While Michigan will be tasked to replace a ton of starters on both sides of the ball in 2024, the biggest question mark heading into spring camp is at the quarterback position.
After leading the Wolverines for two seasons as the starter — while losing just one game at the helm for Michigan — J.J. McCarthy is off to the NFL after his remarkable junior season that resulted in a National Championship.
It will take a lot to fill the void that is left after McCarthy’s exit. There is plenty of talent and potential in the current Michigan QB room, but plenty of uncertainty. The most experienced quarterback left is seventh-year veteran, Jack Tuttle. Tuttle is joined by Alex Orji, Jayden Denegal, Davis Warren, and true freshman Jadyn Davis.
ESPN recently put out an article talking about the most intriguing quarterback situations heading into the 2024 season and of course, the Wolverines were a point of discussion. You can read the entire article at ESPN, but at the end, Adam Rittenberg predicted the Week 1 starter — and it might shock some Michigan fans.
Week 1 starter prediction: Transfer TBA. Michigan has to aggressively monitor the portal and can offer a lot to experienced transfers who fit Campbell and Moore’s vision on offense. Perhaps Tuttle takes a significant step — he has appeared in games in each of the past five seasons for Indiana or Michigan — or the team gets a surge from Denegal or Orji. But I suspect Michigan’s QB1 for 2024 isn’t on campus yet.
Most fans believe it’s Orji’s job to lose after seeing him play throughout the 2023 football season as a wild cat quarterback. But as a QB, you have to throw the football, and that’s not something we’ve seen in a college football game. Orji has just one career passing attempt in his college career. We know he can run the football, he’s done so efficiently, and although the coaches have talked his arm up — it’s something we need to see this spring.
As the rest of the cast, Denegal has the frame to be the starting QB. A 6-foot-5, 235-pound specimen that has a really good arm. Denegal threw the ball five times in 2023 while completing four passes along with a TD. Another player the coaching staff is high on, but we haven’t been able to see much from the California native. Former walk-on Davis Warren had a terrific spring game last year, but looked uncomfortable and a little wild in game action last year. He was 0-for-5 with an INT when he got playing time, and it seems unlikely at the moment that he would get the keys to the kingdom as QB1. If Michigan wants a veteran to take over for McCarthy, Sherrone Moore could turn to Jack Tuttle. Tuttle is back for his seventh year — as mentioned above — and he has some game experience. Tuttle saw game action in all four seasons at Indiana and he looked pretty good when he played for Michigan last season. He had command of the offense and even showed that he could tuck the football and run with it. But do the Wolverines want to go with the seventh-year guy after seeing a young, J.J. McCarthy for two straight years? And if the Wolverines want to go young, they can go with true freshman, Jadyn Davis. He’s definitely a wild card that has massive potential. He was a one-time five-star recruit who ended as a four-star. Davis won Mr. Football in North Carolina and put up impressive stats as a senior. But with the brutal ’24 schedule the Wolverines will take on this upcoming season, it may not be a great idea to throw a freshman into the fire right off the bat. It wouldn’t be shocking to see Davis get some run — like McCarthy back in 2021 — but it would be a little surprising to see him start Week 1.
If Rittenberg would be correct and Michigan would look into the transfer portal when it re-opens in spring, it could lead to some kind of domino effect with the current roster. First off, there isn’t anyone that would start for Michigan that is currently out there. It would have to be a player that’s unhappy with his role come spring time that wants a fresh start. Look at Ohio State for example — not that an OSU QB would transfer to Ann Arbor. But the Buckeyes have two five-star freshman and Will Howard — the former Kansas State starting QB. It’s highly unlikely all three of those players will be happy, especially when two of them will be riding the bench. You could see one of them transferring out and that’s like any school out there that has multiple good quarterbacks on the roster. They all want to play and if they don’t — the transfer portal is an option. So, yeah, Michigan could look at the portal in spring and find a situation like that.
But if Michigan would take a QB, then the Wolverines are bound to lose a couple of their current signal callers. Both Orji and Denegal have been on the team for three years now and both want their shot. If Michigan lands another QB from the portal then one or both of those guys could exit to find a team they could start on.
Picking the next starting quarterback for Michigan is an intriguing topic, but it’s also a very tough one to figure out. As I mentioned earlier, the Wolverines have a young and inexperienced room. But if given the chance, one of these young guys — who have tremendous potential — could surprise you in 2024.
