The Michigan-Ohio rivalry has never been more tense since Sherrone Moore took over the reins from Jim Harbaugh. Despite a successful record against OSU, Michigan is being ranked lower than Ohio for the Big 10 championship. More notably, the team has chosen to replace JJ McCarthy’s talent with Alex Orji, who is already under heavy pressure to be more like Jalen Milore.

Alex Orji, the QB for the Michigan Wolverines, made his debut with the team back in 2022. Yet, it wasn’t until 2023 before the fans finally took notice of him. He appeared in 6 games and carried 15 times for 86 yards with 1 touchdown to his name. As the 2024 season draws near, he will be expected to rise to the occasion and fill out McCarthy’s big shoes, all the while trying to be “85%” of what Jalen Milroe is. Moreover, the Wolverines are being held lower than both Ohio and Penn State, even after being better than them in the last 3 years.

Alex Orji needs to be more like Jalen Milroe amid pressure from OSU and Penn State

The Wolverines have a consecutive 3-0 record against both Penn State and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Still, according to CBS Sports, they rank higher than Michigan when it comes to the odds of winning the Big 10 championship. Ohio State has +160 odds and Penn State stands at +450 while Michigan is at an underwhelming +525. Moreover, if Michigan has any hopes of making it to the CFP playoffs, they’ll have to ensure Orji is at the top of his game.

On the 9th June episode of the Michigan Football at the Voice of CFB, Farris Khan chimed in with an opinion about how Orji needs to be more like Milore this year. “I’m not expecting Orji to be JJ. I’m expecting Orji to be like Milroe but maybe 90% of Milroe, 85% of Milroe, something like that,” said Khan as he emphasized Alabama’s higher run percentage than Michigan last year. But it was the year of controversy for Michigan as they were tarnished with the reputation of “cheaters” and as such, a lot of the fans tend to believe that their victories weren’t all that significant. With all that said, here’s what Jalen Milroe had to say about the Michigan cheating scandals.

Jalen Milroe weighs in on the Michigan cheating controversy

Under Jim Harbaugh’s tenure, the Wolverines got the biggest blot on their reputation to date, when it was revealed that the management indulged in sign-stealing as an unfair advantage. The Wolverines took on Alabama in the CFP playoffs and defeated them by a score of 27-20.

A majority of the NCAA community stood behind Alabama and accused Michigan of knowing Saban’s team’s plays but that’s not what Milroe had to say. On an episode of the Bussin With the Boys podcast, Taylor Lewan asked Milroe if he thought Michigan cheated. The QB responded with a diplomatic answer and said, “It don’t matter. They won. They won. It don’t matter, they won.” Though Milroe doesn’t seem to harbor any ill intentions, he will surely want to finally land a win against the team in Ann Arbour. Almost a poetic end to his final season in the world of college football.