The Michigan quarterback battle is a major Texas offseason storyline
Texas is entering a marquee week-two out-of-conference game against an opponent with quarterback intrigue for the second season in a row.
[Sign up for Inside Texas and get ONE MONTH for $1!]
Texas’ trip to Michigan is sure to be one of the biggest contests of the year, but here 66 days until the Longhorns march into Michigan Stadium there remains a considerable uncertainty on the Maize and Blue side of things that Steve Sarkisian will have to prepare for accordingly.
After JJ McCarthy led the Wolverines to their first national championship since 1997 during a perfect 15-0 season, he was selected 10th overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2024 NFL Draft. A multi-year starter, McCarthy’s role in the offense was often questioned but even amid doubts and criticism he commanded the Michigan offense to a No. 12 finish in SP+ and showed lengthy stretches of quality play. Losing a player and leader like McCarthy leaves a void Sherrone Moore will have to replace on the team, the team, the team.
Here in the summer months, where pads are not poppin’ and the only thing happening is talkin’, there haven’t been any major developments in the Wolverine QB competition. The main candidates at this juncture are Alex Orji, Jack Tuttle, and Davis Warren.
Orji is a junior from Sachse, Texas who appeared in six games last season for U-M in a situational, Wildcat QB role. A superb athlete, Orji is unproven as a passer. He did not attempt a throw last season and has just one completion for five yards during his time in Ann Arbor.
Speaking to ESPN, Michigan offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell said Orji will have a role in his offense no matter what. But Campbell’s words speak to the current uncertainty of the situation at QB for the Wolverines.
“Which one’s the best, I need to find that out,” Campbell said. “Those guys make it harder for me because we’ve got really good players. Alex has just got to take it.”
Competing with Orji is Tuttle, a former highly-touted signal-caller entering his seventh year of eligibility after stops at Utah and Indiana. Tuttle is 15-of-17 in his brief Wolverine career with one touchdown. In four years at Indiana, he was 104-for-182 for 901 yards and five touchdowns over six interceptions before injury ended his 2022 campaign. Remarkably unproven and in the same high school class as Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Cameron Rising, Casey Thompson, and Michael Penix Jr., Tuttle doesn’t possess the same athletic traits as Orji and would be under center of a offense of a very different variety compared to one suited to Orji’s strengths.
Also in the mix? The senior in Warren, a 2021 recruit who is 5-for-14 in his college career with one interception. Younger prospects Jayden Denegal and Jadyn Davis are further down in the pecking order.
What might Moore do? He doesn’t have the luxury of a soft schedule like the Wolverines had in 2022 when Moore was co-offensive play-caller with Matt Weiss. With a non-conference slate of Colorado State, Hawaii, and UConn in 2022, Jim Harbaugh, Moore, and Weiss let Cade McNamara start the season opener against the Rams before assigning the task of starting versus the Rainbow Warriors to McCarthy. The nod went to McCarthy after two easy wins, and he started the next week against the Huskies and never looked back. McNamara eventually transferred to Iowa.
Moore could utilize a similar process, only in the confines of one game rather than two. U-M opens with Fresno State on August 31. The Bulldogs went 9-4 last season, even winning on the road against Power Five opponents Purdue and Arizona State. They stumbled to a 4-4 finish in Mountain West play.
Obviously, their depth of talent isn’t anywhere close to that of Michigan.
What Moore and Campbell say during the leadup to the season, starting with Michigan’s turn at Big 10 Media Days on July 25, is worth tracking for Longhorns fans. So too are insider reports from Chris Balas, Clayton Sayfie, and Anthony Broome over on On3’s The Wolverine.
[Subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel!]
Who ends up winning the battle, or at least earning the lion’s share of snaps, is worth monitoring for Sarkisian and his program. Last season, Alabama had a three-man quarterback competition that stretched into the early part of the season. Texas hopes to net a similar outcome against Michigan in Ann Arbor in the wake of quarterback uncertainty, just as they did last year in Tuscaloosa.
