ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Sherrone Moore’s rise was stirring, a rugged lineman at Oklahoma who climbed the ranks to lead Michigan, the winningest program in college football, and a rare Black head coach at the top of the sport.
“If you work your tail off, dreams can come true,” Moore said when he was hired nearly two years ago.
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FILE - Michigan coach Sherrone Moore walks off the field following an NCAA football game on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Al Goldis, File)
FILE - Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, left, and coach Jim Harbaugh watch the team's play against Indiana during an NCAA college football game in Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
FILE - Michigan acting head coach Sherrone Moore celebrates a 24-15 win over Penn State following an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger, File)
FILE - Michigan acting head coach Sherrone Moore reacts to a video replay during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Ohio State, Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/David Dermer, File)
His downfall has been stunning.
The 39-year-old Moore was fired and arrested in a matter of hours Wednesday, and remained jailed a day lafter ahead of an arraignment scheduled for Friday as police investigate an alleged assault. His firing was related to what the school called an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
Moore has been through a lot in his career, especially with the Wolverines. From being a late-bloomer on the field to a top coach in the sport, Moore's journey has been at times inspiring while peppered with scandal.
Moore is married with three young daughters. He is from Derby, Kansas, and didn’t start playing football until his junior year of high school. Moore played for Butler County Community College in Kansas and was an offensive lineman for coach Bob Stoops at Oklahoma during the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Moore’s coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Louisville in 2009 before moving on in 2014 to Central Michigan, where he caught then-Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s attention. Harbaugh hired him in 2018 as tight ends coach for the Wolverines.
Moore was promoted to offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator in 2021, when the Wolverines bounced back from a 2-4, pandemic-shortened season and began a three-year run of excellence that culminated in the school’s first national title in 26 years.
He was well-liked by players, who appreciated how often he smiled and engaged them in conversations about football and life.
“He is a dynamic, fierce and competitive individual who gets the best out of the players he mentors," athletic director Warde Manuel said when he hired Moore. "The players love playing for him and being with him in the building every day.”
Moore made the most of his first opportunity to lead the Wolverines, going 4-0, including a win over rival Ohio State, during the 2023 national championship season while Harbaugh served two suspensions for rules violations.
That helped to put him in a position to be promoted when Harbaugh returned to the NFL to lead the Los Angeles Chargers in January 2024.
“The only person I would want to do the job,” Harbaugh wrote in a text message that month. “I have 100% conviction that he will make us all very proud!!!”
Players on the team at the time, including former running back Donovan Edwards, privately lobbied Manuel to hire Moore.
“If anybody deserves it, it’s him," Edwards said then.
Moore was punished twice by the NCAA for rules violations. He was suspended for two games this year as part of self-imposed sanctions for NCAA violations related to the school's high-profile sign-stealing scandal. The NCAA added a third game to the suspension, which would have kept Moore off the sideline for next season's opener against Western Michigan.
Moore previously deleted an entire 52-message text thread with former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions, who was at the center of the team’s sign-stealing operation. The texts were later recovered and shared with the NCAA.
Moore also served a one-game suspension in 2023 due to recruiting infractions.
His debut season in 2024 got off to a rough start before rallying to win the last three games, including against the second-ranked Buckeyes and 11th-ranked Alabama in a bowl, to finish 8-5 overall and 5-4 in conference. His biggest win might have been landing heralded quarterback Bryce Underwood, one of the top recruits in the country.
Moore led the Wolverines to a 9-3 record this year, including a 7-2 mark in the Big Ten. They finished the regular season ranked No. 18 in the AP Top 25 with a Citrus Bowl bid against No. 14 Texas on Dec. 31. The program's four-game winning streak against archival and defending national champion Ohio State came to an end.
Moore signed a five-year contract with a starting base salary of $5.5 million last year. According to the terms of his deal, the university will not have to buy out the remaining years of his contract because he was fired for cause.
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FILE - Michigan coach Sherrone Moore walks off the field following an NCAA football game on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Al Goldis, File)
FILE - Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, left, and coach Jim Harbaugh watch the team's play against Indiana during an NCAA college football game in Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
FILE - Michigan acting head coach Sherrone Moore celebrates a 24-15 win over Penn State following an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger, File)
FILE - Michigan acting head coach Sherrone Moore reacts to a video replay during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Ohio State, Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/David Dermer, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rose to more records even as a sell-off for Oracle and worries about a potential bubble in artificial-intelligence technology weighed on the market. The S&P 500 edged up 0.2% Thursday to eke past the all-time closing high it set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.3% and topped its own record set last month. Weakness for AI-related stocks, though, weighed on the Nasdaq composite, which fell 0.3%. Gains for Eli Lilly, banks and smaller stocks helped offset a steep drop for Oracle, whose plans for increased spending on AI surprised analysts.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rising toward records on Thursday, even as a sell-off for Oracle and worries about a potential bubble in artificial-intelligence technology weigh on the market.
The S&P 500 inched up 0.2% and was on track to eke past its all-time closing high, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial leaped 664 points, or 1.4%, and was set to top its own record set last month. Weakness for AI-related stocks, though, dragged the Nasdaq composite down 0.2%, as of 2:50 p.m. Eastern time.
If the market does return to records, it would mark the latest time it’s powered through what had appeared to be a debilitating set of worries. Some of the most recent included concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates and whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data centers will produce profits and productivity as prolific as proponents are promising.
Such worries had sent Wall Street last month to some of its worst days since its sell-off during April, but several factors helped it regain its footing. Key among them was a continuing parade of companies saying they’re making bigger profits than analysts expected. Stock prices tend to track with corporate profits over the long term.
The Fed also on Wednesday cut its main interest rate for the third time this year and indicated another cut may be ahead in 2026. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can boost the economy and send prices for investments higher, even if they potentially make inflation worse.
The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, did hint that interest rates may be on hold for a while. But he helped soothe nerves when his comments appeared to be less harsh in shutting off the possibility of more cuts in 2026 than investors had expected.
Easier interest rates can give the biggest benefits to the smallest companies, which are more likely to be losing money and often need to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 1.2% to help lead the market.
Banks and other companies whose profits are most closely tied to the strength of the U.S. economy also rallied. Gains of 3% for Goldman Sachs and 6% for Visa were the two strongest forces pushing the Dow higher.
Eli Lilly rose 1.6% after announcing encouraging results from a clinical trial for adult patients who are obese or overweight and have knee osteoarthritis, without diabetes.
The Walt Disney Co. added 1.8% after OpenAI said the entertainment giant is investing $1 billion in it. It’s part of a three-year agreement that will also allow OpenAI to use more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters to generate short, user-prompted social videos.
Planet Labs PBC soared 36.8% after the provider of satellite images used by governments and businesses reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
But a return to records for the U.S. stock market would not mean all the worries are gone.
Oracle dropped 9.8% and had briefly been on track Thursday for its worst day since 2001, when the dot-com bubble was still deflating. It reported 14% growth in revenue for the latest quarter, which came up just short of analysts’ expectations, though its profit topped forecasts.
Doubts remain about whether all the spending that Oracle is doing on AI technology will be worth it. Analysts said they were surprised by how much Oracle may spend on AI investments this fiscal year, and questions continue about how the company will pay for it.
Such doubts are weighing on the AI industry broadly, even as many billions of dollars continue to flow in.
Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the poster child of the AI boom and is raking in close to $20 billion each month, fell 1.6% Thursday. It was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500.
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said it will continue to buy chips from Nvidia, but it’s now taking a policy of “chip neutrality,” where it will use “whatever chips our customers want to buy. There are going to be a lot of changes in AI technology over the next few years and we must remain agile in response to those changes.”
Also on the losing end of Wall Street was Oxford Industries. The company behind Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer dropped 21% after highlighting how its customers have been seeking out deals and are “highly value-driven.”
CEO Tom Chubb said the start of the holiday shopping season has been weaker than the company expected, and it cut its forecast for revenue for the full year.
Lower- and middle-income households are feeling the squeeze of high prices following years of high inflation, along with a slowing job market. That means a roughly 25% chance of a recession, according to Barry Bannister, chief equity strategist at Stifel.
Even all the spending underway for AI chips is “not enough to offset a consumer pull-back,” he said, and the U.S. stock market still broadly looks expensive relative to history.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said the number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week by more than economists expected. That’s a potential indication of rising layoffs.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.13%, where it was on late Wednesday and down from 4.18% on Tuesday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe after falling in much of Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index sank 0.9%, hurt by a sharp drop for SoftBank Group Corp., which is a major investor in AI.
AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
Specialists Alex Weitzman, left, and Meric Greenbaum work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader William Lawrence works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Gregg Maloney works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Michael Gallucci works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Financial information is displayed while traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A television on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, display a news conference with Fed chairman Jerome Powell, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
