COLUMN: QB is no longer the most concerning issue with the Michigan football program

Trent Knoop | Nov 3, 2024

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- How the mighty have fallen. It was an expected outcome both on Saturday against Oregon and the 2024 football season -- a year after winning the national championship. Now, was 5-4 on the bingo card with a real chance of missing a bowl game? Don't think so. The Wolverines were set to return star power which was expected to keep Michigan in Playoff contention or for a good bowl game, but the Wolverines are going to struggle to get to six wins with the likes of Indiana and Ohio State still on the schedule.

Earlier this season, after every game -- regardless if it were a win or a loss -- you could hear and see on social media how Michigan was a quarterback away from being competent. That was true. Sherrone Moore went through three quarterbacks before finally settling on Davis Warren who earned the job back last week against Michigan State. And he's done a fine job since.

Warren was initially benched after 2.5 games due to throwing six interceptions but the options past him weren't great. Since coming back into the starting lineup, Warren has thrown for 288 yards, three touchdowns, and zero turnovers. He has shown the ability to layer throws over defenders and he did more than enough to keep Michigan in the game on Saturday against the Ducks. But like a true leader, Warren placed the blame on his shoulders for the loss against Oregon.

"Falls on me as the quarterback," Warren said. "I gotta be better on third downs. Gotta be able to convert. Third down is the money down, and we talked about it all week and didn't take advantage of the opportunities when we had them, and that falls on me to be better. ... That falls on me as the quarterback to be better on that down, and it's definitely something we'll be looking to work on."

But let me tell you, the quarterback is not the biggest issue here at the University of Michigan. In fact, with how poorly Michigan ran the football against Oregon, Warren was the sole reason Michigan was in the game with how he got the ball to Colston Loveland and threw strikes to both Tyler Morris and Peyton O'Leary.

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You can look at the Michigan defense and its struggles to tackle, or being out of position, or you can look at the untimely penalties from both sides of the football -- it all comes down to one thing: coaching. Kirk Campbell's baffling decision to insert Alex Orji into the game on a crucial fourth-and-five inside Oregon territory to then have Semaj Morgan attempt a throw to Orji -- baffling. The Michigan players played their hearts out against the overmatched Ducks.

Sherrone Moore did what he thought was best when he was forced to hire several new coaches following Jim Harbaugh's departure. Losing guys like Steve Clinkscale, Jesse Minter, Mike Elston, and others aren't going to be easy to replace and we're seeing that in 2024. We haven't seen the Wolverines look this undisciplined and this out of sorts since the terrible 2020 season and while I don't think Michigan is back to that yet -- the trajectory isn't good.

I've said it before, but Moore is going to have to make some uncomfortable decisions this offseason. Moore can be a successful coach in Ann Arbor -- he sure can recruit it appears -- but he's going to need to get himself around some excellent X's and O's guys because whatever this is in 2024 isn't sustainable at the University of Michigan.

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