Michigan football has fired co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss, athletics director Warde Manuel announced on Friday.
“After a review of University policies, the athletic department has terminated the appointment of co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss,’ Manuel said in a statement released on Friday. ‘Consistent with university policy, we will have no further comment on this personnel matter.”
Weiss, 39, was placed on leave earlier this month after the University of Michigan police received a ‘report of computer access crimes’ that occurred in Schembechler Hall from Dec. 21-23. According to the department’s log, a university employee informed police about the incident on Jan. 5 and numerous reports have surfaced that authorities were seen going in and out of Weiss’ Ann Arbor home a few days later.
Michigan football team spokesman Dave Ablauf confirmed Weiss was on leave when news first broke on Jan. 17.
Minutes after Michigan released its statement, Weiss posted a message on social media:
‘I am proud of the success we achieved over the last two seasons and grateful to all of the Michigan players, coaches and staff,’ it read. ‘The potential of Team 144 knows no bounds.
‘I have nothing but respect for the University of Michigan and the people who make it such a great place. I look forward to putting this matter behind me and returning my focus to the game that I love.’
Weiss has been on staff with one of the Harbaughs, Jim or John, since 2007 when he was a graduate assistant at Stanford (2005-08), the latter two seasons under the now-Michigan head coach.
He then joined the Baltimore Ravens, led by John Harbaugh, and held more than half a dozen positions in his 12-year tenure: from head coach’s assistant (2008) and defensive assistant (2009-13) to coaching the linebackers (2014), cornerbacks (2015), assistant quarterbacks (2016-17), assistant wide receivers (2018) and running backs (2019-20).
He accepted the quarterback coaching job in 2021 at Michigan and helped lead the Wolverines to their first Big Ten championship in 17 years while Cade McNamara was named third team All Big Ten quarterback.
Last offseason, when Josh Gattis left Michigan for Miami (Florida), Weiss and Sherrone Moore were promoted to co-offensive coordinators. In 2022, Michigan went undefeated in the regular season, won the Big Ten again and made a second consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff. The Wolverines were sixth in the nation in scoring (40.4 points per game).
It’s the latest in a number of scandals surrounding the Michigan football program that date throughout the past season; from running back Donovan Edwards’ antisemitic retweet that was ‘a glitch’ to defensive lineman Mazi Smith’s gun charge, to an active NCAA investigation into Level I and Level II violations (impermissible contact with football recruits and coach Jim Harbaugh for ‘lying or misleading’ investigators(impermissible contact with football recruits and Harbaugh being accused of lying to investigators, which he denies).
The Wolverines will at minimum need to hire a quarterbacks coach or appoint someone from within the program to take over the position group.
It is unclear if Moore, coach of the Joe Moore Award-winning position group as the best offensive line in the country the last two seasons, will now become the solo offensive coordinator or if someone will join him in tandem.