Michigan football: Tony Garcia and Rainer Sabin break down USC upset
‘Hail Yes!” Tony Garcia and Rainer Sabin break down Michigan football’s upset of USC on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.
After watching his team overtake USC with brute strength and prevail 27-24 last Saturday, Sherrone Moore reveled in the aftermath of his first major victory as Michigan football’s full-time head coach. The players mobbed him in the boisterous locker room following the triumph, jostling the 38-year-old former lineman in a burst of excitement.
“I’m not a small dude, so for them to throw me around, it took a lot of force and power,” he said.
Those same ingredients were also needed for the Wolverines to beat the favored Trojans, as U-M relentlessly pounded the rock on 46 of its 58 of its offensive plays while amassing 290 rushing yards. The decisive last touchdown drive, a 10-play, 89-yard march highlighted by eight punishing carries from Kalel Mullings, captured the essence of Michigan’s crude, no-frills strategy.
“I love it,” Moore said. “I loved every minute of it. It’s my dream to see it.”
But is Moore’s fantasy sustainable? That is the question that has been raised in the days since the Wolverines defied conventional norms by defeating a ranked opponent with seven completions and only 32 passing yards. It helps explain why the debut of Alex Orji as Michigan’s new starting quarterback last Saturday spawned a mix of emotions, generating hope from one segment of Michigan’s fan base and deep skepticism from another.
The optimists saw a mobile athlete who allowed the Wolverines to lean into their strengths and play a rugged, ball-control style geared toward limiting the possessions of their opponent. The pessimists came away thinking Orji’s effect was nothing more than a mirage and the victory Saturday materialized from a series of fortuitous events, including an early 14-point lead and a defensive touchdown by Will Johnson that saved the Wolverines from collapse in a frustrating second half. But Orji wasn’t willing to indulge the legion of doubters. When a reporter asked him whether he can have success as a quarterback if he couldn’t effectively throw the ball with consistent accuracy, he said, “It’s hard, but I guess it’s not impossible.”
MORE ON THE WOLVERINES: Michigan football didn’t need to throw for a throwback offense and victory
The victory against USC went a long way toward validating the long-held belief that Orji, more than any other quarterback on the current roster, was the most sensible option to lead a team that didn’t have any proven skill players on the outside and was in the process of breaking in five new starters on the offensive line. The most accomplished players still in the fold after a mass offseason exodus were tight end Colston Loveland and a pair of running backs, Mullings and Donovan Edwards. The prevailing thought was that Orji, who had carried the ball 21 times but had only one attempted one pass during his first two seasons in Ann Arbor, appeared capable of spearheading an extreme version of a Jim Harbaugh-inspired offense that featured a power running game and heavier personnel packages.
“You have to play to the talents of the guys you have on your team,” former Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson told the Free Press earlier this week. “If you’ve got a good defense and you run the ball, it keeps you in the game, and it frustrates the other team because they don’t get as many turns.”
Johnson knows a thing or two about that. Back in 2018, during his final season with the Yellow Jackets, he was in charge of the last Power Four team that ran more than 70% of the time. In an age of high-octane passing offenses, Johnson went against the modern football orthodoxy and used the triple option to bulldoze teams. In 11 years at the ACC school, he averaged 7.5 wins per season, won the conference’s Coastal division four times and once led the Yellow Jackets to a final AP top-ten ranking.
“I was always surprised that more people didn’t try to do it,” he said. “We just had a scheme and played to it. … The biggest thing is just to play to your personnel.”
Moore had to learn that lesson the hard way after experimenting with Davis Warren as the starting quarterback in the first three games. Warren was more of a traditional pro-style passer in the mold of J.J. McCarthy, who guided the Wolverines to a national title last winter and then was selected in the first round of the NFL draft this past April. But unlike McCarthy, he wasn’t surrounded by an experienced supporting cast that featured a seasoned blocking front, a star running back like Blake Corum and a playmaker at wideout, Roman Wilson.
Warren, not surprisingly, struggled as an underwhelming corps of receivers often failed to gain separation from defensive backs and faulty pass protection on the edges exposed him to pressure. Warren then exacerbated the problems by making risky throws. By the time he was benched in the second half of a lackluster victory over Arkansas State, six of his 72 attempts had been intercepted. The turnovers compromised a defense that was forced to play more snaps than it typically did last year, when it led the nation in fewest yards and points allowed per game.
“And complementary football is always the best football,” standout defensive tackle Mason Graham noted. “Them helping us makes our job easier. And us helping them makes our job easier.”
While Orji completed only seven of his 12 attempts Saturday, none of his throws were caught by the Trojans. He also led an offense that created a 6½-minute advantage in time of possession during a dominant first half that was the polar opposite of the disastrous opening two quarters in Michigan’s loss to Texas. The seeds of that defeat were sown during the first 30 minutes of action, when Michigan committed two turnovers and the Longhorns held the ball almost twice as long as the Wolverines did.
NO TURNOVERS: Alex Orji did jobs No. 1 and 2 for Michigan vs. USC. There’s major room to grow from there
“Protecting the football is essential,” Orji said. “The football is the program.”
Both, as Orji understands, are now in his hands.
Whether he has what it takes to lead the Wolverines back to the College Football Playoff for the fourth straight year is uncertain.
But when asked if Orji is the right quarterback for this particular Michigan team, Moore responded quickly.
“Yep,” he said.
Moore didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind that conclusion until he was pressed. But Johnson helped fill in the blanks anyway.
“If you execute and take care of the ball,” the former coach said, “then you’ve got a chance.”
That’s how Michigan defied convention to earn a surprising and intriguing victory Saturday that left everybody curious about what the future holds for Orji and the run-heavy offense he now directs.
As the quarterback said, “I think we’ve got a lot more to see. I can’t tell you exactly what it is or what it’ll be. But if we stick around, we’ll find out.”
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin.
Next up: Golden Gophers
Matchup: No. 12 Michigan (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) vs. Minnesota (2-2, 0-1).
Kickoff: Noon Saturday; Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor.
TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).
Line: Wolverines by 9.
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Publish date : 2024-09-24 23:12:00
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