After an underwhelming showing by their offense through the first three weeks of the season, Michigan is making a change at quarterback.
At his weekly Monday press conference, head coach Sherrone Moore announced that Alex Orji will get the start at QB over Davis Warren when the Wolverines begin their in-conference schedule this Saturday against USC.
Warren, who was announced as the team’s starter over the likes of Orji and Jack Tuttle less than an hour before their season opener against Fresno State, has struggled to find any prosperity as the leader of this offense. Through his first three starts, Warren’s thrown 2 touchdowns to 6 interceptions – including three against Arkansas State last Saturday, with the last one leading to the true freshman getting benched late in the third quarter. The production through the air hasn’t helped to inspire confidence that Warren simply needs to ‘protect the football,’ either. For the season, he’s averaging 148 passing yards per game on a total of 72 dropbacks.
With Orji elevated to the starting role, Michigan will look to leverage his playmaking ability outside the pocket and, hopefully, create more opportunities for their two-headed monster in the backfield: Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings.
“He’s chomping at the bit,” Moore said of Alex Orji at Monday’s presser. “He’s had a great couple of weeks in practice. Excited to see what (Alex) is gonna do. He’s been in here studying his tail off.”
Despite the announcement that the team is giving Orji the reins going forward, Moore made it clear that Warren still has the support of his teammates and coaches.
“We’ll continue to support him. He’s one of the players on our team. We’re always going to support our players, but at the end of the day we’ve gotta play the guys who we think are gonna help us win.”
Michigan hosts USC this week with kickoff at 3:30 pm EST.
