Coming off a national championship season, the Michigan Wolverines saw quarterback J.J. McCarthy get selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. That, in turn, left the program with a major hole to fill and a quarterback competition began.
As ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel explained on the College GameDay Podcast, the competition is still open for the Michigan quarterback job. However, it’s starting to look like it’s Alex Orji‘s job moving forward.
“I think it’s Alex Orji,” Pete Thamel said. “Watching the spring game and the buzz out of the spring game was he looked and acted like the starter. Felt like the starter.”
Alex Orji came to Michigan as a four-star recruit in the Class of 2022, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He has since been known as an incredible athlete and played in nine games over the last two seasons, mostly as a running option.
Beyond Alex Orji, Michigan has Davis Warren, Anthony Arnou, Jack Tuttle, Jadyn Davis, and Jadyen Denegal on the roster.
“It will be interesting to see for Michigan, from the time they won the championship to when Jim Harbaugh left about two weeks later…they were not active in the portal,” Thamel said. “They took a guy or two, sure, but they were not active. So, there was maybe a window to get a quarterback that closed, and, look, there weren’t any great options there. There was a window to upgrade on the offensive line. I think they took one player from Northwestern. Maybe two. Maybe a long snapper.”
During the 2024 transfer cycle, Michigan has the 42nd-ranked class, according to the On3 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings. It’s a class that has 22 players leaving and seven entering the program, with five of the incoming players being on the defensive side of the ball. That comes as the team is dealing with plenty of turnover on offense.
“But they have five new starters on the o-line. They have to replace a lot of talent at the receiver position. They have the best tight end in college football. They have one of the most dynamic running backs in college football,” Thamel said. “Obviously, a question mark at quarterback. Alex Orji has never started a game. He’s played in big snaps, which is gonna help him. He played against Alabama. He played against Ohio State. Those are some of the most high-leverage moments you can play in.”
One notable challenge that Pete Thamel pointed out was that Michigan has a difficult early season schedule. That means that Orji, or any other quarterback for Michigan, will need to be ready to go right away.
“But I do think quarterback-wise it’s Alex Orji and you have to grow up pretty fast if you have Texas coming in Week 2 and I believe USC is coming in by the end of September,” Thamel said. “So, that’s a little different than the Septembers where they could find their identity the last two years and they didn’t play anyone out of conference.”
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