Deshaun Lee grew up a short drive from Ann Arbor, but Saturday will give him his first real taste of the Big House as a player. The fifth-year Iowa safety has already done plenty of damage in another famous Michigan stadium, though. Back in the 2021 MHSAA state championship at Ford Field, the Belleville, Michigan, native hauled in a touchdown for Belleville High School in a 55-33 win over Rochester Adams.
His quarterback that day was a freshman named Bryce Underwood.
“We won the first state championship in school history together,” Lee said. “That’s my boy.”
Now the two former teammates are set to line up on opposite sides when Iowa visits Michigan in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Sept. 26.
The Hawkeyes are trying to end a four-game skid against the Wolverines, and Lee said that part matters more than any personal storyline. He hasn’t talked with Underwood since the season started, even though the two have stayed in touch over the years.
“He’s always been a great playmaker. He always had really good size and things like that,” Lee said. “That’s my boy, but we’ve got to compete against each other, so I don’t really have too much to say about that.”
Kenneth Merrieweather has his own long-running connection to Underwood. The fourth-year Iowa defensive lineman said he knew the Michigan quarterback from youth football, and he still thinks of him as a “little brother.” The two also used to joke around about who was better between Underwood and current Oregon starter Dante Moore, whom Merrieweather backed during those debates while at Martin Luther King High School in Detroit.
“We used to have those arguments about Dante and Bryce and stuff like that, but it was nothing serious, we’d just joke around about it,” Merrieweather said. “But I've known Bryce for a long time, he's a really good player.
He's a great human being as well. So just seeing the success that he's having is awesome to me, and I'm just excited to play against him.”
Merrieweather also pointed to something he believes shows up in a lot of Michigan players: a drive that starts early and keeps pushing them forward. Iowa has seven players from Michigan on its roster, and every one of them plays defense. That group, under defensive coordinator Phil Parker, will be in the spotlight against a Michigan offense that has been slow out of the gate.
The Wolverines sit last in the Big Ten in passing offense at 175.7 yards per game and last in total offense at 323.3 yards per game. Even so, Underwood is the kind of quarterback who can change the feel of a game in a hurry.
He has completed 62.5 percent of his throws for 504 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, and he also leads Michigan in rushing. Last season, he ran for 392 yards and six touchdowns.
“Compressing the pocket and keeping him down, that’s going to be the main thing,” Merrieweather said. “Just being able to keep him in the box and not let him get outside the box.”
For Iowa’s Michigan-born players, the matchup is still just football. The Hawkeyes are headed into their toughest road test and their first road environment of the 2026 season, with a chance to beat Michigan in Ann Arbor for the first time since December 2010. They’re also trying to string together back-to-back ranked wins for the first time since 2021.
Lee said he’s looking forward to the setting, especially with “probably 50, 50-plus” family members expected to be there for his final college season. But the message inside the Iowa locker room hasn’t changed.
“New week, but it’s the same goal,” Lee said. “We’re trying to win.
That’s the main focus point for us. It doesn't really matter how big the team is.
No. 1, unranked, we’re trying to win.”
For Iowa, a win would do more than add another notch in the standings. It would help set the tone for the season and show how a young team handles a loud road stage. For the Hawkeyes’ Michigan products, making a play in the Big House would just be a bonus.
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