ANN ARBOR, Mich. — With A.J. Henning and Ronnie Bell no longer Michigan Wolverines, Michigan football is in the market for a new kick returner in 2023. Naturally, that means the maize and blue are trying out multiple options in fall camp, many of whom are established, enigmatic athletes.
On Tuesday, Jim Harbaugh ran through the options, and some surprising names were mentioned.
“Right now that’s a good competition,” Harbaugh said. “Mike Sainristil, Kalel Mullings, Donovan Edwards has been really good in punt return. Jake Thaw — right there at the top. Keshaun Harris, Karmello English, Tyler Morris.
“Kick returner: Kalel, Roman Wilson, Eamonn Dennis could be extremely, extremely good.”
While seeing Donovan Edwards returning kicks or punts would be interesting — and it’s a role he would likely thrive in — there was no name more particularly intriguing than Alex Orji.
Entering his second year in the program, Orji is a backup quarterback, but he’s built like a linebacker. Harbaugh mentioned him as a unique option, provided the blocking gets better from those around him.
“Also a secret plan for Alex Orji,” Harbaugh said. “Got a chance to be maybe one of the greatest kick returners of all time. Big 230-235 pound guy, so he just started doing it, we’ll see how it goes. He’s also excelling at quarterback. So there’ll be some decisions that have to be made. We have to improve in our kickoff return blocking before I would agree to have Alex Orji returning the kick.”
Orji is interesting. The 237-pounder just made Bruce Feldman’s “freaks list” at No. 50 overall. Via The Athletic: ($)
The 6-3, 237-pound sophomore quarterback ranks No. 1 on the team in its cumulative KPI score, which is made up of 48 Key Performance Indicators they use to track frame analysis: flexibility/mobility; strength/power; and agility/speed. Orji vertical-jumped 41 inches and did 2.34 in the reactive plyo stairs; broad-jumped 10-6; and did 3.97 in the shuttle and 6.65 in the 3-cone. On the field, the Texas native ran for two touchdowns and completed one pass in mop-up duty in 2022.
Harbaugh also noted another similar player who could contribute, but he appears particularly tantalized by the quarterback’s potential.
Again, however, it depends less on Orji and more on the players around him.
“So there’s a bit of a challenge there going on. It’s made for quite a bit of excitement and enthusiasm that your kickoff return blockers have seen what Alex can do as a kick returner,” Harbaugh said. “But the challenge is on them to get better at their fundamentals and their techniques and give him a chance to because if he can if we can make it happen, it’d be really special.
“But I mean Kalel Mullings is very similar in that role. But yeah, there’s some excitement there.”
Fans may (key word may) get an opportunity to see Orji return kicks as soon as the Sept. 2 season opener, which will kick off at noon EDT at The Big House. The game will be available via streaming on Peacock.
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