Sherrone Moore, Michigan building offense around Jack Tuttle: 'He gives us the best chance to win'
Michigan Wolverines football inserted graduate Jack Tuttle at quarterback after three fruitless drives against Washington, benching junior Alex Orji, and the offense received an immediate boost. The Wolverines scored on three-straight possessions for the first time all season, including via a Tuttle-thrown touchdown pass to junior tight end Colston Loveland.
Tuttle only recently became healthy enough to play, after dealing with what NBC said to be an elbow injury, but was productive for part of his first taste of game action since last season. He went 10-of-18 passing for 98 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He rushed 5 times for 14 yards but lost a fumble. Michigan lost to Washington, 27-17, with the Huskies outscoring the Wolverines 13-0 in the fourth quarter.
“I thought offensively, definitely Jack Tuttle came in there and gave us a huge spark, and that was the positive,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said on the ‘Inside Michigan Football’ radio show. “The first few drives — touchdown, field goal, touchdown. He gave us a lot of momentum on offense. And he’s beating himself up still. I had to call him last night and tell him, hey, we got your back, you’re good. He only practiced for a week and a half, really.
“To get him back was a huge boost for us. We’ll continue to get better and build stuff around him to make him better and make our team better and let other guys be playmakers.”
Moore said he had a feeling coming into the game that Tuttle would see the field.
“He practiced really well — so did Orji — but you knew how good Jack was and the experience that he has,” Moore explained. “So I felt at some point that’d be the play, to put him in the game at some point. He just did a really good job and took advantage of the opportunity.”
Moore didn’t commit 100 percent to starting Tuttle — a seventh-year senior who’s at his third school after stops at Utah and Indiana — but hinted that he’ll more than likely be Michigan’s man behind center moving forward. The Wolverines have a bye this week before traveling to take on Illinois Oct. 19 (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS).
“I mean, right now it looks like Jack,” Moore said. “We’ll do everything we can to keep the competition going, but I think right now he gives us the best chance to win. And we’ll continue to process that as an offense, as a team, but that looks like the direction we’re heading.”
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Orji is known more for his running ability than his skill as a passer, with 247 rushing yards compared to 153 passing yards for his career. Washington head coach Jedd Fisch said at halftime that the Huskies had to begin playing more “normal” defense once Tuttle came in for Orji, and Moore said he noticed the same thing.
“When Jack went in there, you saw the safeties a little farther back,” Moore said. “The box got a little lighter, knowing that there was the threat that the ball could go deep. Not saying that it couldn’t go [deep] with Alex, but there was just less of that when he was in the game.
“It just felt like the spark happened a little bit with Jack. It felt like the defense had their same plan, but they were just trying to adjust to who the quarterback was, and it was different with who the quarterback was.”
Michigan has started two different quarterbacks this season and is leaning toward making that number three. Senior Davis Warren opened the first three contests, before Orji was the man the last three outings. Moore was asked if freshman Jadyn Davis, who traveled to Seattle for the Washington game, will get his opportunity in games.
“We’ll see,” Moore replied. “I feel pretty good about Jack. We just gotta keep molding him, keep him healthy and keep him going.”
