Michigan football made its third quarterback change of the season, with Alex Orji’s third start seeing him getting supplanted by seventh-year QB Jack Tuttle.
Tuttle was likely Michigan’s plan A for the season, but he battled injuries all spring and fall. Now that he’s healthy, head coach Sherrone Moore looks like he’ll be riding with the man who was the primary backup to J.J. McCarthy last season.
Moore said on the Monday night ‘Inside Michigan Football’ radio program that, at the moment, it appears that Tuttle will start for the Wolverines in two weeks when Michigan plays at Illinois.
“Right now it looks like Jack,” Moore said. “We’ll do everything we can to keep the competition going, but I think right now he gives us the best chance to win, and we’ll continue to process that as an offense, as a team, but that looks like the direction we’re heading.”
Down 14-0 with 9:38 left in the second quarter, Sherrone Moore took the baton from Orji and handed it to Tuttle. Tuttle went 10-for-18 for 98 yards with a touchdown, an interception, and a fumble recovered by the Huskies.
It was an up-and-down appearance as Tuttle’s insertion definitely gave Michigan a spark, but his two turnovers ended up being costly, as they led to the 10 Washington points that ultimately decided the game. Regardless, Moore says he mostly likes what he saw from his elder statesman and has had to quell his concerns after he committed the two turnovers that helped lead to the Michigan loss.
“I thought offensively, definitely, Jack Tuttle came in there and gave us a huge spark, and that was a positive,” Moore said. “The first three drives, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, and gave us a lot of momentum on offense, and he’s beating himself up still. I had to call him last night and tell him, ‘Hey, we got your back, you’re good.’
“And he only practiced for a week and a half, really. And to get him back was a huge boost for us, so we’ll continue to get better and build stuff around him to make him better and make our team better and let our other guys be playmakers.”
So, what happens if Tuttle struggles from here? Does Moore then turn the page to yet another quarterback? He isn’t fully sure at the moment, but he does have full confidence in Tuttle’s ability to go out and lead the team from here.
“We’ll see, I feel pretty good about Jack, and we just gotta keep molding him, keep him healthy, and keep him going.”
Michigan is on a bye week this week which gives it some time to figure out the pass game before it heads to Champaign to face Illinois in Week 8.