Kirk Campbell, Alex Orji break down tight quarterback battle
With the departure of future NFL Draft pick J.J. McCarthy, Michigan is left in a familiar spot at the most important position on the field. A quarterback battle — one that features more competitors than usual — has commenced in Ann Arbor, and it will continue to be sorted out heading into the spring.
Alex Orji (Blue) and Davis Warren (Maize) earned the starts for their respective teams in Saturday's spring game, which the Maize team won 17-7. Freshman Jadyn Davis (Blue) and junior Jayden Denegal (Maize) were the backups for each team, and they both saw significant playing time.
Warren threw two touchdowns, and Orji ran in a score for the Blue team in the game.
After the contest, Orji and offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell met with the media to discuss the competitive quarterback room.
"I thought there was good things from every guy out there," Campbell said. "All four of them did something good, but there's other things we have to clean up as well."
Each quarterback brings his own unique skillset to the competition.
Orji is uber athletic, Warren has been in Michigan's program longer than any other quarterback on the depth chart, Davis is a highly-touted recruit, Denegal features more size than any other quarterback and Jack Tuttle, who was out of Saturday's spring game due to injury, is the most experienced quarterback in the room.
While there are five legitimate options for the starting quarterback role in the fall, there is still skepticism as to whether the future starting quarterback of Michigan football is currently on the roster.
With the recent emergence of the Transfer Portal, grabbing a starting signal caller from another school wouldn't totally be out of the question for Michigan fans.
But for Campbell, he says that's not where the team is currently thinking.
"[Adding a quarterback through the Transfer Portal] has not been part of our thought process right now," Campbell said after the game. "Right now, that's not something we're looking at."
According to Orji, the camaraderie amongst the quarterbacks is so great that if the team does bring in a new quarterback, they will welcome him with open arms.
"I think that if we bring another guy, we're going to welcome him like family, the same way that we have in the past." Orji said. "Davis Warren's a guy that's been here longer than the rest of the room; he always talks about, like, the quarterback room right now is so different than it was when he got here. And it's just been a constant ascending room. ... Whoever we bring into the quarterback room, they're a Michigan quarterback. We rep that like a last name. We're one big family."
"Whether we bring in a guy or we don't, we know the confidence coach Kirk Campbell has in all of us, and if he brings someone in, that means he has confidence in him as well."
When it comes to ultimately deciding on a starting quarterback, Campbell gave his criteria for what he's looking for in a starter.
"For me and the University of Michigan, [No.] 1 is the production on the field," Campbell said. "They gotta be a low-turnover, high-completion player. There's stuff off the field that we're looking at. They're all great leaders, but who's the best guy to go out there and lead this team? We were fortunate last year to have a guy that was outstanding at that, and we need to see the guy that can replace that."
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