Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore joined Jon Jansen on 'Inside Michigan Football' on Monday night to discuss the upcoming season opener against Fresno State. Of course, Jansen asked Moore about the ongoing quarterback battle, and although Moore didn't name a starter or give away who is currently leading the competition, he did offer insights into the final week of the competition.
Moore did confirm that Alex Orji and Davis Warren are the final two in consideration for the job, and that the staff has agreed to let the competition role over into a few practices this week.
"[The competition] is awesome," Moore said. "Sometimes it's kind of frustrating because you want it sometimes to be over, but not really. And both of the guys, the top two guys right now are Alex [Orji] and Davis [Warren], and, I mean, you look back at camp you're like, 'Maybe it's this guy, maybe it's this guy.' But they just keep both making plays, whether it's throwing or running the football, and both of them are doing both, so it's cool to watch the competitiveness."
"We said we're going to give ourselves a couple practices in the week. If it takes Wednesday, I'll take Wednesday and probably tell the guy on Thursday, and then whether we report that, say it out loud on Friday or day of the game we'll make that decision as we go and as they feel comfortable, too, because a big part of it is what the players want."
In the middle of a fierce competition that will decide who leads the reigning national champions, Moore said there is no ill will between the two quarterbacks.
"The coolest thing about all of it is they support each other," Moore said. "Like, if one of them has a bad play, the other one's coming up to him saying, 'Hey, it's all good. You'll get him the next time.' It's not like, 'Oh, I'm glad he's failing. I'm glad he's not doing well,' like, they're pushing each other in a positive way, so both those guys are really good."
As for what will play the biggest factor in the staff's decision, Moore says it'll be consistency, decision-making and ball security. Whichever player shows consistency in those three areas the most will win the job.
"It'll really be the guy that practices with the most consistency, making the best decisions, taking care of the football and make enough plays because both of them are going to be going against similar looks because it's not going to be our defense now."
"It's hard to say that because you need two that can really play, and you just got to see how the guy plays in the first game, and if it's consistent enough to help you win the next one, then yeah it is. Like with J.J. [McCarthy], we knew he's going to be consistent enough to win the next game, so for us, it's going to be who's going to be consistent enough to win the game. And not just manage the game, but sometimes you're going to have to make a play; you have to make a play on third down; you have to make a play in the red zone to do things to help us win, so who's going to do that is also going to be the starting quarterback."
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