Ann Arbor — Throughout Michigan’s camp, the quarterback competition seemed to leave head coach Sherrone Moore and offensive coordinator/quarterback coach Kirk Campbell hopeful as well as delighted.
There also were the ups and downs that competition for a starting position can bring. One day Alex Orji seemed to have the edge. The next day Davis Warren had the edge. One will win the starting job when No. 9 Michigan opens the season Saturday night against Fresno State, but both likely will play.
“You look back at camp, you’re like, ‘Ah, maybe it’s this guy. Maybe it’s this guy. Maybe it’s this guy,’” Moore said this week of the quarterbacks on the “Inside Michigan Football” radio show. “They just keep both making plays, whether it’s throwing or running the football, and both of them are doing both.”
Moore told reporters earlier this week he wanted to see how the two practiced this week with the first- and second-string offense before making the final call on who will start. That might be something he said he will want to make public before kickoff; then again, he may just wait until the offense takes the field against the Bulldogs.
“It’ll really be the guy that practices with the most consistency, making the best decisions, taking care of the football and make enough plays,” Moore said on the radio show. “Who’s gonna execute with the most consistency?”
Michigan has been searching since spring practice for replacement for two-year starter J.J. McCarthy, who led Michigan the last two years to two Big Ten championships, two College Football Playoff berths and a national championship last season. Campbell and Moore decided to not pursue a transfer-portal quarterback.
Orji is 6-foot-3, 245 pounds and Warren, 6-2, 195, and while Jack Tuttle, a transfer from Indiana before the 2023 season, appeared to be in the mix, he was slowed by an undisclosed injury during camp. Orji last season had 15 carries for 86 yards and a touchdown and helped prep the Michigan defense to face Alabama’s dual-threat Jalen Milroe in the Rose Bowl national semifinal. Warren appeared in three games last season and was 0-of-5 passing and had two carries. During his career, Warren is 5-of-14 for 89 yards and one interception and also last season, he gave the scout-team look before the national title game playing the role of left-hander Michael Penix Jr. Warren is a right-hander.
They give the offense different looks. Orji is more of a threat as a runner, as witnessed by the packages in which he was used the last two seasons, and Warren has a big arm.
Moore and Campbell have spoken of the closeness of this quarterback room and the support they show one another. Orji, at a camp this summer, told The Detroit News that’s what has made the competition so enjoyable.
“It’s awesome that we all want to see each other be the best quarterback possible,” Orji said, “because at the end of the day, I don’t think any of us really committed to being a starter in Michigan. We committed to just helping the Michigan football team win.”
Running back Ben Hall said Orji is shaped by his thoroughness and attention to detail.
“His processes are huge to him, and so when someone’s telling you that they want you to do something else, he’s sticking with it,” Hall said. “He knows what he wants to do it his life. That’s in everything he does. He’s a dog in everything he does, and when he makes a decision to do something, he’s gonna do it to the fullest of his capability.”
That’s also certainly the case with Warren, a cancer survivor. He was diagnosed with leukemia in March, 2019 and underwent grueling chemotherapy. He never gave up on wanting to play football. By August 2019, Davis rang the cancer-free bell and headed back to school where he worked to get his strength back. He transferred to the Suffield Academy in Connecticut in early 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the football season, and trying to get recruited became all about word of mouth.
Steve Casula, Michigan’s first-year tight ends coach, was an offensive analyst with the Wolverines and learned of Warren. Warren would be offered preferred walk-on spots at Duke and Michigan. He arrived in Ann Arbor in the summer of 2021.
“To know Davis Warren, if you know him on a personal level and what he’s been through, that kid’s a fighter,” Moore said this week. “So you knew it was not just gonna be given to anybody, so they had to go earn it. And he’s earned the opportunity to compete for it, and that’s what he’s been doing.”
Warren, in a lengthy interview with The Detroit News in November 2022, said his cancer journey completely reshaped him.
“The way that I look at what I’ve gone through, it’s almost like a blessing, because it’s changed how I view the way I go about my day-to-day life in so many ways,” Warren told The News. “It’s a competitive advantage for me, because if I can go through that, then what can’t I do? I’m willing to dig a little bit deeper and do a little bit more and be a little bit more grateful and that can give me just that one extra rep or that one extra this or that, and maybe that’ll be the difference. Me being sick definitely set me back in my career and my path, but now I’m in the spot where I’m at now where all my goals are in front of me. It’s pretty cool.”
Warren and Orji have their goals right in front of them as they head into this season as the leading candidates to start at quarterback.
Moore has made clear the decision made for the season opener may not be the one that sticks for the rest of the season.
“It’s so hard to say that because you need two that can really play, and you just gotta see how the guy plays in the first game,” Moore said on the radio show. “If it’s consistent enough to help you win the next one, then yeah, it is. We’re lucky with J.J. We knew he was gonna be consistent enough to win the next game, so for us, it’s gonna be who’s gonna be consistent enough to help us win the game. Not just manage the game, but sometimes you’re gonna have to make a play on third down. You have to make a play in the red zone to do things to help us win. Who’s gonna do that is ultimately gonna be the starting quarterback.”
achengelis@detroitnews.com
@chengelis
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Publish date : 2024-08-29 16:01:00
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