Michigan OC Kirk Campbell names starting QB traits that will define the job
The Michigan Wolverines are getting ready to break fall camp with an ongoing quarterback battle that seems destined to linger into the regular season opener on Aug. 31 vs. Fresno State.
The race has been between three guys – junior Alex Orji, senior Davis Warren and graduate Jack Tuttle – over the course of the offseason. The fall camp battle has centered on Orji and Warren, and the guy who wins the job will have the intangibles set out by the coaching staff, even if the offense takes a different shape depending on who is under center.
Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell is overseeing the battle and laid out the criteria to win the Michigan job during the Big Ten Network’s annual fall camp visit to Ann Arbor.
“The first thing is leadership, right? You gotta have a guy that’s a leader,” Campbell said. “You want somebody that follows them as a player, as a person, and wants to emulate how they represent themselves on the football field and in life. [Number] two would be overall execution of the position. Are we moving the football? Is it because of their legs? Is it their arms? We don’t care. It needs to be ‘Are we moving the football as an offense?'”
“[Number] three is finishing the drives. So, like, the ball’s moving, but then you gotta put it in the paint. So those are three important things: leadership, consistently moving the football, and then scoring points for the offense.”
Campbell joined TheWolverine.com’s live stream from the Champions Circle Golf Classic prior to the start of camp and dished on what he had seen from each guy to that point.
“They’ve been outstanding,” Campbell said on July 23. “So is the rest of the room. They’ve come with the intent to be better every single day, compete to win the starting job. They know there’s only one football come Saturdays, and they’re all up for the challenge.
“I think the development plan is intentional by our point as to how we script practice … making sure that we put them in their best suited talents. Each one of them is going to do something better or different than everybody else. It’s not fair to ask them to do something we might not ask them to do on Saturdays, so when we script practice and the plays that we give them, we make sure their development plan suits what will show up on Saturdays for each specific player.”
At that same event, head coach Sherrone Moore essentially summed up what was laid out by Campbell on Tuesday on BTN.
“He will take care of the football,” Sherrone Moore said. “He will be a team player. He’ll be a playmaker, but he’ll put winning first.”
Clarity should come soon enough with game week fast approaching. Michigan’s opener against Fresno State is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET kick from the Big House on Aug. 31. NBC will carry the national telecast.
