Sherrone Moore discussed whether Jack Tuttle will be Michigan’s starting quarterback moving forward.
Heading into their tilt against Washington, the Michigan Wolverines had one of the worst passing attacks in the nation, ranking No. 129 in passing offense through five games.
The combination of three starts from Davis Warren and two starts from Alex Orji both contributed to that ranking, and things continued to go south with Orji at the helm for his third start of the season against Washington. Orji was just 3-of-7 for 15 yards before he was benched for Jack Tuttle, who’s now in his seventh collegiate season.
Tuttle was stellar to start the game — he made quick decisions, had good accuracy, and even showed steady speed and legitimate scrambling abilities. The first three drives with Tuttle all culminated with points, turning a 14-0 deficit against Washington into a 17-14 lead. Tuttle was 7-of-9 on these drives for 78 yards and a touchdown.
Unfortunately for Tuttle, the final five drives didn’t generate a single point, while Washington went on to score 13 unanswered points. Tuttle threw an interception and lost a fumble during this stretch. Tuttle finished the game 10-of-18 for 98 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Despite Tuttle’s performance featuring both good and bad, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore was pleased with what he saw.
“I think he gave us a spark,” Moore said .
Michigan has a bye week next and Moore is in no rush to divulge who will be the starting quarterback versus Illinois. However, it sure seems like Tuttle is the frontrunner by a sizable margin based on what Moore said after the game.
“Right now, if we had to play tomorrow, I would say Tuttle would be the starting quarterback,” Moore said.
Tuttle, 23, is in his seventh collegiate season and second at Michigan. After an offseason and start to the season plagued by injury setbacks, Moore said that Tuttle was cleared to play last week.
Despite some costly turnovers and obvious rust in a hostile road environment at Washington, Moore categorized Tuttle’s performance higher than what he’s seen from other Michigan quarterbacks this season.
“We’ll see if he’ll get the start. It looks like he’s given us the best chance.” Moore said. We got to clean up the turnover at the end but he definitely had an exciting start to the game.”
The goal will be to not only have exciting starts but strong finishes, too. This is something Tuttle will have to prove if and when he is officially named the third starting quarterback for Michigan this season.