SEATTLE — Michigan football has made yet another quarterback switch.
The Wolverines found themselves down 14-0 to Washington early in the second quarter (follow game live updates) when head coach Sherrone Moore opted to bench Alex Orji in favor of seventh-year passer Jack Tuttle. Tuttle was long seen as a safety valve for the Wolverines should they need to go that way, but injuries in the spring and then in the summer set Tuttle back in the competition.
Instead, it became a two-man race between Davis Warren and Alex Orji, ultimately won by Warren. However that too was short lived after he threw six interceptions in the first three games and coaches pulled him for Orji.
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But that experiment appears to be over after he was unable to conduct any sort of passing offense. Orji went 7 of 12 for 32 yards in his first career start, a 27-24 win over USC. Last week, he was 10 of 18 for 86 yards with one touchdown and one interception as U-M again survived Minnesota by the score of 27-24.
But things reached a breaking point on Saturady in Seattle. Orji completed his first three passes for 15 yards but then threw four straight incompletions including two passes which were batted at the line of scrimmage. The best of the three drives on the day was the first which went 8 plays and 31 yards, before a 3-and-out and then a 5-play drive went just 14 yards.
The Huskies took advantage of the short possessions and scored twice on their first four drives, to put U-M on its heels. Tuttle entered the game for U-M and led the Wolverines on a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that ended when Donovan Edwards scored on a 39-yard touchdown run. Tuttle completed one pass for five yards on the possession.
Orji replaced Davis Warren as the starter in Week 4. He is 2-0 as the starter, leading Michigan to wins over USC and Minnesota to start the Big Ten schedule, but Michigan has had to operate with a very run-heavy approach due to Orji’s limitations throwing the ball. He had 118 passing yards in the wins while Michigan ran the ball on two-thirds of offensive plays.
Warren started the Wolverines’ first three games before being benched. He completed 48 of 72 passes for 444 yards with two touchdowns and six interceptions, including three against Arkansas State in the outing that got him benched.
The offense will likely continue to run through the running back duo of Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards. Mullings has had at least 100 yards and two touchdowns in the last three games as Michigan’s new starting running back.
Jared Ramsey is a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press covering the city’s professional teams, the state’s two flagship universities and more. Follow Jared on X @jared_ramsey22, and email him at jramsey@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Alex Orji benched for Jack Tuttle: Michigan football makes QB change
