Michigan Football: What the quarterback rotation tells us about Sherrone Moore

Chris Breiler | Oct 28, 2024

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In this story:

Michigan Wolverines

Although a big rivalry win against Michigan State has taken down the temperature a bit, there's still a large segment of the Michigan fanbase that is completely dissatisfied with the current coaching staff - including head coach Sherrone Moore.

Part of the criticism directed at Moore has to do with the lackluster performance we've seen from the Michigan quarterbacks for a majority of the 2024 season. Those critics often point to the belief that Moore should have gone after a quarterback in the transfer portal during the off-season. Although the jury is still out on whether or not Moore pursued a QB in the portal prior to the season, the end result was that he ultimately settled on several unproven options who were already on the roster.

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Moore elected to begin the year with senior Davis Warren after he won the battle during fall camp. But Warren struggled during the early part of the season and committed six turnovers in three games as the starter, leading Moore to make the switch to junior QB Alex Orji. Although Orji largely avoided committing costly turnovers, the passing attack was still nearly nonexistent through two and a half games. As a result, Moore once again made a quarterback change to seventh year veteran Jack Tuttle. The early results on Tuttle looked promising, but his inability to protect the ball proved costly in two of Michigan's three losses on the season.

Following the Week 7 loss against Illinois, Moore was once again faced with a difficult decision regarding his starting quarterback. As we now know, the decision was to return back to where he started the season, giving senior Davis Warren the start against Michigan State. While the passing attack looked far from "electric" on Saturday night, it did look consistent and, most importantly, there were no turnovers.

Even with modest success through the air against MSU, we all know that this passing attack isn't anywhere near where it needs to be. Michigan cannot find itself in this situation again moving forward, and there's no question that Moore will need to look to the transfer portal for a quarterback in the near future. And while there are certainly questions remaining about how we got here, there's one thing we can't question about Sherrone Moore at this point in the season: his willingness to try.

We all knew that Moore needed to make a QB change after Warren threw his sixth interception in Week 3 against Arkansas State, and Moore did it. We all knew that Moore needed to make a QB change after it became apparent that it wasn't working with Orji, and Moore did it. We all knew that Tuttle wasn't the answer after what we saw take place against Illinois, and Moore saw it too. It's never an ideal situation when you're making four quarterback changes in eight weeks, but it does signal a head coach who's willing to make the difficult decisions necessary to give his team the best shot.

We discuss all of that and more in the latest episode of The Winged Helmet podcast: