ANN ARBOR, Mich. — After watching Michigan’s offense stumble through its first two games, it’s only natural to ask how the Wolverines ended up in this position, without a quarterback primed to take over after J.J. McCarthy left for the NFL.
The answer is that it’s actually quite easy to end up in the quarterback muddle. Getting out is the hard part.
Jim Harbaugh spent years looking for his ideal quarterback, trying out the likes of John O’Korn, Joe Milton and Dylan McCaffrey before landing McCarthy, who went 27-1 as a starter. McCarthy’s three seasons with the program were three of the best years in Michigan history, yet the Wolverines weren’t able to land an elite quarterback to be McCarthy’s heir apparent.
Michigan had a succession plan when Harbaugh left for the NFL, which makes the lack of one at quarterback all the more glaring. Sherrone Moore, Harbaugh’s successor, was left with a career backup in Davis Warren, a work in progress in Alex Orji, an oft-injured journeyman in Jack Tuttle and a promising but youthful freshman in Jadyn Davis.
Moore has made it clear that Michigan’s offensive struggles don’t land at the feet of Warren, who won the starting job in the final week of the preseason. In Michigan’s 31-12 loss to Texas, All-America tight end Colston Loveland fumbled in the open field and ran the wrong route on a play that resulted in one of Warren’s interceptions. Warren’s other interception deflected off the hands of Peyton O’Leary, a senior wide receiver with four career receptions. Michigan’s offensive line has struggled to protect Warren, and the Wolverines haven’t established a reliable running game to ease pressure on the quarterback.
“For us to be successful, it’s not just the quarterback,” Moore said. “Everybody around them has to perform at a good level and perform with detail and not turn the ball over.”
It’s true that Warren, who is completing 64 percent of his passes and averaging 5.5 yards per attempt, isn’t to blame for the majority of Michigan’s offensive woes. But it’s also becoming increasingly clear that Michigan doesn’t have a quarterback who can paper over Michigan’s flaws and elevate an offense that’s searching for playmakers.
Michigan hoped 2024 could be a bridge year between McCarthy and the program’s next great quarterback. It’s clear now that the Wolverines are building the bridge as they go, and the water is rising fast. Here’s a look at the misfires in recruiting, missed opportunities in the transfer portal and misplaced expectations that have contributed to Michigan’s quarterback dilemma.
Class of 2022
Entering the 2021 season, Michigan’s quarterback depth chart went as follows:
• Cade McNamara, four-star prospect from the Class of 2019
• J.J. McCarthy, five-star prospect from the Class of 2021
• Alan Bowman, transfer from Texas Tech
• Dan Villari, low three-star prospect from the Class of 2020
• Davis Warren, preferred walk-on from the Class of 2021
That quarterback group had a little bit of everything: veteran leadership, big-game experience, young talent, viable depth. It’s hard to keep that many competitive quarterbacks on the same roster, and the 2022 recruiting class was a chance for Michigan to add a young quarterback or two who could become part of the future.
Collectively, the high school quarterbacks in the Class of 2022 have had a rough ride. Clemson’s Cade Klubnik, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Texas A&M’s Conner Weigman were five-star prospects who have had their ups and downs as starters at marquee programs. Ty Simpson, the other five-star quarterback in the class, is a backup at Alabama.
In the 2022 cycle, Michigan pursued four-star quarterback Justyn Martin, a California prospect who signed with UCLA and has appeared in two games for the Bruins. The Wolverines also made a run at Nate Johnson, a dual-threat quarterback who signed with Utah and has since transferred to Vanderbilt.
With those two quarterbacks trending elsewhere, Michigan got a June commitment from Jayden Denegal, a three-star quarterback from Apple Valley, Calif. A few months later, Orji decommitted from Virginia Tech and signed with the Wolverines. That gave Michigan two developmental quarterbacks for 2022: a pocket passer in Denegal and a dual-threat quarterback from Texas in Orji, who was No. 493 in the 247Sports Composite.
Both quarterbacks were raw, but on the heels of signing McCarthy in the Class of 2021, Michigan didn’t need a home run. The Wolverines had a quarterback competition brewing between McCarthy and McNamara with several young QBs waiting in the wings.
Class of 2023
Villari transferred to Syracuse, but otherwise Michigan entered the 2022 season with many of the same faces at quarterback, plus the freshmen in Denegal and Orji. McNamara and McCarthy alternated starts to begin the season before McCarthy won the job for good. McNamara injured his knee in Week 3, effectively ending his time at Michigan. The Wolverines went undefeated in the regular season but were upset by TCU in the College Football Playoff.
McNamara transferred to Iowa and Bowman transferred to Oklahoma State, where he’s now in his seventh year of college football. With two veteran QBs leaving and McCarthy generating buzz as an NFL prospect, the 2023 cycle was Michigan’s opportunity to land another blue-chip quarterback. The Wolverines had one in their backyard in Dante Moore, a five-star prospect from Detroit’s King High School.
The 2023 class represented the peak of the name, image and likeness bubble for quarterbacks. Jaden Rashada, the No. 7 quarterback in the composite rankings, signed a $13.85 million NIL deal with Florida’s Gator Collective, then ended up at Arizona State after the deal fell through. Rashada has since transferred to Georgia and is suing Florida coach Billy Napier and others for alleged “false and fraudulent promises.”
Michigan, already under NCAA investigation for recruiting violations that occurred during the COVID-19 dead period, wasn’t in position to make a big splash with NIL. When Dante Moore committed to Oregon, it was apparent the Wolverines didn’t have a Plan B. Their 2023 recruiting class included one player classified as a quarterback: three-star prospect Kendrick Bell, who, as expected, has since moved to wide receiver, following in his brother Ronnie’s footsteps.
Michigan’s failure to land a blue-chip quarterback in 2023 contributed to the program’s current predicament. The Wolverines filled their need for a veteran backup by adding Tuttle from the portal, but the long-term questions lingered.
Class of 2024
Michigan played the 2023 season with McCarthy, Tuttle, Warren, Orji and Denegal as its top five quarterbacks. With Michigan’s national championship hopes in the balance, McCarthy gutted through a leg injury in November and led the Wolverines to another undefeated regular season. As the Wolverines prepared to face Alabama in the Rose Bowl, Harbaugh approached McCarthy and asked if he wanted to discuss the NFL.
“I told him, ‘I’m only focused on Bama, Coach,’” McCarthy said. “He loved it. He was fired up.”
The subtext of that conversation wasn’t hard to detect. The December transfer window was a busy one for quarterbacks, as Ohio State, Oregon, Notre Dame, Miami and other programs added high-profile transfers. Among the quarterbacks on the move was Dante Moore, who entered the portal after playing his freshman season at UCLA. Given McCarthy’s likely departure for the NFL, it would have been logical for Michigan to add a transfer who could compete for the job.
That didn’t happen. Whereas most teams were already in offseason mode, Michigan was putting everything into the pursuit of a national championship. The uncertainty surrounding the futures of Harbaugh and McCarthy didn’t help, either. Dante Moore transferred to Oregon, the school he originally committed to out of high school, and Michigan came away empty-handed.
“Things happen in the portal where guys go different places and all that,” Sherrone Moore said this week. “We had a good bead on who we wanted to get and what we wanted to do for us to be successful and keep our culture and keep our team the right way.”
After failing to land a blue-chip quarterback in 2022 or 2023, Michigan finally hit with Davis, a four-star prospect ranked just outside the top 100 for the Class of 2024. Considered a five-star prospect earlier in the cycle, Davis brought a winning pedigree and the competitive makeup to be a starter in the Big Ten. As spring practice unfolded, Michigan’s coaches indicated they planned to bring Davis along slowly rather than thrusting him into a competition before he was ready.
With Tuttle recovering from an injury, that left Warren and Orji as the primary contenders in the spring. Michigan came out of spring practice with little clarity, but offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell downplayed the possibility of adding a quarterback from the portal.
“That’s not part of our thought process right now,” Campbell said in April. “Roster evaluation is always part of the process, but right now that’s not something we’re looking at.”
The options in the April portal window left much to be desired. Most programs had their quarterbacks, and Michigan wasn’t aggressively signaling that it was in the market. The Wolverines decided to stand pat and let the quarterbacks continue their competition in preseason camp.
That decision is open to scrutiny, though it’s not clear that adding a quarterback in the spring would have significantly improved Michigan’s situation. The Wolverines had two years with McCarthy as the starter to develop a high school quarterback or land a player from the portal. Their only option now is to make the best of things with Warren and Orji, see if Tuttle can get healthy and look forward to the future with Davis and two quarterbacks who are committed for 2025 and 2026, Carter Smith and Brady Hart.
After Saturday’s loss to Texas, Sherrone Moore was asked if Michigan’s staff has been overly confident about the talent on the roster. He said that wasn’t the case and reiterated his belief that Michigan can win with the quarterbacks it has. One way or the other, Michigan is going to find out if its bridge will hold up until 2025.
“We feel confident in our quarterback,” Moore said. “Everybody around them has to execute their jobs at a high level, as well.”
(Top photo of Davis Warren: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
