Michigan QB Alex Orji 'working as hard as I ever have,' focusing on 'process over prize'

Just after Michigan Wolverines football lost 51-45 to TCU in the College Football Playoff semifinal Dec. 31, 2022, quarterback J.J. McCarthy vowed publicly that the team would be back. McCarthy and Co. didn’t just keep good on that promise, they went even further, finishing 15-0 with a national championship in 2023.

Naturally, after making decisions on their futures, McCarthy and other departing Michigan players passed the torch to the next men up, such as junior signal-caller Alex Orji, a contender to start behind center this fall.

The work started from there on out, with the Wolverines having an even bigger target on their back and looking to defend a national title.

“One thing, a word that all preseason, season, postseason and offseason have in common is ‘season.’ We’re going, it’s 365, it’s year round,” Orji said on the ‘Up The Score’ podcast. “If you ask any of the guys on the team last year to do what we did, everyone knows that it started as soon as we lost to TCU. As soon as that last season ends, the next one begins — the same way that this next season is coming, it started way before we got our rings, as soon as we earned our rings.”

Michigan’s team culture has remained strong, players say, through many different changes this offseason has brought.

“It takes a full village, it takes a full team,” Orji continued. “Everybody’s gotta be working in one direction, and it takes more work than you’ll ever know. I think that when I was young, I thought I knew what hard work was. And every day, it feels like I’m getting a new definition of it. 

“Last year, I thought I knew what hard work was, this year I’m finding something new. Right now, I’m working as hard as I ever have, and next year I’m sure I’ll find something new to go a little bit harder. But I think that’s what it takes. Every national championship-winning team is going to be tougher than the last, just because it’s a new challenge, new opportunities. A lot of them are a lot more glaring this season with a different Big Ten and different College Football Playoff setup and different college football world that we’re in.”

Orji then repeated head coach Sherrone Moore‘s mantra of “process over prize.”

“It takes everybody in the facility all working in the same direction,” Orji said. “That’s something that was major that we had last season. No matter what anybody tried to say to us, do to us, we were all working in the same direction. We’re really process-oriented, and we go process over prize every single day.”

In about every public appearance, Orji has lauded Michigan’s culture. He said he’s enjoying his experience of being a member of the Maize and Blue.

“Since I got to Michigan, it’s been awesome,” the 6-foot-3, 236-pounder said. “The culture that Michigan has and the way that people do things in the maize and blue is a little bit different. I think it’s awesome it attracts a different type of crowd. It’s somewhat of an exclusive club, the people that are going to come to Michigan and be elite there.

“Some people say that certain guys aren’t meant for Michigan or Michigan isn’t meant for certain guys from different areas. But at the end of the day, if you a dawg, you a dawg, you gonna be a dawg.

“It’s been awesome being around the type of guys that have a like mindset to you — guys all they want to do is win, no matter what it takes. And not just winning on the football field, winning in life with everything outside of the field, doing stuff away from the facility, helping the people that you once were.

“It’s awesome, the way Michigan provides opportunities for us to be more than athletes while also being the best athletes.”

Alex Orji holds joint camp with Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles

Orji teamed up with a Big Ten foe, Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles, to hold a camp for youth football players at SAY Detroit Play Center last weekend. While the two will compete against each other this fall, the quarterback fraternity creates real connections.

“No one can really understand what a quarterback’s going through than another quarterback,” Orji said. “When I got to Michigan, we had two quarterbacks in my recruiting class, me and Jayden Denegal, we both enrolled early. Me and him, we latched onto each other immediately. We’re roommates; we’ve been roommates for years now.

“There are a lot of people that wouldn’t really expect two quarterbacks that are in the same grade, in the same battle, going through the same stuff every day to be best friends and be roommates, but that’s just kinda the way that we embrace it, because at the end of the day when we go home, it’s like there’s no one I’d rather sit back and talk to about this rep that I went through other than someone that can relate to it.

“There’s no one on the team that I’m closer with, because we understand the same stuff that we’re going through and no one else has been in the same shoes we’ve been in since Day 1. We just kinda understand certain stuff like that. And then being able to go home, AirPlay the iPad onto the TV screen and talk about reps and teach each other and engage in conversation like that, there’s nothing like it.”