Michigan football WRs aren't getting the ball. They're fine with that under one condition.

Perhaps Michigan football wide receiver Fredrick Moore said it best.

It was Tuesday night when the Wolverines' pass catcher had just wrapped up practice in the Al Glick Fieldhouse and walked through the double doors of Schembechler Hall holding a football to handle his media availability in the Towsley Museum.

Naturally, he was peppered with questions about the offense and its passing game, or lack thereof.

Moore led all wide receivers with 21 total yards on Saturday, yet he only caught one pass for 5 yards and had an end-around carry for 15 yards. The only other receiver to even touch the ball was Semaj Morgan, and he caught three screen passes for a total of 6 yards.

Moore was asked if he and his fellow receivers are hungry to contribute more. Although he agreed that everybody wants to help the team win, he explained he had no problems with how things went in Michigan's 27-24 upset of USC.

“We know what program we’re in, we know what system we’re in,” Moore said. “We know we’re going to have to run the ball. We have good running backs, and we have good wide receivers. It just depends on the week.

“As long as we get the (win). … If we have to run the ball, we’re just going to have to run the ball. I’ll just have to go out there and block. It’s really no frustration.”

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Against the Trojans, Michigan ran the ball 46 times and had just 12 pass attempts. It's all part of the plan as the team's new starting quarterback, Alex Orji, works his way in as U-M's new signal caller. He's quite different from pro-style drop-back passer J.J. McCarthy last year. Previous starter Davis Warren had similarities to McCarthy's game, but making big mistakes was his undoing and sent U-M back to the drawing board.

Now, the goal is simple. Possess the ball as long as possible, get points when possible, accept that punts have to happen, but most importantly: Do. Not. Turn. The. Ball. Over.

That leads to Orji, who succeeded in that job last week, despite completing just seven of 12 passes for 32 yards, the fewest in a Michigan win since Bo Schembechler patrolled the sidelines in 1987.

“They easily could have been crying on the sideline; asking for this, asking for that,” head coach Sherrone Moore said of the wideouts. “All they (said) was, ‘What do I gotta do to win?’ And that’s all we’re worried about. Those guys will get plays and those guys will make plays as the season goes on.”

Coaches have been saying that the receivers will get going, but after four weeks, there's little indication that Michigan has any true designs on featuring the wide receiver room. The season is now a third of the way over and Morgan is the leading wide receiver — and he only has 12 grabs for a paltry 62 yards (with half of those coming on his lone touchdown reception, against Texas backups).

Beyond that, Fredrick Moore has four catches for 43 yards on the season, C.J. Charleston and Peyton O'Leary each have a 22-yard grab and Kendrick Bell has two catches for 18 yards.

“I know we’re going to throw the ball more," Moore said. "But I know our job is also to go out there and block. And I enjoy blocking.”

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Moore, who had just finished catching 100 passes on the JUGS machine after U-M's practice (he says his goal is always to finish with one more grab on the machine than fellow wideout Bell), said he works on his craft every day, but once again cited U-M's "no block, no rock" mantra.

Much like an outfielder saying they prefer to rob a home run than hit one, on Tuesday, he equated a big block on the outside which springs a ball carrier loose for a big carry to "a 100-yard catch, for real. Or a touchdown. I just like seeing my teammates win.”

Moore might have to get used to the idea of others winning around him, based on current offensive splits. Orji, who has attempted 19 passes in his career, has never completed a throw more than 10 yards downfield.

The passing offense is currently 18th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten and 128th out of 133 teams nationally, averaging just 122.8 passing yards per game. It's hard to see that number going up based on the current gameplan, which leaves Wolverines such as Moore and Co. in line to block quite a bit the upcoming two months.

The receiver has embraced it. On 16 run-blocking snaps last week, Pro Football Focus had Moore graded out (90.6) quite well. The sophomore from Missouri admits he would be happy to be targeted in the pass game, but as long as the result is the same as Saturday, he's happy to line up and "run through somebody's face" as long as need be.

“I think the pass game has a lot of potential,” Moore said. “I know we are gonna throw the ball more, but I know that it’s a team sport, so I gotta go out there and block. I enjoy blocking. As we watch film, we know we can exploit a lot of things, but we know that we’re just going week by week. Same level-headed, game plan. … I always stay engaged because at the end of the day it’s a team sport."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football WRs aren't getting the ball. They're fine with that under one condition.