Sherrone Moore talks Davis Warren, what Alex Orji can do to earn more snaps
Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore believes his team isn’t as far away from Texas as Saturday’s 31-12 loss seemed to indicate, anxious to see how his team responds. Much has been made of the offensive struggles, starting at quarterback, in the first two weeks — Moore insisted starter Davis Warren did a lot of good things in the loss.
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The big key to improvement, he said, is to run the ball more consistently. When they get behind and it becomes a “throw game,” he noted … well, they’re not built that way. He reiterated that the first interception hit a receiver [Tyler Morris] in the hands, and the second was a wrong route. He also noted the receivers needed more detail on their routes, including better spacing.
“Everybody looks at the quarterback and says, ‘he didn’t do this, he didn’t do that,'” Moore said. “We have to be route detailed up as a whole unit to make sure it’s efficient. The fumble [before halftime] is something Colston [Loveland] has never done. He’s been in here beating himself up, but he’s a very good player and he’ll fix that mistake … but you can’t have three turnovers against a very good team.
” … When you go 3 for 12 on third down, you’re not going to have a lot of explosive plays. We’ve got to not turn the ball over, and that will create explosive plays.”
When asked about telegraphing plays for Alex Orji in the run game, Moore insisted they have plays for him in which he could throw. Overall, though, he was pleased with the way Warren played, especially making some throws in the fourth quarter.
“Davis did a good job, especially at the end, and to that … just the fight that they all had,” Moore continued. “It’s easy in a game like that for guys to just stop playing or not want to fight … those guys fought down, they kept playing, kept playing and went down and scored.”
He believes Jack Tuttle will be throwing more this week, too, and he’ll add to the competition. When one questioned why they didn’t go to the portal this spring, Moore cited many reasons.
“A lot of change … a lot of things happened,” he said. “For us it was the QBs we had we feel pretty good with, and those guys performed well in spring … did a good job. And then things happened in the portal, guys go different places and all that, so we got a good beat on who we wanted to get and what we wanted to do. For us to be successful and keep our culture and keep our team the right way, we had the quarterbacks we had here.
“I feel like we can win with our quarterbacks, have confidence in our quarterbacks, and for us to be successful, it’s not just the quarterbacks. Everybody around them has to perform at a good level. They have to perform with detail and not turn the ball over and do things to be successful. People point towards the quarterback … same thing last year. J.J. threw three picks in a game, and everybody point at him.
“We feel confident in our quarterback, and everybody around him has to execute their jobs as a high level, as well.”
