Michigan fans and the program’s wealthy backers are stuck on the same question right now: did they make a bad investment in Bryce Underwood?
That’s the conversation swirling after a rough weekend, and it has turned Underwood’s early run in Ann Arbor into a live debate. Michigan has had its share of top-tier quarterback talent nearby lately, with Carr at ND, Chambliss at Ole Miss, and Moore at Oregon all coming out of the Wolverines’ backyard. Carr was lightly recruited by Michigan, Moore didn’t get the money he was looking for in Ann Arbor, and Chambliss wasn’t even on their radar.
Michigan went all in on Bryce, and now the questions are piling up.
Here’s the read: Underwood has been treated like a future star for as long as anyone can remember. He’s been told since probably age 7 that he is the greatest gift to football ever, and that kind of hype stuck because his rocket arm let him dominate in high school and become the No. 1 quarterback and recruit in the country.
But there’s a problem with that profile. He has not been coached up, and he never learned the proper QB mechanics.
That shows up in how he plays. The Carr quarterbacks have been coached up, even if neither has the raw talent or body design Underwood has.
Underwood, by contrast, looks like a contradiction: he’s overflowing with confidence because that’s how he’s been raised to see himself, but he also has no confidence because the college results have been limited and, when things get tight, he falls back into old bad habits. He’s carrying too much confidence and not enough confidence at the same time.
The bigger issue now is how long Coach Whitt stays with him. After this weekend, the answer doesn’t sound like it’ll be long.
The language has already started to shift, with Whitt calling him “he is the starter for now”. That doesn’t sound like a long leash.
Saturday wasn’t 100% on Bryce, and he did uncork a 60-yard throw to save the game. Even so, his window at Michigan keeps getting smaller.
He looked like a player out of position, and this weekend has a high probability of being pretty ugly. If that happens, it may be Bryce’s last stand.
At that point, even the donors who helped fund the experiment won’t be able to deny it was a bad investment.
More broadly, the weekend in college football was rough viewing for the most part. Saturday’s slate was mostly awful and felt like preseason football.
There needs to be at least one good game in every TV window, because most of the day was painful to watch. Sunday and Monday were better, with games that landed somewhere between decent and pretty good, even with the power outage at FSU last night.
It was a strange weekend for college football.
Looking ahead, the Tuesday Too Early note points to No. 10 Oklahoma.
The Sooners just beat UTEP 51-0, and the numbers were solid but not flashy: 231 passing yards, which ranked 104th, and 170 rushing yards, which ranked 63rd. The line for Michigan is Oklahoma -5.5, and that feels strangely low after the Week 1 performances.
I also heard the team didn’t just practice on Sunday, which is usually a day off - they practiced in pads.
In Other News...
Michigans Opener Already Sparked A Response Fans Will Notice Against Oklahoma
Rod Moore did not sugarcoat Michigans season-opening showing against Western Michigan, calling it well below the standard the Wolverines expect. The reaction inside the program was immediate, too, with team captains calling an emergency player-only meeting to address what went wrong and to reset the tone before the schedule tightens up.
The response showed up on the practice field, where the defense ramped up its physical intensity in preparation for Oklahoma. Edge defender Dom Nichols also drew attention for both his strong play and his work ethic, a reminder that Michigan is trying to turn a flat opener into a sharper, more urgent version of itself before a much bigger test arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Win Is Now At Center Of A Stunning Official Fight
The final sequence of Michigans 13-12 win over Western Michigan has turned into more than a narrow nonconference finish. A reviewed Hail Mary added one second back onto the clock, and that extra snap led to the game-winning catch that kept the Wolverines on top. The Big Ten later backed the decision after its own video review, treating the ending as a properly administered piece of officiating in a game that was already tense enough on the field.
Now the dispute has moved from the scoreboard to the offices that govern the sport. The Mid-American Conference has formally appealed to the NCAA FBS Oversight Committee and the College Football Playoff, asking them to recognize Western Michigan as the winner. For Michigan, the result stands for now, but the unusual fight over a single second has made this one of the more talked-about finishes of the season. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Win Sparked A Debate Fans Should Care About
Michigans disputed 13-12 win over Western Michigan did more than send people scrambling through the rule book. It also reignited a familiar gripe about how college football handles the last moments of a close game, with ESPNs Rece Davis arguing that fans would be better served by a single shared game clock and by live access to replay officials conversations so the process feels less opaque.
The sequence at the end of the game made the frustration easy to understand: the broadcast clock hit zero, but replay officials restored one second after using a synchronized system, and Michigan turned that final snap into the touchdown that decided it. Officials and conference representatives backed up the replay process, and Western Michigan president Richard N. Yensen acknowledged the clocks did not match while saying he did not view the outcome as unfair, but the larger transparency debate is unlikely to fade soon. [Read more 🡒]