ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Nick Saban, Lincoln Riley and Deion Sanders all wanted Alex Orji. But Orji wanted something different.
Orji, a quarterback whose athleticism has captivated coaches every step of his career, will make his first start Saturday when No. 18 Michigan faces No. 11 USC. The coach on the other sideline, Riley, personally offered Orji a scholarship while he was at Oklahoma, Orji’s father said. Saban also wanted Orji to go to Alabama, but there was a catch.
Willy Orji, Alex’s father, remembers a conversation with Saban that took place during a recruiting visit to Tuscaloosa. Saban told Alex he could get a scholarship from Alabama, but only if he was open to another position. Alex looked at Saban, at his father, and explained that he had worked too hard to become a quarterback to give up on the dream.
“There were a lot of people talking to him,” said Red Behrens, Orji’s coach at Sachse High School in Texas. “I’m talking about big schools, all the head coaches. What Alex wanted to hear from them was, “We’re going to give you a strong shot at being a quarterback.”
Before college football fans were introduced to Coach Prime, Sanders also tried to get Orji on his team. Sanders had a youth football program called Truth Sports in the Dallas metroplex, and Orji grew up playing on teams with Sanders’ sons, Shilo and Shedeur. Before becoming head coach at Jackson State, Sanders was on the staff at Trinity Christian Academy near Dallas, the school his sons attended.
Deion wanted Orji to play for Trinity Christian, Willy said, but there was one problem. Shedeur was the quarterback and no one beat him. To get on the field at Trinity, Orji would have had to play a different position. Instead, he decided to play at Sachse, where his quarterback highlights became legendary.
There was a time when Deion Sanders recruited Alex Orji to play for his high school team in the Dallas area. (Photo courtesy of Willy Orji)
Mention one play in particular to Behrens, and he will describe it as if it happened yesterday. Orji was flushed from the pocket and scrambled into the end zone. All he had to do was drop his shoulder and plow through a defensive back, but he decided to take a different route, leaping inches over the defender.
“Athletically, he’s one in a million,” Behrens said.
With so many coaches salivating over Orji’s potential, it was only a matter of time before one of them figured out how to get him on the field. And yet, Orji’s debut as Michigan’s starter comes with more than a little trepidation. Three weeks ago, Michigan evaluated its quarterback competition and decided to go with Davis Warren. It wasn’t until Warren threw six interceptions in three games that the Wolverines changed course and named Orji the starter.
The question with Orji is the same as always: Is he polished enough as a passer to play quarterback at the highest level?
“He has great arm strength,” coach Sherrone Moore said. “The accuracy has improved enormously. It’s going to take tremendous preparation mentally, physically and spiritually this week to get him where we need to be, and I think he will do that.
Orji was one of those high school students who could do a little bit of everything. He was a sprinter, a high jumper, a basketball player, a safety, a wide receiver, a linebacker and a gambler. Initially, he didn’t see himself as a quarterback.
Orji has two older brothers, Alston and Anfernee, who played linebacker at Vanderbilt. Anfernee signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2023, was on the practice squad last year and played in both of the Saints’ games this season.
Orji is built like a 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker, and it was logical to assume he would follow in his brothers’ footsteps on defense. When he was in high school, he started training with Kevin Mathis, who played with Deion in Dallas and coached with him throughout his career. Mathis, now the cornerbacks coach at Colorado, was the one who threw Orji at quarterback.
“He kept trying to get him to do it,” Willy said. “Alex felt comfortable with what he had always done: avoiding kids and pushing kids around.”
Orji started playing quarterback in high school, but it wasn’t until his junior season at Sachse that his future at the position came into focus. He transferred to Sachse during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Behrens didn’t have many chances to evaluate him before the season started. Behrens placed him at quarterback and quickly discovered he had a weapon.
“People tried to grab him or arm tackle him, he broke through that, spun out of it and just kept rolling,” Behrens said. “Most high school students didn’t like standing in front of him.”
As a senior at Sachse, Orji rushed for more than 1,000 yards and threw for more than 2,000 while completing 51 percent of his passes. He was recruited by some big schools, but most wanted him as an athlete and not as a quarterback. An exception was Virginia Tech, which ran an offense similar to the one Orji played in at Sachse.
Orji committed to the Hokies as a three-star recruit in the Class of 2022. A few weeks before signing day, Virginia Tech fired Justin Fuente and he decided to reevaluate his options. He visited Michigan and met with coach Jim Harbaugh, who said it was up to Orji to decide if and when he wanted to try another position. If Orji wanted to play quarterback, Michigan wanted to give him the opportunity.
“As long as I’m here, we’re going to develop you and get you where you need to be,” Willy remembers Harbaugh saying.
Michigan had a package of plays for Orji last season and used him in big moments, including the Rose Bowl and the Ohio State game. When Harbaugh left for the NFL and JJ McCarthy declared for the draft, Michigan’s starting quarterback job was there for the taking. Orji didn’t win the job in the spring, but most signs pointed to him being the player who would take Michigan’s first snap of the season.
“Even if we’re at the top of college football, I want to take us to the next level,” Orji said this spring. “Whoever goes out on Saturday, whoever is on the field, I want to make sure I do everything I can to be selfless in my pursuit of excellence.”
By most accounts, Orji had a strong start to preseason camp. Halfway through he hit a rough patch and made too many turnovers. Warren gradually played better and won the starting job.
Willy of course wanted to know what had happened. Did Orji take his foot off the accelerator? Was he too confident? Didn’t he work hard enough? Orji reprimanded his father and reminded him that there were more important things than being the starter. Orji promised to be a good teammate, support Warren where he could and continue to work for his opportunities.
“If you’re a father and your child is trying to teach you something, listen,” Willy said.
Michigan’s first drive of the season ended with Orji throwing a three-yard touchdown pass to Donovan Edwards. The Wolverines used him as a change of pace a few times at a time, but Warren was the primary quarterback. Despite two interceptions against Texas, Warren remained the starter against Arkansas State and grabbed every second of the first half. Late in the third quarter, after Warren’s third interception of the game, Michigan made the switch to Orji.
Moore was non-committal after the game, but he arrived at his Monday news conference with an announcement: Orji was taking over as Michigan’s starting quarterback. The public announcement came as a surprise to some, including two Michigan players who met with reporters after Moore spoke. Moore made it clear that the job was Orji’s and that he had the team’s full support.
“We have a plan in place for Alex, and we’re ready to put it on display,” Moore said.
Disappointment would have been a natural reaction had Orji not won the job in camp despite being considered the frontrunner for most of the offseason. If Orji was stung by the decision, his father didn’t see it. Moore said he saw no change in Orji’s confidence or behavior after informing the quarterbacks that Warren would open the season as the starter.
“His attitude never wavered,” Moore said. “He was clearly disappointed. He is a competitor. He’s a guy who wants to be the starter. If I was a quarterback competing for the job, I’d want to do it too. But the way he led, the way he acted, the way he presented himself was no different than today.”
No one knows for sure how Orji’s first start will go. He has completed seven passes in his career and it is still unclear how his athleticism will translate into the role of a full-time quarterback. The only way to answer that question is to put the ball in his hands and see what he can do.
Now is the time for Michigan to find out.
“There were a lot of schools, but they always seemed to go back to, ‘We’ll find a place for you to play,’” Behrens said. “He wanted to hear, ‘We’re going to give you a real shot at quarterback.’ Michigan gave him that opportunity.”
(Top photo: Rick Osentoski / Imagn Images)