Pete Thamel expects Michigan to search for a transfer quarterback for 2025

Michigan will play its second game against a top-15 opponent this season when it hosts No. 11 USC Saturday. It will also start its second quarterback, this time rolling with Alex Orji instead of Davis Warren.

ESPN insider Pete Thamel believes 2024 is a “bridge year” at quarterback for the No. 18 Wolverines, who are trying to replace the No. 10 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, J.J. McCarthy. In other words, Thamel expects Michigan to search for a transfer quarterback this offseason.

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“This is a bridge year at quarterback for Michigan, and this is a byproduct of them being spoiled by their success,” Thamel said Wednesday on the “College GameDay Podcast” with colleague Rece Davis. “A year ago at this time, J.J. McCarthy going pro just wasn’t a conversation — at least J.J. McCarthy being the 10th pick in the draft was not a conversation. He could have gone pro, but he had not played to the level. Even in mid-November last year, people weren’t staunchly standing on the table.”

Thamel continued: “Supposedly he had one of the greatest pro days, like, in the history of the world. So, again, that late surge, combined with Jim Harbaugh’s collegiate ambivalence, as he was looking at the NFL, left Michigan in flux a little bit here. So I really think that when you look at Michigan right now, they just kind of got caught, and they did make some portal/non-portal forays at the end of spring. And the unfortunate part for Alex Orji is the reason [he wasn’t] the starter is he’s very limited in the pass game, and I think we’ve seen that in the small sample size we’ve had of him.”

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Orji, originally a four-star recruit from Sachse, Texas, arrived at Michigan as the No. 390 overall prospect, including the No. 12 athlete, in the 2022 class. Last year, he provided the Wolverines a change of pace at quarterback, coming in for McCarthy at times and recording 15 carries for 86 yards and a touchdown.

Although Orji scattered 17 offensive snaps across six games last year, according to Pro Football Focus, he didn’t attempt a single pass.

Orji’s thrown only six passes this season, and he’s 3-of-6 for 15 yards and two touchdowns. Now he’s replacing Warren, who posted just a 2:6 touchdown-to-interception ratio and threw for only 444 yards in his three starts.

“It will be interesting to see if they go full on, ‘We have a running quarterback who will occasionally pass,’ and really just try to take a Penn State type game plan, shorten the game, run the ball, use him on 3rd-and-short to run and do that,” Thamel said, referencing when Michigan ran the ball on its last 32 straight plays of a Sherrone Moore-led win over the Nittany Lions last season.

“Davis Warren was the starting quarterback at Michigan because he gave them an element in the pass game that made it functional, but he’s just simply not good enough to be Michigan’s quarterback. Alex Orji, I’m obviously skeptical of, so I just think we’re about to see Michigan sort of dawdle through the rest of this season and really arm up and gear up to get the best quarterback in the portal they can next year. You hope for the young men that they can get better and improve and do that. But that is the path we are on.”