Alex Orji talks Michigan QB competition, Kirk Campbell, his goals for this season, more

Michigan Wolverines football junior quarterback Alex Orji joined former U-M two-time All-American tight end and college football analyst Jake Butt on Champions Circle’s The L.A.B. podcast. Orji discussed the quarterback competition with graduate Jack Tuttle and senior Davis Warren, offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell, his goals for this season and more.

Here are highlights from Orji’s interview:

On what’s different for him this season and how he’s improved as a passer

“The biggest thing is confidence and I would say comfortability within the pocket, but also knowing how to deal with discomfort in certain aspects. I think that everything over the past eight months of my development I would credit to the Lord up above. It’s been awesome building that relationship with Him and strengthening it.

“On top of that, just having my family that I can always talk to no matter what’s going on just makes me feel that no matter what I’m doing, I’m getting better. I know that I’m adding value, especially to the team.

“Talking to Coach Kirk Campbell all the time, it’s amazing to have someone like him as the coordinator and quarterbacks coach, because you know that no matter what you do, as long as you’re giving 100-percent effort and trying to learn from every rep, he’s going to make sure that you are going to get better.

“He’s going to let you know where you did good and where you did bad, but it’s never going to be very emotion-based. It’s always going to be from a place of love, but at the same time, knowing that he can tell you the real. It’s awesome having him.

“He’s coaching up everybody the same way. He’s coaching us up the same way that he would coach his four-year old daughter if she was playing quarterback. He’s gonna be hard on us, but he’s gonna love us up just the same way.”

On his growing knowledge of defenses and the offensive reads and play book

“Between having [Campbell] and not having him has been night and day, if I’m being honest. He’s such a smart football mind. He knows so much about the game. It’s hard to even say that he knows so much about it — it’s like he lives and breathes football, really, and offensive architecture is the name of his game. 

“Sometimes even last year, going with the season, he would start to move pretty fast, just because certain things he sees are like the ABCs for him. The way he sees defenses so quickly and different things like that, he’s really just one of those great football minds. So sometimes we’re either playing catch-up or telling him to slow down. But once he got all of us speaking the same language and looking through the same vision, it’s kinda crazy to see. 

“If you sat in on one of our meetings, there are certain times, certain catchphrases that he’ll say, and we’re all finishing each other’s sentences because we’re all speaking the same language and seeing things the same way. It’s not only the way that he’s able to see process and enhance knowledge of football, but he’s also able to teach others and bring our level of knowledge up to that next level.

“The most important thing is speaking that same language and thinking a lot, because when he calls the play, you’re sitting there like, ‘Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Let’s do this right here.’ I think it really helps understanding what he’s trying to accomplish, what we want to do, because then, especially with the coach comm in the helmet right now, it leaves a lot less up to the imagination. Sometimes, he can just us know while he’s calling the play — ’alert for this’ or ‘be looking out for this.’ Certain things that you’re thinking about, he says it, whatever it is, and you can relay it to the people in the huddle, the linemen and all that stuff like that.”

On being in a battle for Michigan’s starting quarterback job

“For me, it’s awesome. It’s obviously a blessing. I can’t take it for granted any day. Thank the Lord I woke up this morning, I’m able to still live that life. One of the most underrated parts of the situation that we’re in right now is that people think that a quarterback battle is heated, war, you’re going against each other, you’re trying to compete. And I think that we’re probably five of the most competitive people on the team, but at the end of the day we all love each other so much.

“Between the quarterbacks and tight ends — I don’t know what’s the closest room on the team, but I gotta say it’s the quarterbacks. Everything that we do, we do together, whether we’re on the field or off the field. There’s never any animosity between the quarterbacks, because at the end of the day we’re competing, but there’s only one of us on the field at a time and we all want to see the offense move forward. That’s all you can really ask for. 

“No matter who’s taking the reps, no matter who’s in during practice, we’re all just trying to help each other out. Something that really gets overlooked is when a quarterback comes back to the sideline and they put the headset on and talk to the coach or talk to the other position groups, I think the most important part on Saturdays is when the quarterback comes back to the sideline and is able to talk to the other quarterbacks. Like I said, we’re all speaking the same language and seeing through the same lens. Those are the guys that you know are going to shoot it to you straight — ’I saw this, I saw this. Why didn’t you do that, there?’ You get to have those conversations that it’s like you’re back in the meeting room that you were in 100 times during camp, so it’s awesome.

“As far as the position of being a Michigan quarterback, for me, I think it’s a huge blessing. It’s a really important piece to what I want to do in life. The main thing for me is being able to have a platform, have an influence and be able to spread the word of God, spread what I believe in and the things that I think are true and important. It’s really gifted me with an extremely large and influential position to be able to talk to a bunch of different people and influence a bunch of different people and show them the way that I think and different things that I do to grow in my relationship with God. It’s really been awesome to influence teammates, family members, friends, people that I don’t even know. I think it’s been really amazing.”

On if the love for each other takes away some of the edge in the competition

“When we talk about competitiveness, I feel like there are a few different types. There are obviously the competitiveness between two adversaries, two groups that are going against each other. In that aspect, there was something I said to the quarterbacks in the spring, to be a great football player, sometimes there are going to be people that think you’re a little crazy. Obviously, there’s the linebacker type of crazy, whatever they do. But for us, it’s like people probably think it’s so crazy the way that we’re able to show so much love toward the people on our side.

“And all it takes is a different colored jersey. We’re able to show so much love and so much passion, we’re willing to do anything. But then as soon as it’s someone else, someone else is threatening our territory, someone else is coming in The Big House, we’re ready to kill them. We’re ready to go do whatever it takes to put them down, get them out of our way. A switch can be flipped just like that. 

That’s a super important part of it. So within the quarterback room, I think this is one thing that probably holds true across the country, just kind of the quarterback fraternity of football, if you’re in practice and you see one quarterback gets man coverage, say he has a slot fade and he throws an absolute dime down the field to a speedy receiver, go find those other quarterbacks, I guarantee you they’re the littest people on the field. I promise you, no one else is going to be more excited about a beautiful ball, clean pocket movement.

“The biggest things are the little things. The quarterbacks are always going to be the most excited for each other.”

On going against the Michigan defense in practice

“Starting with freshman year and a decent amount last year on scout team, it’s a huge tool, a huge weapon for any quarterback in development, especially when you get to go against [nickel back] Mike Sainristil, [junior defensive tackle] Mason Graham and trying to throw at [junior cornerback] Will Johnson. It’s not easy, but if you can find a way, you get so many opportunities each day throughout the season and stuff like that, if you can find a way to do it in those moments, it makes everything else easier.

“You talk about how the best teams in the nation, practice is going to feel a lot easier than the game, and that’s how it should be. So going into right now, between this past spring camp and this fall camp, one of the biggest things is going gainst such a talented defense with a great coordinator like [Michigan defensive coordinator] Coach Wink [Martindale]. When we first started to see the stuff they were doing in spring ball, it was like, ‘Yeah, these guys are going to be the real deal again.’ You knew they would be.

“They could go out and play base coverage, no pressure, all that every play, and they would be an elite defense. But also combining it with a great football mind like Coach Wink, and then also him imparting his knowledge on the guys, being able to talk to Will and [junior linebackers] Ernest [Hausmann] and Jaishawn [Barham], like extremely talented dudes, but also their knowledge of the game keeps growing day by day. 

“It’s awesome whenever we have great offense and great defense, physically gifted and able to sharpen iron with iron. But then also being able to get in those meeting rooms, sit down sometimes, eat lunch and talk about ball. Everyone is really getting smarter off of each other.

“I think it’s one of the key parts of being at Michigan — you get to be an elite athlete, have a bunch of guys on the ‘Freaks List,’ but then also super smart people. Obviously, there are different things — book smart, street smart, ball smart — but whenever you’re smart enough in general to take the knowledge that you have and apply it to something that you love, you got a bunch of dudes that just know ball in the facility.”

On his expectations for this season

“For me, it’s tough, because I think it’s super important for goals to be measurable. But my biggest goal for this season is to be able to affect as many people as I can.

“I think that sometimes it’s kinda looked down upon to let a sport or the position we play be your entire personality trait, like, ‘Oh, how’s his whole personality just him being a football player?’ I think that there was a day, a time that I looked in the mirror, and I really sat there and thought about it that I really do feel like God blessed me with all the tools to be a quarterback. And when I say that, I don’t mean He gave me a big arm or He made me athletic, I think everything away from that.

“Being a quarterback is so much more than on the field, it’s more than reading coverages, it’s more than studying film. I think that it’s more than the leadership. It’s all of that put together. It’s being able to affect people at the end of the day.

“When you have that ball in your hands, that receiver gets open, you affect his day, affect his rep by getting him the ball. And the way that you get it to him, first down or touchdown. Being a quarterback, sometimes people don’t — whether it’s just in life or in general — they don’t always have the things that they wish they did in life. And being able to affect someone else’s life, being able to be a blessing for them, I think that’s what it is. It’s not just between the white lines or in the facility, in the training room, in the weight room, whatever it is. It’s being able to affect people’s lives, just in general.

“I don’t always look at it as a football position. Sometimes, it’s a position of life. It’s like who you are, being able to be a blessing in other people’s lives. That’s the biggest thing for me, that’s the main thing that I want to do.

“After talking to my parents about it for so much time, just trying to figure out what that voice from God would sound like. Through plenty of conversations with them, I feel like He’s really blessed me with all the tools to be able to build a platform, affect people, use the resources that I have to help other people out. That’s the most important thing for me, so as long as I’m able to stay true to myself, to spread His word, I think that would be success for me.”