ANN ARBOR, Mich. — There’s been a lot of consternation surrounding Michigan football, even after unexpectedly beating the formerly 11th-ranked USC Trojans on Saturday, and much of it has to do with the state of the offense.
A lot of message board fodder has surrounded the question of Alex Orji’s viability at quarterback. After all, Michigan only had him attempt 12 passes on Saturday, and he only managed 32 yards through the air. But as the team moves forward, head coach Sherrone Moore insists that Orji will remain the starting quarterback moving forward and that he was pleased with his performance in Week 4.
“Alex will be the starter again and there’s definitely more to the game and more things that we have to complement for him and for the offense,” Moore said. “But I thought he did a good job, took care of the football for us, which was the No. 1 thing we wanted, and was a great team player. Did all the things we asked him. Ran it extremely hard when he asked him to, so proud of him, proud of his performance.”
To this point, Michigan had really only used Orji as a chess piece, brought in to run the ball. And when he was tasked with this, more often than not, he was successful. But now it’s an entirely different offense with him running point, as he’ll need to do more than he was previously asked to do.
Moore says that the Wolverines will gradually and continually add more to Orji’s plate as the weeks progress, but that the plan is for him to retain the starting position, so long as he takes care of the football.
“It was good to get that first experience as a starter and play, especially a big-time game and great atmosphere like it was on Saturday,” Moore said. “So yeah, there’s a good bit that we can add and things that we can do to complement the running game. And not that the running game was successful, but we want to be balanced. And we’ve had years in the past where we’ve had those games like that, that we’ve had to win like that, and not afraid to win like that, as long as we win. So we’ll definitely just keep rolling.”
Passing for just 32 yards is unordinary, but it’s no aberration. We’ve seen multiple Michigan games in the recent past where the Wolverines don’t attempt to do much, and don’t throw downfield.
That was the game plan this past week, as the offense didn’t often require Orji to make throws too far beyond the line of scrimmage. But as we’ve seen in previous years (like against Washington in 2021 with 44 yards passing, or last year against Penn State with 60 yards passing) that those types of games are situational.
Now, of course, there are some impediments. The receiving corps doesn’t often get open, and Colston Loveland was out vs. USC. But Michigan will need to find ways to do like Alabama did with Jalen Milroe (his first start came in 2022, when he was 12-for-19 for 111 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception against Texas A&M) by increasing his workload over time.
Moore says that Orji will get more adept in the passing game now that he has one full game under his belt and that he’s confident that the Wolverines will find ways to move the ball outside of the run game.
“Yeah, I think the continual confidence of being to start the second game — I think it’s huge, and there’s nothing like experience and continue to do it,” Moore said. “And he’s already a confident kid. But I think as you continue progressing, see that you can do it, you make those throws, you make those down-the-field throws, and do those things in practice, and then at least in the game, those will show up even more. So just ready for him to keep the confidence and keep the level of confidence up for him.”