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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — After Alex Orji emulated Jalen Milroe in bowl prep last year, it became scintillating about what may happen for the Michigan football quarterback.
It took awhile before he was thrust into action — though it had appeared that he was the likely starter in the preseason — however, the Wolverine coaching staff pulled the plug on Orji in Week 6 after Michigan got down 14-0 at Washington.
Orji sat on the bench for the entirety of the loss at Illinois and for the first half against MSU before he started coming in during the second half and creating a spark using the wildcat package we’ve become more accustomed to seeing him in. However, instead of it being one play here or there, it was multiple plays within a drive, while Davis Warren would still come in to run the offense throughout.
The trick from here is to continue to use both Warren and Orji without getting predictable — something that the coaching staff is working on behind the scenes, offensive line coach Grant Newsome says.
“That’s always a balance — with anything, you have a big indicator, a big tendency,” Newsome said. “It’s something that we were conscious of last year. And, Coach Casula has done a better job than I did last year of, with Max, of, hey, every time it’s Max in the game it can’t just be it’s a direct fullback run — even though he’s obviously elite at it. So that’s always a balance and it’s a balance with receivers and alignments and splits and personnel groups.
“So that’s something that you look at and Coach Campbell looks at every single week. And, in multiple different respects, looking at tendencies, looking at trends, because defenses look at them. So, the good thing is that it’s not like you’re bringing a wildcat tight end (with Orji). He’s still a good thrower of the football. So, you hope defenses…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/michigan-football-offense-could-build-223651754.html
Author : Wolverines Wire
Publish date : 2024-10-30 22:36:51
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