Michigan quarterback Davis Warren struggled with three interceptions Saturday in a lackluster win over Arkansas State, two of them really ugly. The Wolverines won’t get away with that against the better teams on the schedule. 

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Head coach Sherrone Moore knows it, his staff and players know it … everyone knows it. So, the coach turned to Alex Orji in the second half after Warren’s third pick and kept the ball primarily on the ground. 

“You just can’t have them,” Moore said of the turnovers. “We put the ball in harm’s way too many times, so made a change and we’ll continue practicing and go from there.

“It’s just not great stuff to put on film. Yeah, I was surprised. It’s football, though, so that stuff’s going to happen, and we had to make a change.”

Michigan senior running back Donovan Edwards said he missed a blitz pick up on the first, resulting in a terrible Warren decision to throw it up for grabs.

“Some of it was protection,” Moore said. “At the end of the day, we have to take care of the football. We can’t have those turnovers. We take a lot of pride in making sure we don’t do that. Usually, when we take care of the football, we win. That’s what we’re going to hope and try to do. 

“[His arm] did get hit [on the second one]. I’ve never played quarterback, but I can probably assume if you get hit, it’s going to affect your throw. That’s part of it … part of why he stayed in the game. The last one was just an errant throw, so we had to make a change.”

Orji ran well and commanded the offense primarily on the ground when he was in. He threw a short touchdown on a similar play to the one he found Edwards on against Fresno State, finding wide open tight end Hogan Hansen. One of his two downfield throws went over Fred Moore’s head, the other was knocked down at the line of scrimmage.

“He played well. He had the overthrow, but we wanted him to just let it rip, get some confidence, let it out there. He did a good job just managing it and taking care of the football, which is the No. 1 thing we want our quarterback to do. So, we’ll see where we go from there. 

“[Warren was] disappointed, as you think he would be. For him, his attitude and the way he carried himself with the other guys was outstanding, but he knew he couldn’t do that, put the ball in harm’s way. But he was as positive easy could be.”

Moore made no guarantees about who would be on the field to start the game with USC next week, indicating both Warren and Orji would get their shots.

“That’s why we practice,” he said. “We’ll figure that out in practice.”

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