The Michigan Glutton found themselves in a desperate spot on the road against Washington on Saturday night, trailing 14-0 in the second quarter. And their head coach, Sherrone Moore, decided to make the move, shake things up and bench a quarterback Alex Orji. He decided to deploy a backup Jack Tuttle in the game to see if he could cause their offense. It paid off quickly, with Tuttle leading the Wolverines on back-to-back scoring drives near the end of the first half to close the gap to 14-10 at the break.

At halftime, the NBC sideline reporter informed everyone why Moore decided to make the move and go with Tuttle for the rest of the game.

“Back-to-back scoring drive from Jack Tuttle ended the first half. I just asked Sherrone Moore why he decided to ultimately make that switch at quarterback. He said it was simple: we needed a little boost. And he provided that energy. He provided that spark. He has been practicing well all week. He is healthy,” the NBC sideline reporter explained.

When did he know Tuttle would be ready to play Washington? “We’ve known it for a few weeks now, but it was finally time to put him in the game,” Sherrone Moore’s NBC broadcast said.

In the limited action he saw in the first half, Tuttle completed 3 of 4 passes for 26 yards. As a runner, he had two carries for 14 yards. The Michigan offense seemed to run much more effectively with Tuttle in the game in the first half.

Orji handled the bench well and gave Jack Tuttle a hug before entering the game, Jason Avant said. Tuttle has seen limited reps for Michigan over the years, so Saturday won’t be his first taste of action for the maize and blue. In 2023, he completed 15 of 17 passes for 130 passing yards while throwing in one touchdown. As a runner, he had four carries for 35 yards.

Tuttle has a career stat line of 1,031 yards, six touchdowns, six interceptions and a 59.8% completion percentage through 21 games. He spent four years at Indiana before transferring to Michigan ahead of the 2023 season. Tuttle also started his career at Utah prior to the Hoosiers.

As a member of the Class of 2018, Tuttle was a four-star recruit out of San Marcos (Calif.) Mission Hills, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average using all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 25 overall prospect in the state, the No. 14 quarterback in the class and the No. 163 overall prospect in the class.

Nick Kosko from On3 also contributed to this article.