Interim coach Biff Poggi wants chance to fix 'malfunctioning' Michigan

Interim head coach Biff Poggi interviewed with Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, using the opportunity to insist he's the right man to repair the tattered reputation of the program.

"It's been five years of a malfunctioning organization. Let's call it what it is, it's happened every year," Poggi said Monday. "The athletic director doesn't want any more of that. There will be a massive self-examination of what's happened in this building."

What's happening in the building is under investigation and Manuel is leading the search for a new head coach. But Manuel might not stick around, pending the results of an independent review of the department following the firing of head coach Sherrone Moore on Dec. 10.

"I'm being considered. I've had multiple interviews, multiple conversations," Poggi said of the process. "Nobody knows what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen. I just appreciate being considered."

Players have a window to transfer afforded by NCAA rules because of the coaching change, which is one of the reasons Manuel provided Poggi for setting his timeline to name a permanent head coach between Christmas Day and Michigan's bowl game against Texas on Dec. 31.

"Everything that happens in this building has to be reevaluated, because it's not up to standard," Poggi said.

He said he believes he'll be the right man for the job in the end because "I know what the hell I'm doing."

Poggi was named interim head coach when Moore was fired with cause by the Wolverines for having an extramarital relationship with a subordinate in the football program. While Poggi is preparing Michigan for the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, Moore's tumultuous two-year run since being hired to replace Jim Harbaugh wrapped in scandal.

Harbaugh hit the exits for the NFL after a 15-0 season in 2023 marred by the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal netted Michigan a national championship and a trove of penalties from the NCAA.

The NCAA issued show-cause penalties for Harbaugh and Moore, reduced the program's scholarship allotment and fined the university to-be-tabulated amounts from bowl proceeds and profit sharing from the Big Ten.

A female staffer alleged to have had an affair of approximately two years with Moore told police the 39-year-old coach grabbed and pointed knives at her during a home invasion on the day of his firing.

Authorities recorded the statement of the female staffer disclosing her relationship with Moore, who is married with three children, to the university hours earlier. She said her intent was to leave town when an emotional Moore barged into her apartment.

Moore has not been charged with assault related to the knife allegations, but county investigators said last week they are still reviewing evidence.

Anything but the typical college football coaching candidate, Poggi's full name is Francis Xavier Poggi, and he's worth millions.

Poggi played football at Duke and Pitt and was a college coach at Brown, The Citadel and Temple before he said he was needed back in Maryland on a full-time basis to care for his ailing mother. He started Samuel James Limited, a hedge fund and investment firm, in 1986 and over more than two decades the value of the company grew to "hundreds of millions," Poggi told ESPN.

Poggi, 65, went 6-16 as the head coach at Charlotte in less than two years before returning to Michigan. He was an assistant under Harbaugh and rejoined the Wolverines as assistant head coach to Moore.

"This place is magical, and the program means a lot to me," he said. "It's one of the things I want to fix before I go smoke myself to death with a cigarette. I want to fix this program."

--Field Level Media