The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1527978
20 THE WOLVERINE ❱ NOVEMBER 2024 ing able to go out there with the team that we have, the guys we have up front, the backs we have, the defense we have, they're going to make it a lot easier for the quarterback position to play. At the end of the day, [it's all about] the way Coach Moore and Coach [Kirk] Camp- bell are able to scheme it up. People will say it's hard to win with only 32 passing yards, but we've got the dawgs to do it. We went out there and got it done." No matter the chatter, he's not about to abandon ship. He never has, accord- ing to those who have watched him every step of the way. LOOKING OUT FOR OTHERS Dr. Mariam Orji maintains a keen eye for detail. That comes with the territory, for a private practice surgeon associated with several hospitals in the Dallas area. She and her husband, Willy — both im- migrants from Nigeria — produced three football-playing sons. Alston and An- fernee played college ball at Vanderbilt, with Anfernee going on to the New Or- leans Saints. Alex, her youngest, learned from his older brothers while never using his size and athletic status to impose on his classmates. Just the opposite. He seemed to possess a natural heart for others and their best interests — The Team, The Team, The Team, before he ever gave Michigan a thought. "He was always very kind," Dr. Orji recalled. "I call him my baby boy, be- cause he is the baby of the three. But he was always kind and took care of his classmates. Being a bigger kid, what he learned at home is, you don't want to be a bully. Don't allow your classmates to get bullied. It's not just not being the bully, but it's important not to watch other kids being bullied. "You have the opportunity to be dif- ferent. Even in middle school and high school, he made sure to be there for his classmates, and not just watching while others were being bullied. Some of the things you teach, they remember. It sinks in." The "bigger kid" aspect of the equa- tion made it a bit easier for a mom to watch her son move from flag football battles to the ones involving serious contact. "All my kids were big," she said. "They got bigger, quicker. The way they were growing when they were little, you'd think they were going to be seven feet tall. They stopped growing at 14 or 15." Orji's parents didn't stop being con- cerned about his health, regardless. Given her medical orientation, Dr. Orji invoked the size and mental prepared- ness aspects when her youngest — who participated in a host of other sports — began leaning toward football. "To be honest, my kids were always the bigger kids, even from Pee Wee foot- ball," she said. "That was always reassur- ing. Of course, as they got bigger, it was important for them to play safely. We of- ten had family meetings and talked about the sport. They were little when the con- cussion movie came out. We watched it together and talked about it. We talked about sports in general, and how it's im- portant, no matter what you're doing, to still get an education, because sports can be easily taken away. "My husband was very proactive about making sure they understood the safety of the sports. I'm a physician myself, so it's important to me that they be safe. I didn't ignore the dangers of the sport." Others weren't ignoring the undeni- able nature of her son's athletic skills. When he was in middle school, a schol- arship offer from Baylor University showed up in the mailbox. "In eighth grade," she marveled. "It was weird, because I was like, what does this mean? What are they talking about? He was very athletic and did a little bit of everything." Everything included basketball, a sport in which his high-flying abilities also drew notice that same year. Video of a particularly spectacular Orji dunk made its way online, and his mother again found herself surprised over all the fuss. "There was this dunk, and somebody posted the video," she recalled. "They talked about how his entire head was higher than the rim. I would not have Orji put up modest passing numbers in three starts (23-for-43, 143 yards and 3 passing touchdowns) but has proven himself to be an additional potent weapon in the U-M ground game. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL