — Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said he felt “betrayed” and “hurt” by former head football coach Sherrone Moore, who lied during an initial investigation into an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
Manuel fired Moore on Dec. 10, 2025, after an external investigation found Moore was having an affair with his executive assistant, Paige Shiver. According to Moore’s termination letter signed by Manuel, he violated the “morality and public decency” clause in his contract and also lied during “investigative interviews.”
“I felt betrayed,” Manuel told The Detroit News this week when asked his reaction to what transpired with Moore during a lengthy interview. “It’s the best word that I can use. I felt hurt for all the staff and the student-athletes and the university, because it’s something that I had talked about as it related to the expectations of our employees in athletics and for the university.”
Manuel said he had spoken to the athletic department, which includes his staff and coaches, about previous misconduct issues at Michigan involving former university president Mark Schlissel, who was fired for having an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, and former UM provost Martin Phlibert, fired for sexual misconduct.
“I thought I was very clear about my expectations and about the outcomes if something like that would happen,” Manuel said. “I had known Sherrone since he got here (in 2018 when he was hired as an assistant coach), believed in him as a leader, believed that my staff is doing things the right way, and I felt hurt, and I felt betrayed by it. It was personal, but it was also, I want to emphasize, (personal) for so many people that were affected by it. And it’s hard as a leader to have to enforce discipline on people that you care about and that you believe in, but it has to be done.”
Not long after Moore was fired, he was arrested that same day after he allegedly entered Shiver’s home without permission and threatened her and himself with kitchen butter knives. Moore was originally charged with third-degree home invasion, misdemeanor stalking and misdemeanor breaking and entering, but all three charges were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Earlier this week, Moore was sentenced to 18 months of probation by Ann Arbor 14A District Court Judge Cedric Simpson and avoided jail time.
“There are a lot of people who claim to be callous, who say, ‘Oh, you should have fired him when the rumor was there,’” Manuel said, referring to rumors about Moore’s inappropriate conduct. “But you can’t just fire people on rumors with no evidence. So when the evidence was presented, it was a sense of betrayal and hurt for everybody who was going to be involved with a decision. Players, coaches, their families. Everybody.”
The outside law firm that investigated Moore’s relationship also is looking into the culture of the athletic department, which Manuel said he requested of Michigan’s interim president Domenico Grasso. Manuel acknowledges the athletic department has had a number of incidents, including Moore’s situation, two NCAA investigations into the football program, and former football co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss, who is facing 24 federal charges related to a multi-year, wide-scale hacking scheme targeting student-athlete databases, among others.
“If any leader has had some of the issues that we’ve had, and they don’t say, ‘How can we be better?’ then I think they’re just putting their heads in the sand,” Manuel said. “I’m not going to put my head in the sand and pretend that these things are not happening. It was my conversation with the president the next morning (after Moore’s firing) to ask for some assistance to figure out how to improve, not a quote, unquote investigation into the problems that we have here. You can’t have the success of our teams without having a culture that is solid.”
Michigan has, since Moore’s firing, hired Kyle Whittingham as head football coach and seen a number of program successes, including men’s ice hockey reaching the Frozen Four, the women’s basketball team having a historic season and advancing to the Elite Eight, and the men’s basketball team winning the national championship.
“The success they’ve had, it’s something to be very proud,” Manuel said. “I smile about the success we’ve had even through all the issues with adversity that we’ve had. I think that even makes it sweeter in the way that everybody’s still pulling together to drive success and to get through it. It’s really been exciting and special.”
@chengelis
