Michigan names Alex Orji new starting QB for showdown vs. USC in Big Ten opener

Michigan football has made a change at quarterback ahead of its Big Ten season opener vs. No. 12 USC.

Head coach Sherrone Moore told reporters Monday afternoon that Alex Orji has been named the starter moving forward, and Davis Warren will move to the bench beginning Saturday against the Trojans (2-0) in their first Big Ten matchup (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS).

"Alex will start on Saturday," Moore said Monday from Ann Arbor, Michigan. "Excited for him. He's been in here champing at the bit."

Warren was anointed as the starter by Moore and offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell after he was determined to be the winner of a position battle that began in spring, spilled into summer and wasn't decided until the final week of fall camp.

Though Warren was said to have outperformed Orji in practice at the time, as Moore said, game reps would be the final determining factor, and to this point Warren had not gotten the job done. The senior from Los Angeles completed 48 of 72 passes (66.7%) for 444 yards with two touchdowns compared to six interceptions.

"It's a tough situation when the big thing we talk about protecting the football and it gets put in harms way," Moore said. "But (Warren), he's a great team player. Watch him on the field after and celebrate Alex's touchdown...not much I needed to tell him to hype him up or support him.

"We will continue to support him ... but at the end of the day, we have to play the guys we think will help us win."

Orji, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound athlete from Sachse, Texas, has long provided a rushing upside. He has run 10 times for 51 yards this season, and U-M coaches say he can throw well, too. That has been the knock on him. He was 2-for-4 for 12 yards and one touchdown vs. Arkansas State, but was not on the same page with receiver Frederick Moore on a deep ball overthrow.

That was Orji's lone pass attempt of more than 10 yards, but Michigan says the offense doesn't necessarily need to look that different from Warren and Orji.

"I'm not the offensive coordinator, that's more of a question for coach Campbell," running back Donovan Edwards said Monday. "But I don't think there's going to be anything different than our offense has been doing, so I'm just excited for this upcoming week."

A quarterback switch before conference play begins is not where the Wolverines hoped to be.

When asked if he stands by his decision to go with Warren originally, Moore simply said, "Yes."

In a continued effort to keep the glass half full, he explained this is not the first time since he has been in Ann Arbor that there has been a QB change. He said it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

"It's part of the game," Moore said. "Gotta make switches at other positions, switches when guys get hurt, always gotta be ready for it. There's always a next-man-up mentality, we've had to do it before in this program and we're going to continue to do it.

"That's going to be our guy, that's who we're going to ride with."

Teammates have done their best to support all the players on the roster throughout the competition. Dating to the spring, players would state how there's "no difference" no matter who is behind center and wide receivers like Tyler Morris have said they've caught "great balls from all our guys in the room."

The tone shifted slightly Monday.

Makari Paige was the first player to speak after Moore's announcement and though the team had not received official word of the change — it was going to be announced in a team meeting Monday afternoon — Paige implied, as a defender, he feels a difference trying to stop Michigan's attack when Orji has the ball.

"I mean, trying to tackle him, you'd probably want to tackle Davis Warren over Alex Orji, that's probably the main difference," Paige said.

Orji looked decent when he came in on Saturday to replace Warren, who was benched in the third quarter after his third interception. The junior entered the game and immediately led a nine-play, 80-yard touchdown drive, though there were eight consecutive rushing attempts before a 9-yard touchdown pass.

USC will be a tough test. Moore noted how much bigger the Trojans are in the trenches from last season, and pointed to defensive end Anthony Lucas as a problem. Michigan wants to control the ball on the ground and win time of possession, but is that possible if it isn't able to pass a little bit?

Does Michigan present enough options in the pass game where USC won't be able to load the box to try to stop what will be the Wolverines' three-man attack in Orji, Kalel Mullings and Edwards?

"We have a plan in place for Alex," Moore said. "And we're ready to put it on display."

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