Alex Orji doing 'damn good job' as Michigan scout team quarterback ahead of matchup with Alabama

As far as mobile quarterbacks go, Michigan Wolverines football will face its toughest test yet in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl Jan. 1.

Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe is dynamic with his legs, having rushed for 468 yards and 12 touchdowns so far this season. He’s also completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 2,718 yards and 23 touchdowns with 6 picks. He possesses the ability to extend plays and find open receivers even when the first couple reads aren’t there.

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Considering how unique a challenge facing Milroe is, Michigan has an ideal situation in that it can call upon sophomore Alex Orji to play some scout team quarterback to prepare the Maize and Blue defense for the Crimson Tide.

Sophomore tight end Colston Loveland said Monday that Orji has gotten quite a bit of reps in that role and he’s done a “damn good job” in it. Senior defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, one of the players tasked with chasing Orji (and eventually Milroe) around, believes the 6-foot-3, 236-pounder has given them a great look.

“He’s a freak of nature,” Jenkins said. “You just see how much effort he puts in the weight room, you see how jacked he is, how athletic he is. He’s really a freak of nature. Every single day, he comes in with that mindset of being the best player, the best version of himself he can be. You see that every single day. Complete props to him. He’s an athlete. He’s going to continue to do great things from this point forward.”

Added Jenkins of facing the Michigan quarterback in practice: “It definitely gives a lot of conditioning for us. He’s a quick boy. He moves. We think he’s definitely giving us a good look, getting us prepped and ready to turn on the burners when we play Jan. 1.”

Jenkins isn’t the only one to label Orji a ‘freak.’ The Sachse, Texas, native checked in No. 50 on The Athletic reporter Bruce Feldman’s list of the top ‘freaks’ in college football ahead of the 2023 campaign. Feldman reported that Orji ranked No. 1 on the team in cumulative KPI (key performance indicators) score, vertical jumped 41 inches, did 2.34 in the reactive plyo stairs, broad jumped 10-6, ran 3.97 in the shuttle and clocked a 6.65 in the three-cone drill.

Orji has also had a role in the offense the last two games, after exclusively playing in garbage time prior to that. He rushed 2 times for 22 yards, including ripping off a 20-yard run, during the first drive of the third quarter in a 30-24 victory over Ohio State Nov. 25. He also rushed twice for 9 yards as part of a change-of-pace package in the Big Ten championship game against Iowa, a 26-0 Michigan win.

Kris Jenkins on facing Jalen Milroe

Jenkins and the Michigan defense have scouted Milroe over the last couple weeks and understand the challenge they’ll be up against.

“He’s an athletic quarterback — definitely a weapon” Jenkins said of Alabama’s 6-foot-2, 220-pounder. “He has the opportunity to make plays and also make plays on the scramble. Definitely have to keep an eye out for that and give him that respect, because he’s a good dawg.

“We’re definitely going to have to do our best with our pass rush and be mindful that he can’t get out of the pocket. But we know that’s something he can do, so we’re going to be aware of that.”

Michigan has placed a bigger emphasis on “effort and angles,” one of the defense’s pillars, this season. Milroe’s athleticism will put the strides the Wolverines have made in that area to the test.

“This is definitely going to hone down on everything we’ve been prepping for all season, how well we’ve been using our technique and fundamentals to this point,” Jenkins said. “We’re just focusing on fine-tuning the details of that so we can get ready and play this game to the best of our ability.

“We definitely stressed angles, and this was probably one of the best things that I’ve learned in football — the art of angles and identifying where the opposing player is at and where your teammates are at, how to take the best angles to get him, overlap plays, vice tackle, etc. Really just identifying the different ways you can tackle and approach a ball-carrier, so that way when you’re on the field, you just snap, you just go like that.”