Tag: Jack Tuttle

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It’s usually never a good sign if you’re halfway through a college football season and are on your third starting quarterback. However, for first-year Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore, he’s hoping third time is a charm.

If seventh-year quarterback Jack Tuttle, who served as J.J. McCarthy’s backup last year, had stayed healthy this offseason, the strong likelihood is that he would have been the starter from the beginning. However, due to his injuries, he didn’t get an opportunity to see the field until Week 6 at Washington.

And even with that, Moore says it wasn’t a ‘crash course’ of sorts for Tuttle, it was more just getting his feet wet in an actual game now that he’s back healthy.

“Even though he didn’t practice, he’s been in meetings,” Moore said. “He’s been out there, so he’s seen it, he’s done it. He just hasn’t been able to practice and do all the things at full speed. And, obviously, throwing, the timing, and all that. So from the perspective of knowing and understanding the system, no, but getting the most, getting the things done, and timing with the receivers and the tight ends and timing the handoffs and all those things, that’s what he had to really progress at. And he did a really good job.”

The switch from Alex Orji to Tuttle wasn’t one that was made lightly, and not making change for the sake of change.

Players noted that Tuttle gave the offense a spark, and part of that was his calm demeanor, having been in college football for so long and understanding what it takes to lead an offense. Though Orji has immense, yet undeveloped, talent, Tuttle entered the Washington game as someone who’s been there, done that, and it showed in terms of his poise and ability to engineer drives.

“He’s been who he’s been,” Moore said. “Obviously, he hadn’t practiced for a whole length of time, and got to practice and played in the game. They call him Uncle Jack, a seventh-year guy that’s done it, seen it, been in the big game, been in all the games. So did a really good job, and he just continues to progress and do those things right now.”

Of course, he did have two turnovers — a fumble and an interception. They were costly and they directly correlated to the 10 points that Michigan lost by in Week 6.

Moore diagnosed the turnovers and says they aren’t big systemic issues with Tuttle. It’s more about honing in on some details both at his position and with the pass catchers. And he’s confident they’ll have those things fixed as the team progresses.

“I looked at everything,” Moore said. “The biggest thing in the picks was either route distribution and timing of the throw, protection was one — that really was that. And so when you get a mistimed route and a mistimed throw, that’s what happens.

“So we got to really focus on again, the little things around detail, the precision of the throw, the precision of the route, making sure those things are all timed up, and then putting guys in a position to make sure they’re successful. So moving guys around in different places, which I think we did a really good job with this past week. And excited to see them as we practice this week, though.”

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.