Joel Klatt didn’t soften the edges when he broke down Bryce Underwood’s day against Western Michigan.
The Fox analyst, speaking on his podcast, zeroed in on what he sees as a troubling step backward for Michigan’s sophomore quarterback after a messy opener that only ended in celebration because of a 47-yard touchdown on the final play. Before that last-gasp throw, Underwood had gone 11-of-21 for 123 yards with an interception, and he also coughed up a late fumble while trying to scramble for a first down.
The final play will live in the highlights, but Klatt spent most of his discussion on everything that came before it. In his view, the problems were obvious on film from the start: late throws, passes into crowded areas, receivers put in bad spots and mechanics that drifted back toward the issues Michigan had reportedly worked on all offseason. He also pointed to missed reads on running plays and said the performance should have cost Michigan the game.
Klatt dug into the details early in the first quarter, even after Michigan opened with a touchdown drive. One sequence in particular stood out to him.
"The fifth play of the game, he throws it into double coverage. The Mike linebacker is running right into the read, and he throws it that direction.
It's a completion and it's a first down, but it's the exact wrong throw," Klatt explained. "They've got two different concepts going on: one to the field, the wide side; one to the boundary, and the read is the middle linebacker.
The reason I know that is because the tailback runs to the field, so if he drags the Mike linebacker to the field, the wide side of the field, you play opposite of that and you bracket that hook curl defender into the short side. That's the concept back there.
And what does he do? He throws it directly into the Mike linebacker, who almost tips it."
For Klatt, that was more than one bad snap. It was another example of the same issue that has followed Underwood: the quarterback’s ability to process a defense. That, more than anything, is what stood out to the former quarterback.
"The seventh play of the game, it's an RPO. He goes the wrong direction.
Ninth play of the game, they were targeted wrong on a double team on the offensive line. So this is all part of their first series.
So I'm thinking to myself, like, man, is it? Did it get worse?
Yeah, it got worse."
Michigan didn’t score again until the wild finish, and Klatt said the film only gets harsher from there.
"I'm just telling you right now that Bryce Underwood regressed from year one to year two," Klatt said. "He's throwing curl routes into sitting safeties.
He he's throwing spot routes and leading those players into cover two corners. This is day-one quarterback stuff.
These are things that you can't do as a quarterback."
Now comes a tougher test. Oklahoma heads to town this week, and Klatt highlighted the challenge waiting for Underwood against Brent Venables, whose defenses are known for disguising looks and making quarterbacks work for every answer. Venables and defensive coordinator Todd Bates, Klatt said, are among the best at that.
"[Western Michigan] is film that is going to be incredibly hard to watch for everyone on that team because it is laid bare for everyone. It was laid bare for all of us watching, and now they're going to go in, and they're going to watch that film, and there's going to be major questions about what his status is this week going into the Oklahoma game," Klatt explained.
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