It’s been a rocky first season for Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, but Wolverine Football’s new, 38-year-old CEO just accomplished a feat that eluded his predecessor and mentor Jim Harbaugh and the legendary Bo Schembechler.

With Michigan’s 24-17 win over rival Michigan State on Saturday night, Moore became the first Wolverines head coach since Bennie Oosterbaan in 1948 to win his debut against the Spartans. Each of the previous six UM head coaches lost in their first meeting with MSU. including Harbaugh’s 27-23 loss in 2015 and Schembechler’s 23-12 loss in 1969.

Following the game, Moore spoke about the performance and what it meant to him personally.

“Unbelievable,” he said. “I mean, it means a lot to me. Every win means so much to me, winning anything for this program and winning a game for this program, but it means a lot to me to have that, to have that record. But really the most important thing is that we got the win and are ready to play next week.”

That 1948 season, Oosterban and the Wolverines opened their year with a 13-7 victory over Michigan State, en route to a perfect 9-0 season and a second straight national championship. Since then, however, Michigan’s head coaches had lost 6-0 in their debut games against MSU.

With former Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith taking over at Michigan State this past offseason, the 2024 meeting between the two rivals will be the first in which both programs have had first-year coaches since 1995, when the Spartans of Nick Saban defeated Lloyd Carr’s Wolverines, 28-25.

Other unfortunate results in Michigan head coaches’ first year against Sparty over the last 75 years include Bump Elliott’s 34-8 loss in 1959, Gary Moeller’s bitter 28-27 loss in 1990, the 35: Rich Rodriguez’s 21 loss in 2008 and Brady Hoke’s 28-14 loss in 2011.

However, Moore and the Wolverines bucked the trend on Saturday night, giving Michigan its third straight win over Michigan State, the Wolverines’ longest winning streak in the series since six games from 2002-07.

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