Alex Orji named starting QB for Michigan football vs. USC

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — What was expected in the preseason for Michigan football will soon be a reality.

The expectation all offseason was that Alex Orji would be the Wolverines starting quarterback but there was a late surprise when Davis Warren ended up beating him out. However, after throwing six interceptions in three games, head coach Sherrone Moore is making a change.

“Yeah, Alex will start on Saturday,” Moore said. “Excited for him. He’s been in here champing at the bit, so we’ll move on from there.”

Given Warren’s struggles, the move makes sense. But what has Orji done in order to get to a place where the staff trusts him to be the starting quarterback?

Moore says that Orji was good in camp and has a lot of intangibles, it’s just that Warren was performing a little better behind the scenes. But he has full confidence in Orji’s capability at running the offense.

“Yeah, just hitting the range, perform like he did in the first couple weeks of camp,” Moore said. “Like I said, thought he was in a really good place, and Davis outperformed him in camp at the end. And would love to see him take the reins and do what he’s been doing through those first couple weeks and think he will. He’s had a great couple weeks of practice. So has Davis, but obviously (Alex is) outperforming in the game, and excited to see what Alex is going to do. And he’s been in here, studying his tail off the past couple days, like he always is. But you can see it ramped up even more.”

Many think that Orji is basically a runner only. And given how he’s been deployed thus far, it’s a fair assessment.

Before this year, Orji had only attempted one pass, and he’s been hit or miss being asked to throw this year. He does have two touchdowns, both made on a bootleg to the right where he throws into the flat, but he missed a similar throw late in Week 1. Even so, Moore has full confidence in his arm.

“I mean, he can throw,” Moore said. “I mean, he didn’t connect on the deep ball, but you saw that he has the strength to let it go down there. So that takes timing, that throw. All about his footwork. People don’t know, like, if you don’t take the right footwork in your hips, then the ball gets overthrown. So for him, he knew exactly what he needs to fix. And he was out there yesterday throwing for an hour or so, tried to tell him, like, ‘Dude, you gotta rest. Gotta get to the game.’ So we’ll be ready to go.”