Michigan QBs Davis Warren & Alex Orji must do this in order to beat Texas | KLATT YOUTUBE EXCLUSIVE

Hey, welcome in, everybody. It's Joel Klatt from "The Joel Klatt Show." And I got this video exclusive right here for the Joel Klatt show to YouTube. And we're to be talking about the Michigan offense in preparation for Michigan, preparing for and playing Texas this Saturday. Big Noon Saturday is going to be live from Michigan. OK, so Michigan last week, listen, was the offense great? No, I don't think it was. And a lot of people surprised that they went with kind of a two-quarterback system-- Alex Orji, at times, although a minimal amount of snaps. And then the starter, Davis Warren, which was a bit of a surprise for most people that follow this closely. So Davis Warren comes in, and now these two guys are going to be asked to do two very different things. You see, I'm always asked, can you have a two-quarterback system? And I always answer with, well, do they do the same thing or do they do different things? Because if these two guys, Alex Orji and Davis Warren, in this case, are asked to do two different things, excuse me, in this system, then it can work. And that is what happened against Fresno State. Now, they were stagnant at some points, but let's go into what they're going to be asked to do and what they need to do in order to do those things well. Let's start with Alex Orji. And on a third down late in the game, you're going to see that Alex Orji is doing exactly what he needs to do for this team. Here he is in the backfield, and what you're going to see is he has the opportunity to make them, Michigan, right, regardless of what the defense does. And in this case, the defense has, count them, 10 players in the run box. That would be incredibly difficult to run against if you're just going to hand the ball off to the running back in a traditional run play. The difference, though, is that they can read it. And Alex Orji, you guys know this following college football, he can read the end and if the end crashes down, then Alex Orji can get out on the outside. So once that happens, now you have the numbers in the run front. And that's a great fake. And look at him, he gets out to the outside. So what is he looking at? It's very simple. He's looking at this outside player. If he crashes down, then he's going to take off out of the outside. He did a great job with the play fake. So if he can serve that purpose for Michigan, then that's exactly what they need him to do. And he needs to do it to the best of his ability. Now, what do they ask Davis Warren for? For Davis Warren, it's about the ability to attack the defense in the passing game. He needs to be a requisite thrower of the football. Now, you can say, like, hey, he did fine on the short stuff, but he's got to do better than that, because explosive plays become important. That's one of the things that JJ McCarthy really excelled in last year, namely stuff like third down, like we just saw from Alex Orji, getting it with his legs. And then when the opportunity arises, take advantage of the defense and create those shot plays down the field. Now, early in this game, Michigan had an opportunity to take a two-score lead, and Davis Warren did not capitalize. Let me take you to the film and show you what happened. First and foremost, you're going to see that his pocket is going to be totally clean. The offensive line did a wonderful job. Now, he's going to be reading this safety on this near side hash to him. As soon as that safety sits or comes down, then what he's got is he's got a post over the top. And when that post clears that safety, then he's got to put that ball way out in front, into the end zone, and away from the corner at the top of your screen. So, let's take a look at the pocket first and let me show you why Davis Warren shorted this ball. First of all, he comes out, safety sits, and he's got an incredible pocket right there. He's got the opportunity to step up, get over his front foot, and really drive this football down the field in front of his wide receiver. This should be a touchdown. Safety sits. I've got speed over the top, and I've got a clean pocket. As a quarterback, you've got to take advantage of this. But here's what happened-- he sets on his back foot and kind of throws it fading away. And what happens? It's shorted. So his footwork and execution lead them into an interception. It's not his arm strength. It's his footwork. If he steps into that throw, he's going to throw that much more accurately down the field. Later in the game, he did a better job of this. And I'll take you to this touchdown throw. So now, he's going to have Colston Loveland over the top after a little bit of a play fake here in the back end. But again, let's pay attention to the pocket that he has and then his footwork into the throw. So after the play fake, he's going to make his read and he's got the one-on-one. Here's the little fake to Kalel Mullings, and then right there, boom-- look at the pocket. It's a clean pocket. And now, look at the difference in his footwork and his posture. He's throwing this ball, and getting up over his front foot, and driving the football down the field. When you get on top of the ball like this, is what quarterbacks would say, what are you going to do? You're going to throw it accurately. And that's exactly what happens. So he throws it accurately down the field, and then your tight end can run through it. Now, you might be saying to yourself, those are two totally different passes. Yes, but the technique has to be the same. He's got to take that quality footwork, driving the football like an intermediate ball over the middle, and take that into his deep ball down the field. If you do that, you create explosive plays, because the last thing you want to do is short that ball and create an interception and a turnover for your team. Michigan should have had a two-score lead early in this game, maybe we feel different about their offense. But some of those issues were corrected. Davis Warren's got to have better footwork. Alex Orji, he's got to be a wizard in the ball handling and managing those numbers in the run game.