Sherrone Moore addresses the state of Michigan’s program after recent struggles

Michigan has played seven games this season and tried three different starting quarterbacks. The Wolverines still don’t have an answer at the position.

Head coach Sherrone Moore didn’t even name a Week 9 starter Monday. He said the quarterback decision he does make will depend on how practice goes ahead of the Wolverines’ rivalry bout versus Michigan State.

So, defending national champion Michigan is a three-loss team without consistent play, or even continuity, at the most important position in the sport.

“Obviously not happy with the record,” Moore said Monday. “Not happy with the losses. Really just want our kids to be in a good place mentally and spiritually. So that’s where we are. We’re 4-3, but our job now is to get better to be 5-3 this week.”

Michigan is not only the winner of last year’s national title but also the winner of the last three Big Ten titles. The Wolverines haven’t had this many losses in a single season since the COVID-19-affected 2020 season.

They’ll be up against a Spartans squad that’s coming off its best win of the season, a 32-20 triumph over Iowa.

Michigan State quarterback Aidan Chiles turned the ball over just once while totaling more than 300 yards of offense. The Spartans clocked out with a pair of 100-yard receivers — Nick Marsh (113 yards) and Montorie Foster Jr. (100) — in addition to rushing for a total of 212 yards, in large part thanks to running backs Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams (86 yards) and Nate Carter (49 yards), not to mention Chiles’ effort on the ground (51 yards).

When all was said and done, Michigan State left Spartan Stadium Saturday having piled up 468 yards of offense. For reference, Michigan has yet to record more than 322 yards of offense against a team not named Arkansas State this season.

Offensive execution starts with the quarterback position. Senior Davis Warren still leads Michigan with 444 passing yards this season. Warren was yanked in favor of redshirt sophomore Alex 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 seventh-year quarterback Jack Tuttle, who now is also dealing with turnover issues.

Tuttle replaced 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, this time against now-No. 20 Illinois, which followed the a similar cadence: a fumble and then an interception, except his fumble in Champaign occurred in the first half.

Moore was asked Monday about what the most disappointing facet of his team’s performance has been this year, in a reporter’s words, “outside of the quarterback position.”

“You want to win every game,” Moore said. “It’s not that. We’re all in this together. We’re not going to point fingers at any position, any people.

“So, for us, just winning those games and taking care of the football as a whole collective unit.”

Granted Michigan sent 18 players to the NFL Combine — and 13 of them were drafted — plus another batch hit the transfer portal this offseason, but the Wolverines still have several pieces of their 2023 national championship team roster.

Moore was also asked Monday about how a team coming off a title remains fully engaged at this point of the year when, barring a miracle, those big-ticket accomplishments are now off the table this season.

“I think you look at the end of the game and what the score was, and you saw [defensive tackle] Mason Graham, you saw [defensive tackle] Kenneth Grant, you saw those guys playing their hearts out at the end of the game,” Moore said, referencing the two-score loss at Illinois this past weekend.

“So I think the culture [supersedes] the losses right now. Those guys see what they’ve done and how they’ve worked to get to this point, and there’s a lot of pride in who they are as people — for them, for their village, for this team, for Michigan.”

Moore added: “Guys aren’t going to stop playing because we’re not at the win total we had. We’re going to continue to fight, regardless of what it is.”

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