Offense notes: Jack Tuttle on mistakes in first start – 'Terrible. It's embarassing.'

The Michigan Wolverines turned to Jack Tuttle at quarterback coming out of the bye week after getting a jolt of energy during the Washington game a few weeks ago.

What came two weeks later was a performance to forget.

Michigan dialed up two passing plays on its first three calls of the game, which led to the first 3-and-out of the afternoon. He finished the day 20-for-32 for 208 yards with an interception and a lost fumble while missing several throws. The turnovers were his third and fourth in a little under two games played.

“Can’t happen,” Tuttle said of his turnovers after the game. “Terrible. It’s embarrassing. That changes the game. That’s one that gets you in your sleep at night.”

Head coach Sherrone Moore weighed in on the totality of the offensive performance after the game, and shared frustrations about the opportunities left on the field for the 7th game in a row.

“Just overall, offensively, it was not good enough at all,” he said in his postgame press conference. “Disappointing in a lot of areas. Jack can’t turn the ball over. We gotta get the guys that, when they’re open, we gotta complete those passes. Just gotta be better. And I thought Colston [Loveland] played well. He made some plays. I thought Kalel [Mullings] played well, ran hard, but you have three turnovers in a Big Ten game. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. You’re not gonna win, so you just have to be better on offense.”

Even with Tuttle’s struggles, it seems likely he gets the nod moving forward under center. But the criteria remains the same for the quarterback position, per Moore.

“You can’t turn the ball over,” Moore said. “You don’t wanna go to four quarterbacks. You don’t wanna have to go through this process. But you got a guy that’s — you gotta take care of the football. So we’re gonna see what we gotta do, and we’ll have that conversation as we go.”

Kalel Mullings usage, and his reaction to game

Mullings finished the game with 19 carries for 87 yards and Michigan’s only touchdown, but there seemed to be more room to get him involved. It took a fumble from Donovan Edwards for a steadier dose of Mullings down the stretch.

Moore weighed in on his usage after the game.

“I think you can always get him some more touches,” Moore said. “He had 19 carries. I thought Donovan in the last game played really well and ran the ball well, so going back and forth, and then he had the fumble. So we tried to get Kalel back in the rhythm and probably do a better job doing that. But I thought he ended up having 19 carries. He usually averages around 25. So could have been a little bit early, but we also wanted to take some shots early. And we gotta connect on those.”

Mullings spoke after the game about the offense as a whole and wants to see the team get better at finishing drives and showing the consistency needed to push through Michigan’s issues on that side of the ball.

“We had some momentum and it’s just about maintaining it,” Mullings said. “After that, we weren’t able to sustain it.  We weren’t able to be consistent and finish some of those other long drives that we had. We know that as an offense, we got to do better to help these guys out. They’re over there blocking field goals, keeping their offense out on short fields. As an offense, you can’t ask for much more than that.

“We just got to be better finishing drives, sustaining drives, and just get points off of each and every drive… It’s really just training. I just felt like out there they were just able to make some plays. Their defense was able to make some plays, some key plays to get us behind the sticks. and then as an offense, you can’t live behind the sticks. It’s hard to sustain drives and get points off of that. so we have to strain to make it as easy as possible on ourselves. Get to third and shorts, get to second and five and less. As long as we’re able to do that, we were pretty successful. But when we have those, long second downs, long third downs, it’s impossible to be successful that way. That’s not what we’re striving for.”

Miscellaneous Michigan offensive notes

• Junior offensive tackle Andrew Gentry made his first career start on Saturday, making him the 14th Michigan player to make his first career start this fall.
• Tuttle is the eighth player to make his first career start as a Wolverine.
• Illinois held Michigan to seven points in today’s game, the fewest points scored by the Wolverines since being shutout by No. 16 Notre Dame on Sept. 6, 2014.
• Michigan was held scoreless in the second half for the first time since Sept. 25, 2021, vs. Rutgers.
• Five sacks allowed were the most by Michigan by this season and most since also allowing five on Dec. 29, 2018, vs. No. 10 Florida in the Peach Bowl.