Michigan quarterback competition: Sherrone Moore shares latest after Week 8

Michigan has started three different quarterbacks this season, and it’s carousel under center could continue after the Wolverines’ latest letdown, a 21-7 road loss to now-No. 20 Illinois.

“You can’t turn the ball over,” head coach Sherrone Moore said postgame. “You don’t want to go to four quarterbacks. You don’t want to have to go through this process, but you got to take care of the football. We’re going to see what we got to do, and we’ll have that conversation as we go.”

Moore was later asked directly if the quarterback competition is open, and if he was indicating that no one’s got the the starting job locked up for a Week 9 matchup versus Michigan State.

“We’ll just see,” Moore said. “We’ll see how the week goes. We just gotta take care of the football. So we’ll figure that out when we get back to Ann Arbor.”

Michigan is currently tied for last in the Big Ten in turnover margin per game (-1.00). The Wolverines have turned the ball over 15 times this year while recording only eight takeaways in seven games.

Of those 15 turnovers, nine have been interceptions.

Seventh-year quarterback Jack Tuttle is responsible for the last two picks. Tuttle replaced redshirt sophomore Alex Orji during the first half against Washington in Week 6. In that outing, Tuttle helped the Wolverines dig themselves out of a 14-0 hole, but two costly giveaways — a fumble and then an interception — handicapped Michigan’s comeback bid.

Two weeks later, including an off week, Tuttle stomached another ghastly 1-2 punch of turnovers that followed the a similar cadence: a fumble and then an interception, except this time his fumble occurred in the first half.

Michigan hung a season-low seven points in Champaign, albeit against an impressive Illinois defense that now ranks 22nd nationally in points per game allowed (18.1).

Tuttle finished 20-of-32 for 208 yards, stunningly the most passing yards logged by a Wolverines quarterback this season. Running back Kalel Mullings carried the ball 19 times for 87 yards and his team’s lone score. Tight end Colston Loveland led Michigan with seven receptions for 83 yards.

“Just overall offensively, it was not good enough at all,” Moore said. “Disappointing in a lot of areas. Jack can’t turn the ball over. When they’re open, we got to complete those passes. Just got to be better. I thought Colston played well. He made some plays. I thought Kalel played well, ran hard.

“But you have three turnovers in a Big Ten game, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you’re not going to win. So we just have to be better on offense.”

The third turnover Moore’s talking about was a second quarter fumble by running back Donovan Edwards, who rounded out the day with 38 rushing yards on seven attempts.

Not much worked offensively, a discouraging sign for the Wolverines especially after they switched things up by moving offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell down from the booth to the sideline.

“We had him on the sideline and thought it’d give some juice to the offense and keep those guys going,” Moore said. “Obviously we didn’t execute at a high level. I thought we had some schemed plays that were good, but it’s not about scheme. We gotta go execute.”

Offensive execution starts with the quarterback position. Senior Davis Warren still leads the team with 444 passing yards this season. Warren was yanked in favor of Orji because of his turnover woes — Warren posted a 2:6 touchdown-to-interception ratio in three starts — but Orji was limited in his passing ability, so in came Tuttle, who now is also dealing with turnover issues.

Granted they’re inexperienced, but redshirt sophomore Jayden Denegal and true freshman Jadyn Davis are other quarterback options for Michigan.

This week against Michigan State, Moore can stick with Tuttle, go back to Warren or Orji or keep the carousel going. He knows results must change.

“I have extreme high expectations for this program,” Moore said. “Going on Year 7, I’ve seen where we’ve been and what we’ve done. This is not indicative of who we are and what we should be, and it’s my job to fix it, and we will.”

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