Kechaun Bennett had his target in his crosshairs. But just as he closed in to ensnare him, Alex Orji wiggled free.

Michigan football's junior quarterback veered right, looping around the first line of defense as he found an alley along the sideline before picking up steam. Enow Etta chased from behind but couldn’t catch Orji, flailing as he extended his arm to grab him. Then Orji cut left, using a downfield blocker to set up the final segment in his mad dash. Like a locomotive, Orji continued forward, reaching the end zone in a blink of an eye.

This was the final scene from the first drive of the Wolverines’ spring game in April, an 18-yard touchdown scramble that captured the tantalizing dimension in Orji's repertoire that has made him one of the leading candidates to replace the 2024 NFL draft’s 10th overall pick, J.J. McCarthy, as the point person in Michigan's offense.

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“A freak athlete,” head coach Sherrone Moore cooed this past March. “Really the ability for him to be a game-changer with the ball in his hands, running the football. … He really has a different element from the other guys.”

Mark Behrens can attest to that.

Down in Texas, under the bright Friday night lights, from his close vantage point on the sideline, he watched Orji pull a Houdini act, creating something out of nothing weekly.

“Have you watched his highlight tape?” exclaimed Behrens, Orji’s former coach at Sachse High School, located just outside Dallas. “It’s pretty impressive.”

He’s not lying.

The reel, cobbled together from his senior season in 2021, shows Orji sending pinpoint passes into the arms of receivers downfield and making one breathtaking run after another. The most intriguing cutups from the film, however, are the plays where the pass protection breaks down and Orji must improvise on the fly.

In one such instance, an interior tackle blows past Sachse’s center right off the snap, placing Orji under duress. Unfazed, Orji jukes to his left, twists around the oncoming rusher, escapes the pocket, reverses course and delivers a touchdown throw in the back of the end zone. In another, a blitzing linebacker races through the A gap and briefly has Orji in his grasp. But the QB shakes him off, looks downfield, feints a pass and then outruns the other team on a 20-yard scramble. While these kinds of moments brought joy to Behrens, he knew they must have been terribly vexing to his opponents.

“You know, I’m an old defensive guy,” Behrens said with a noticeable twang. “There’s nothing more disheartening than the quarterback being able to extend plays and extending drives with his legs. It makes a big deal especially if you’re having to revamp your whole offensive line.”

Which is exactly what Michigan is doing this offseason. The departures of LaDarius Henderson, Trevor Keegan, Drake Nugent, Zak Zinter and Karsen Barnhart set in motion a major transition phase for a unit that has been the backbone of the Wolverines’ recent golden age — 40 wins in 43 games, three consecutive Big Ten titles and the national championship in January. The coaching staff spent the spring period testing out various combinations. But it’s a process that remains ongoing. With the opener against Fresno State less than three months away, it’s hard to forecast when it will all be settled, which is why a player with Orji’s dual-threat capability could be the ideal quarterback for this specific team.

“An offensive line is like a hand,” Behrens said. “You’ve got to know what every finger is doing. And if you’ve got one finger that is going one and doing this, you’re going to have some issues. And until the chemistry gets together there, he’ll be able to help them out.”

While Moore pooh-poohed the idea that Orji could somehow gain an edge in the QB competition because of his ability to cover up any shortcomings in the blockers in front of him, he said, “We’re always wanting a mobile quarterback.”

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More so than any other candidate competing for the job — from Davis Warren to Jack Tuttle to Jayden Denegal to Jadyn Davis — Orji fits that bill. In 2023, he was deployed almost exclusively as a runner — carrying the ball on 15 of his 17 snaps while averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Serving in a specialized role as one of McCarthy’s backups, Orji tickled the imagination of Michigan’s coaching staff. Last August, former coach Jim Harbaugh even teased the idea Orji could line up as a kick returner, proclaiming in a fit of hyperbole Orji's potential to become one of the best to ever do it.

While that never materialized, Orji continued to spark intrigue inside Schembechler Hall. As he spent the leadup to the College Football Playoff semifinal victory over Alabama on the scout team impersonating the Crimson Tide’s Jalen Milroe, then-Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter observed, “Alex, in his own right, is a really good athlete and really good football player. I think he has a chance to be a really good quarterback here down the road.”

But Orji had shown little as a passer at the college level, completing a 5-yard throw during his only attempt, in a 2022 rout of UConn. Understandably, Orji has faced questions about his ability to move the offense through the air. That skepticism has persistently followed him since his days at Sachse, where he struggled to consistently deliver the ball with the right touch and completed only 50.2% of his passes during his final two seasons there.

“Coach Harbaugh told us, as a quarterback, accuracy is what’s going to get you paid,” Orji said. “Accuracy is what is going to get you the job.”

Orji has been working diligently to improve in that area. In the spring game, he connected on 13 of his 18 attempts for 103 yards. It was a solid, if not spectacular performance, which led offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell to say in one breath, “He had a couple today he’d probably like back,” before adding in another, “But you can see he can throw the football.”

Yet there never has been any doubt he could run it.

“He can make plays with his legs,” said star defensive tackle Mason Graham. “He’s a really big threat when it comes to that…Even if he doesn’t have the ball because he’s a weapon and can create opportunities.”

Just by being in the game, Orji has a profound effect, running back Donovan Edwards corroborated. The defense, as Edwards explained, can’t hedge by crashing down because of Orji’s ability to escape the pocket and reach the perimeter.

“It takes the stress off … because of Alex’s capability,” he said.

The assumption is that Michigan will continue to rely upon a ground attack that has carried the Wolverines since the program’s rebirth in 2021. Last season, even with McCarthy behind center and future NFL third-round pick Roman Wilson at receiver, Michigan still ran 60.3% of the time.

“The mentality has been for whatever it has been the last however many years,” offensive line coach Grant Newsome noted. “We’re a physical, downhill operation.”

After 10 of their 11 offensive starters exited the program this offseason, the Wolverines may be wise to lean into that identity more than ever. The receiving corps, after all, is comprised of nine players who have produced a combined total of 46 catches for 479 yards at the FBS level. Likewise, not one of the five quarterbacks vying to succeed McCarthy is a proven college passer. With the returning tight ends and running backs considered Michigan’s best assets, it stands to reason the Wolverines could regularly showcase heavy personnel packages. Orji, with his blend of speed and lower-body strength, would conceivably fit particularly well in that arrangement. To that end, Campbell said he would tailor the offense to fit the players’ individual skill sets.

“If it’s Orji,” former Michigan tight end and Big Ten Network analyst Jake Butt told the Free Press, “you’re going to see a lot more quarterback run, quarterback power and progression reads.”

But as of now, it remains speculation. No decision has been made and Moore doesn’t even want to discuss it.

“I’m not going to answer any questions about the quarterback situation,” Moore said recently.

Everyone will just have to wait for him to make his choice, including Behrens. Yet that didn’t stop Behrens from lobbying on his former player’s behalf.

Referring to Orji, he said, “Man, you talk about a specimen. You don’t see that all the time at quarterback. I’ve talked to a lot of the coaches up there and they’re very excited about him. … I think he’s got a great chance to be the guy.”

The ability to make electrifying runs, like the touchdown scramble in the spring game, is among the main reasons why.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football could put it all on Alex Orji's legs in 2024