Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore benched starting quarterback Davis Warren in the third quarter last weekend after Warren threw three interceptions during a 28-18 win over Arkansas State. Then, on Monday, Moore announced that Alex Orji, Warren’s backup — and the Wolverines’ change-of-pace, dual-threat signal caller — will start Saturday’s top-20 clash against No. 11 USC.

Moore, who freely admitted postgame that Warren put the ball in harm’s way too many times against Arkansas State, was asked Monday what his message was to the former walk-on and current senior.

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“He’s a great team player, so to watch him on the field after and celebrate Alex’s touchdown, and go up there and give him a hug — not much I needed to tell him to hype him up or support him,” Moore said, referencing how Warren cheered for Orji down the stretch this past weekend.

“We’ll continue to support him. He’s one of the players on our team. Regardless of things that happened, ebbs and flows of the game, adversity, we’re always going to support our players, but at the end of the day, we got to put [in] the guys that we think are going to help us win at that time.”

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Warren beat out Orji in the final weeks of training camp. In the process, the Los Angeles, California, native completed an admirable career arc, which started with him battling and beating leukemia in high school and then overcoming a pandemic that cut his high school playing days short. Warren walked on at Michigan, earned a scholarship, played his way into the QB2 job in 2022 and ultimately started his first career game in 2024.

Unfortunately for Warren, things didn’t go as planned after that. He posted just a 2:6 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his three starts. Although Warren completed 48-of-72 passes (66.7%), he threw for only 444 yards, averaging a mere 6.2 yards per attempt.

At times, poor pass protection played a role in Warren’s struggles, especially against now-No. 1 Texas when he was pressured on 41.7% of his dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. But turnovers ultimately lost him the job.

Plus, his replacement has returned to playing the way he was at the beginning of camp, Moore explained Monday.

“Like I said, I thought he was in a really good place, and Davis outperformed him in camp at the end,” Moore said of Orji. “I would love to see him just take the reins and do what he’s been doing through those first couple weeks. I think he will.

“He’s had a great couple weeks of practice. So has Davis, but obviously you got to perform in the game. Excited to see what Alex is going to do. He’s been in here, studying his tail off the past couple days, like he always is. But you can see it ramped up even more.”

Of course, Warren could be called upon again. He’ll have to stay ready despite losing the keys to the Michigan offense.

“Davis, he’s been awesome,” Moore said. “He’s been great. Obviously down, not happy about his performance by any means but [we’re] definitely still uplifting him in any way.”

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