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Who is Biff Poggi? Meet Michigan's acting head coach while Sherrone Moore serves 2-game suspension

Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore announced on Monday that associate head coach Biff Poggi will fill in as acting head coach for the Wolverines' next two games.

Moore will sit out Michigan's next two games while serving a two-game suspension that the program imposed amid an NCAA investigation into advance scouting allegations regarding stealing play-calling signs from opposing offensive and defensive coaches.

"We'll operate as a collective unit," Moore told reporters, via On3's Clayton Safdie. "Chip [Lindsey] will handle the offense, Wink [Martindale] will handle the defense. J.B. [Brown] will handle the special teams. But the overall operation, coach Biff Poggi will stand in as interim. It'll flow like normal. Obviously, I won't be on the sideline."

The Wolverines will play Central Michigan and Nebraska during Moore's absence. He will be suspended for a third game next season as part of NCAA sanctions punishing Michigan for its sign-stealing scheme involving former staffer Connor Stalions. Moore was penalized for deleting 52 text messages from Stalions following a Yahoo Sports report on the alleged rules violations.

Poggi, 65, was rehired by Michigan after leaving the program to become the head coach at Charlotte. He was fired midway through last season by the 49ers after compiling a 6-16 record. Prior to that, Poggi served as an associate head coach under Jim Harbaugh from 2021-22. He also worked an analyst for the Wolverines in 2016 before leaving to coach high school football at Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore.

Before his 39-year career in coaching, Poggi worked in finance as a hedge fund manager for his father-in-law's company, Samuel James Limited. He began as an assistant at Brown, Temple and The Citadel before becoming the offensive coordinator at Gilman School in Baltimore. After eight years in that role, Poggi moved up to head coach for a 19-year tenure.

Poggi was credited as a key figure in Michigan turning its football program around after going 2-4 during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

“He’s kind of like the consigliere,” former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, now the Seattle Seahawks' head coach, told The Athletic's Bruce Feldman. “He’s really the only guy that is willing to hash it out with [Harbaugh].”

During his career as a head coach, Poggi — an offensive lineman in college — drew attention for his preference of wearing shirts with cutoff sleeves while on the sideline (cut higher than Bill Belichick's signature hooded sweatshirt sleeves).

However, Moore definitively answered "yes" when asked if Poggi will be in sleeves during his two games as Michigan's acting head coach.

Following a loss to Oklahoma last Saturday, Michigan (1-1) dropped eight spots to No. 23 in this week's AP Top 25 college football poll.

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