ANN ARBOR – When Sherrone Moore stepped in as head coach for the suspended Jim Harbaugh at Penn State last season, Michigan ran the ball 32 straight times and earned a 24-15 victory over a top-15 opponent.

The Wolverines debuted a new starting quarterback on Saturday against No. 11 USC and followed a similarly physical, energy-sapping offensive game. Junior Alex Orji, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound dynamic athlete who had attempted just seven passes in his career before Saturday’s Big Ten opener, had a quiet first throw, but it didn’t matter.

Michigan rushed for 290 yards and carried the ball on 46 of 58 offensive plays, including eight of 10 plays in the game-winning touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter that gave the team a 27-24 lead with 37 seconds left.

“It feels great,” Mullings, who rushed for a career high 159 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries, said of the running game. “That’s always going to be our goal. Most teams are going to pack the box. They’re going to try to stop the run against us. We know that going in and we know we have to run anyway. That’s a big part of football. It’s a big part of who we are and it feels great to do that and dominate another team like that.”

The 18th-ranked Wolverines (3-1, 1-0) dominated the running game in the first half with 199 rushing yards, but the Trojans suppressed the running game in the second half until late in the fourth quarter.

Michigan failed to get a first down on its first five drives of the second half, but never gave up the run. Mullings broke off a 63-yard run, the longest of his career, in which he passed and spun through several USC defenders to put the team in the red zone with just over a minute left in the game. He capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run on fourth down and goal.

Meanwhile, Orji completed a 10-yard pass on his drive – his longest of the day – but completed 7 of 12 passes for 32 yards – the fewest by a Michigan quarterback since 1987.

“If we had thrown a million yards today and lost, I’d be sitting here crying,” Orji said. “Whatever it takes to win. Whether it’s 32 yards, whether it’s 10, whether it’s 100, I don’t care. A lot of people asked me what I hoped to achieve in my first start: I wanted an All-Pro win with ball security, and that’s what we got.”

Orji was named the starter this week largely because Davis Warren had trouble with turnovers in the first three games. Warren had thrown six interceptions in 2024 before being benched in favor of Orji in the third quarter of last week’s win over Arkansas State.

Although the Wolverines didn’t produce any explosive plays in the passing game, Orji didn’t lose the ball on Saturday and was included in the running game as well. Michigan often operated in jumbo packages with an extra offensive lineman and called several quarterback runs with Orji, who rushed for 43 yards on 13 carries.

However, not all of his attempts were intentional. The Wolverines tried to throw down the field with a flea flicker in the second quarter, but the Trojans wouldn’t let them. Instead of forcing a throw, Orji grabbed the ball and fought his way to a 6-yard gain on the first attempt. Two plays later, Donovan Edwards ripped off a 41-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.

“I enjoyed every minute,” Moore said of the win, despite producing minimal results in the passing game. “It’s my dream to see that. Yes, I want to throw the ball, but when you can run the ball effectively, it breaks you down a little bit. For us, our guys, the look in their eyes, how they prepared and how they practiced, we adjusted some things in practice to make it a little more competitive and physical. The guys responded and they liked it. They really took it to heart. The O-line, I’m so proud of them for being so hard on them. So proud of what they did and how they played today. Shout out to them.”

Orji, a spiritual man who says he reads the Bible regularly, said his confidence never wavered even though Michigan nearly blew a double-digit lead in the second half. While the Wolverines’ offense stalled, USC picked up yards in the second half and took a 24-20 lead with 7:01 left.

But Michigan found its way back to its smashmouth running game towards the end of the quarter, marching 89 yards in 3:25 minutes.

“I can’t thank God enough for putting me in this position,” Orji said. “I can’t thank Coach Moore enough for giving me the opportunity to lead this offense. Every single one, the confidence that they’ve instilled in me this week, but also since I’ve been here wearing the Block M, it’s unmatched. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. This family is just different. It’s something else.”

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