Observations on J.J. McCarthy, Michigan football quarterbacks from spring game

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan Wolverines football quarterbacks had some ups and downs in Saturday’s spring game. Here are our observations on the group from the intrasquad scrimmage.

• Rapid reaction observations from Michigan spring football game

J.J. McCarthy starts slow, finishes strong

McCarthy was the lone Michigan quarterback to be in all white, meaning he couldn’t be touched. He led the Maize team to begin, and didn’t get off to a great start. He threw an interception on the first drive, lofting a ball up into traffic, which was picked off by graduate safety Quinten Johnson.

Michigan’s starting quarterback began 1-of-4 passing, with that interception, and got “sacked” twice during that stretch, as well. His team also fumbled, which didn’t help him stay on the field and continue leading its second drive. Because of that, McCarthy stayed in the entire first half, despite originally planning on only playing the first quarter (per the Michigan radio crew).

That gave McCarthy some more work — and it was a real positive. He completed the rest of his 7 pass attempts, looking crisp while doing so.

McCarthy had a 22-yard completion to senior wideout Cornelius Johnson, a 12-yard connection with sophomore Darrius Clemons, 20-, 15- and 5-yard hookups with junior Peyton O’Leary, a 7-yard pass to graduate Leon Franklin, before his best play of the day.

Michigan’s quarterback is great when he’s on the move, and that’s how he threw his touchdown pass, a 5-yarder to senior Jake Thaw. He saw some pressure up the middle, scrambled to his left, pulled up and fired a dart to Thaw off just his right leg, placed perfectly in the end zone for the score.

That ended a beautifully-executed two-minute drill, a good sign. McCarthy got plenty of reps all spring and started 13 games last season. He’s got experience. But putting him in that kind of situation is a huge plus for Michigan, keeping him sharp.

McCarthy’s day was done at halftime, and he had to feel good about how he finished things off.

Jack Tuttle came out firing, Davis Warren flashed again

Graduate Jack Tuttle, an Indiana transfer, was “on fire” the first week of spring ball, per Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. That’s how he came out to start the spring game, too.

The biggest surprise when it came to Tuttle was his running ability. That’s not something he showed much of with the Hoosiers — he rushed 50 times for 82 yards in four seasons (1.6 yards per carry). Tuttle took off 9 times for 16 yards in this one, which doesn’t pop off the page, but he did gain 28 (sacks brought him down to 16) and get key yardage at opportune times.

He also failed to take care of the ball on two occasions, fumbling while being hit by sophomore linebacker Ernest Hausmann and throwing a pick to sophomore safety Zeke Berry. That’s something he can’t do if he gets in a real game, and a negative mark on what was an otherwise solid showing.

Tuttle has “moxie.” It’s almost funny how loosely defined of a term that is, but his decisiveness stands out and leads us to making that description. He definitely used his experience to his advantage, showing that executing in that type of environment was no big thing.

The Michigan backup completed 6 of his 12 passes for 57 yards but made some nice, accurate throws.

Junior Davis Warren was the spring game star a year ago, and he impressed for a second season in a row. His second half for the Maize team was similar to McCarthy’s first stanza. He threw an interception early on, into the wind with sophomore cornerback Myles Pollard coming away with it. Warren was 2-for-6 passing at that point.

One of his first throws was a good one, though, over the middle to senior tight end Matthew Hibner. The tight end did the rest, running down the sideline 52 yards until falling at the 10-yard line (“turf monsters” caught him).

He got on track after the interception, though, including with a 34-yard bomb to junior wideout Peyton O’Leary, Warren’s roommate.

In impressive fashion, Warren led the Michigan Maize team’s game-winning drive. He hit O’Leary on a 22-yarder, a 30-yarder during the possession, before Franklin ran in a touchdown to get within 1 point. Then, Maize head coach Mike Hart rolled the dice by going for two, with Warren hitting O’Leary in the end zone — great ball, great route and catch — to take the lead.

The day ended with Warren kneeling down after what was a nice turnaround.

Especially early in the game, it certainly felt like Tuttle was ahead in the Michigan backup quarterback competition. But Warren showed enough later on to prove that this will be a battle going into summer and fall. Warren still has a lot of promise and is only getting better.

Alex Orji is intruiging

Michigan sophomore quarterback Alex Orji continues to be an interesting player. It’s tough to figure out what his role should be. The 6-3, 235-pounder has the body of a linebacker (he would’ve been perfect for the ‘viper’ role the Wolverines had under former defensive coordinator Don Brown). But he’s still shown enough for the Michigan staff to have him on offense.

Orji is a runner, first and foremost, and that’s how he was used in the spring game. The Blue team put him in on some first and second downs, before reinserting Tuttle for third down. He lowered his shoulder and absolutely rocked senior safety R.J. Moten on one rush. Eventually, Orji got to lead most of his own drives.

He finished with 4 completions on 6 pass attempts for 47 yards and a touchdown, and 5 rushes for 18 yards. H

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