ANN ARBOR >> Michigan, still stinging after a loss to Texas, was hoping to find its offensive identity against Arkansas State by establishing the run.

The 17th-ranked Wolverines found that elusive run game in an 28-18 win over the Red Wolves on Saturday at Michigan Stadium with 301 yards rushing and three touchdowns. But along the way, they may have created a quarterback controversy as Michigan improved to 2-1.

Quarterback Davis Warren made his third start of the season, and after a third interception, backup Alex Orji replaced him with just more than three minutes left in the third quarter and finished the game. Warren finished 11-of-14 for 122 yards but did not throw a touchdown and had the three picks. Orji was 2-of-4 for 12 yards and had three carries for 27 yards.

“Just can’t have them,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said of the interceptions. “Put the ball in harm’s way too many times. Made a change, and we’ll continue practicing and we’ll go from there.”

The first interception was partly the result of a protection breakdown for which running back Donovan Edwards took the blame, but Warren should not have made the throw. On the second pick, Warren’s right elbow was hit as he threw, and the third was a bad throw deep in the middle of the field.

“(Warren’s arm) did get hit,” Moore said of the second interception. “I’ve never played quarterback, but I can probably assume if you get hit, it’s going to affect your throw. That’s part of it, part of why he stayed in the game. The last one was just an errant throw, so we had to make a change.”

Through three games, Warren is 48-of-72 for 444 yards, two touchdowns and six interceptions.

Moore did not say who will be the starter when Michigan opens Big Ten play Saturday at home against USC.

“We’ll figure that out in practice,” Moore said.

The Wolverines also need to figure out how to get their receivers more involved. Of the 18 catches for 134 yards, only five catches for 41 were made by receivers — Fredrick Moore was targeted six times and had three catches for 38 yards, and Semaj Morgan was targeted three times and had two catches for 3 yards. The tight ends were the most productive with Marlin Klein leading the way with three catches for 43 yards, Colston Loveland, who left the game early in the second half with an undisclosed injury and returned to the sideline in street clothes, had three catches for 30 yards, and Hogan Hansen made his one catch a productive one for a 9-yard score.

Where the Wolverines made progress was in the run game which had not produced a touchdown the first two games. That was expected to emerge on Saturday considering Arkansas State (2-1) entered the game ranked 119th nationally in run defense allowing an average 199 yards a game. This was a prime opportunity for Michigan’s run game to finally get going and play the “smash” game Moore, formerly Michigan’s offensive line coach and last year’s offensive coordinator, relishes.

Michigan ran for 301 yards with Kalel Mullings and his 153 yards and two touchdowns leading the way. He had big-play bursts with a 30-yard touchdown and a 38-yard run in the fourth quarter. Donovan Edwards rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown.

“I feel like today was a great performance,” Mullings said. “I feel like we capitalized when we could.”

Edwards found balance in the entire offensive showing despite the turnovers and said the Wolverines were efficient in both the run and pass.

“We’d do a disgrace to ourselves if we looked at this game as a mistake,” Edwards said. “We’ve made a lot of good plays on the football field. Today was a great day. We had over 300 rushing yards combined with almost 150 (passing). That’s a really good day in my opinion.”

Arkansas State struggled to run the ball and finished with 58 yards, missed two field goals, both bouncing off the goal posts, and had a pass in the red zone picked off late in the third quarter by Makari Paige. But the Michigan defense, mostly backups, was leaky in the fourth quarter and gave up two touchdowns, the first on a 24-yard pass from Timmy McClain to Reginald Harden Jr. to pull them within 28-10. This was their response to Michigan’s score when Hansen caught the 9-yard pass from Orji. With eight seconds left, Harden caught a 22-yard touchdown pass from McClain and then made the two-point conversion to complete a 75-yard, 11-play drive.

The Red Wolves finished with 280 yards, including 222 passing and were 7-of-18 on third down. In the fourth quarter against the Michigan back-ups, they had 131 yards and were 4-of-6 on third down. Arkansas State opened the game with a 13-play drive and converted twice on third and long and a third-and-20 play got a boost from a personal foul on Michigan. The Red Wolves missed the field goal and after the drive, Michigan’s defense played tougher and had three three-and-outs, kept them from a touchdown after an interception and gave up a field goal, and then saw another missed field goal in the first half.

Michigan led 21-3 at halftime after putting together two long, time-consuming scoring drives produced two rushing touchdowns, one each for Edwards and Mullings. Mullings put the finishing touches on a shorter scoring drive set up by strong field position and got his second touchdown of the half for a 21-3 halftime lead.

Success in one game does not mean the run game is completely healthy, but this was a start and one the Wolverines desperately needed.

“It’s always good to be plus-300 yards in the run game,” left guard Josh Priebe said. “Such a great feeling to get that going, just impose our will and physically dominate and really get momentum going into conference play. Super encouraged by how I thought we played up front today.”