Alex Orji Named Starter: A Game Changer?

Welcome to a special edition of the Jolly Good Fellow podcast! Breaking news: Alex Orji has been named the starter for this week's matchup as the USC Trojans visit the Michigan Wolverines. In this episode, we dive into what this means for the team and how it might impact their performance.

We discuss Davis Warren's recent performance against Arkansas State, where despite some offensive line issues, he threw three interceptions. The offensive scheme, dubbed the "dink and dunk and shoot," has been uninspired, leading to a call for change.

Alex Orji's entry into the game resulted in a touchdown drive, sparking hope for a more dynamic offense. While Orji has had his struggles, including a notable miss against Fresno State, his potential to bring something new to the table is exciting.

The episode explores the pros and cons of this decision, analyzing past performances and future matchups. Can Orji's legs and play-action potential rejuvenate Michigan's offense? Tune in to hear our thoughts and predictions for the upcoming game against USC.

Don't forget to hit subscribe, like, and leave a comment. Go Blue!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, welcome to a special edition of the Jolly Good Fellow podcast.
Breaking news, Alex Orji has been named the starter for this week's matchup
as the USC Trojans come to the big house to take on the Michigan Wolverines.
And wanted to get in front of you all and do a quick pod to talk about what this means.

(00:25):
Obviously, against Arkansas State, Davis Warren threw a perfect game, meaning he was 11-14.
But technically had zero incompletions because those three incompletions were
actually thrown and completed to the other team. Three interceptions for Davis Warren.
There were some offensive line issues at play. I don't think he looked that

(00:46):
bad. My bigger issue is with the scheme of the offense.
I named it the dink and dunk and shoot.
I might change that. It would just shorten it and call it the dink raid after the air raid.
Regardless, the point being, if you're not throwing the ball deeper than 10
yards down the field on a vast, vast majority of your passes,

(01:07):
the other team is going to be able to cheat up their defense and you're not
going to get any yards after catch.
Really, the offense is very just, for lack of a better word, uninspired.
So at the end of the game, they did put in Alex Orji, had one touchdown drive.
He ended up completing a touchdown pass from the nine-yard line to get us into

(01:27):
the end zone and get us our final points of the day as we won that game.
At that point, it was 28-3. It looked like we were winning going away.
Arkansas State, against their backups, put in a couple of late scores to make it 28-18.
But really the question is.
Is this good news that Alex Orji is starting, or is this bad news?

(01:49):
And I think you can make the argument either way.
For those that would say it's bad news, Alex Orji hasn't looked too incredible
in his chances throwing the ball.
He had the now infamous throw, everyone
will talk about it, the throw from Fresno State where he threw it.
I think it was like nine yards or five yards in front of Tyler Morris on a quick screen pass.

(02:11):
Didn't look good, and he hasn't looked great. I
am going to go out on a limb though at least from my
perspective how I'm looking at this team how they
perform so far this year and where they're
going I think this is great news for this
squad yes Alex Orjamp sure has some of his limitations through what at least
from what we've seen so far with this throwing ability but that being said if

(02:36):
we keep doing what we have always done we're going to keep getting the same
results and that Davis Warren offense really no fault all to his own,
was limited. It wasn't going to take us anywhere.
It was clear they weren't going to use his legs.
They weren't going to give him opportunities to throw the ball deep downfield.
And so at least this is something different, right? My thought is it can't get much worse.

(03:00):
And for example, when you say like, how bad is this offense?
Against Fresno State, our offense scored 23 points.
Yes, the team total was 30 because the defense had that pick six late Late in
the game, Will Johnson took it back. Been an incredible play.
Offense only produced 23 points.
Sacramento State against that Fresno team the very next week put up 30 on them.

(03:23):
So Sacramento State, Michigan. Something's not similar there.
Then if you want to look at it against Arkansas State, Central Arkansas.
It's an FCS team. They scored 31 points.
And had over 400 yards of offense against Arkansas State.
We did not, even though it was a comfortable win up until Arkansas State's final

(03:47):
two scores, we did not blow it out of the water on offense.
And so you have to be concerned about that. And that's why I think this is such great news.
Let's get Orgy out there and see what he can do. Give him a chance because it
quite literally can't get much worse.
I think this team, as they've been playing on offense, especially if the defense
isn't absolutely lights out, But we're looking at a 7-5, 6-6 type team.

(04:11):
I hate to break it to you. We're going to lose the four major games,
Texas, USC, Oregon, Ohio State.
And then on top of that, we're probably going to lose the road game at Washington
or Michigan State or Indiana has been looking good.
It's very likely we drop one or two of those as well.
So we need to do something different. We need to come up with some creativity

(04:32):
and a way to move the ball, the way to keep the defense off the field and get
us into more scoring drives.
And I think Alex Orji at least gives us that potential with his legs and his running ability.
That being said, we'll know a lot, just a few drives into the USC game.
What type of scheme are we running? Are we running the same dink raid type offense

(04:55):
with Alex Orji, or are we using his legs, using read options, using play action pass,
and really giving the defense some questions that they need to answer.
There was the one pass where Alex Orji did a play action.
I think it was Fred Moore had him deep downfield, wide open,
10, 15 yards. No one was even in the screen, just overthrew him.

(05:16):
And obviously the overthrow, you'd like to see us complete that.
But if we can get some wide open receivers down the field, it at least makes
those safeties back up, opens up the run game, and you hope that we can see some success there.
So I just wanted to update everyone. I do Do you think it's good news that Alex
orgy is getting the start? Because I think we're all ready to see something different.

(05:36):
I said this in, in my last pod, I can't imagine there's a world where they went
all off season. They thought orgy was the guy.
And then you don't have the rich rod, urban Myers spread run option offense installed, right?
Like they have to have some wrinkles in here specifically for this guy.
It'll be USC's first, first chance to see it, right? that there's no tape on

(06:02):
what we're actually going to do outside of just a few plays scattered through
the first couple of games and then the last couple of drives against Arkansas State.
So I wouldn't get too optimistic. I do think there's still some questions on
this offense that we need to answer.
But, hey, it's better than going in with what we've seen out of the Davis-Warren
offense the first few games.

(06:23):
So go ahead, hit the subscribe button, hit the like, leave me a comment.
I appreciate your time, and go blue.