Bryce Underwood arrived at Michigan with the kind of hype that follows a quarterback only when the expectations have already gone through the roof. He was the No. 1 overall recruit, built like a prototype at 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, and Urban Meyer even said that if you created a quarterback in a lab, he would look something like Underwood.
That kind of profile brings noise, and Underwood has already had to deal with plenty of it after a first season that came with the usual freshman bumps. But the bigger picture is harder to ignore: the arm strength is real, the accuracy has flashed, and he can hurt defenses with his legs and by creating from the pocket.
The talent is obvious. The development path just hasn’t been smooth.
Last season, Michigan seemed hesitant to let him run or make mistakes. At times, Underwood looked handcuffed, and that clearly didn’t help his growth. Sherrone Moore’s presence as head coach didn’t help either, and even Kyle Whittingham was surprised there wasn’t a dedicated quarterbacks coach for a player who arrived at 17 years old.
Whittingham corrected that immediately on his end by hiring Jason Beck, who has built a reputation as a quarterback guru. His work with Devon Dampier should give Michigan fans something to hold onto, even if Dampier’s breakout came in his second season under Beck.
That’s the part people keep skipping over: quarterback development isn’t a straight line. Underwood is being judged like his story should already be finished, and that’s far too early.
There’s also a tendency to compare him with Dante Moore and CJ Carr and treat those names like a closed case. Underwood himself has talked boldly, and he hasn’t always backed it up yet.
He wasn’t the best freshman college football has ever seen, even if he hinted he might be. He does need to tone down the bravado a bit, but confidence is part of the package too.
Underwood said he still believes he’s the best player to come out of the state of Michigan. Some people laughed that off and pointed to Moore and Carr. Both are excellent players, but the freshman seasons don’t really support the idea that either one has already surpassed Underwood.
Carr didn’t play at all. Moore completed 53 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He averaged 175 passing yards per game and -9.3 rushing yards per game, for 166 total yards per game, and he didn’t score a rushing touchdown.
Underwood’s freshman production was better. He completed 60.3 percent of his passes, threw 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions, and averaged 186 passing yards plus 30 rushing yards per game for 216 total yards. He also added six rushing touchdowns, giving him 17 total scores.
That doesn’t mean the growing pains are over. They’re not. And it would be foolish to assume this season will be clean, either.
Still, the idea that Underwood has already been passed by is premature. Michigan fans may look at Carr and Moore and wonder what might have been, but Underwood still has a real chance to end up as the best of the three. He already had the strongest freshman season, and he did it in a situation that wasn’t ideal.
The timing matters too. This season is more likely to resemble Carr’s first year as a starter. Moore, meanwhile, got a full season to sit before taking over in 2025, which made that his second full season as a starter.
And the reality is Michigan was probably only ever going to land one of those three quarterbacks. All three are starting for Big Ten programs, all have multiple years of eligibility, and Moore is expected to be in the mix for the No. 1 pick in April, though he still has another year if he wants it.
Carr has three seasons left. Underwood technically has four with the 5-for-5.
If Michigan had signed Moore in 2023, Carr likely wouldn’t have been in the picture. Signing both was never realistic.
And if Moore had sat behind J.J. McCarthy in 2023, he would have been starting in 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Underwood was never going to wait two years to start. Maybe one.
Not two. If Michigan had landed Carr instead, Underwood would have been looking at the same problem: a long wait that probably wasn’t going to happen.
Michigan won a national championship and got one of the five-star quarterbacks from 2023 through 2025. That was probably the ceiling for how many it could realistically pull in anyway.
So yes, it’s easy right now to say Underwood is the weakest of the three. Plenty of people already have. But there’s still a lot of football left, and plenty of time for him to prove the doubters wrong.
Writing him off now is a mistake.
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CJ Carrs path to Notre Dame has always carried a Michigan subplot, and he revisited it this week while talking on the Rich Eisen Show. The Irish quarterback said Michigan was his first offer, but the Wolverines never made him feel like a true priority, a feeling that stood out even more because of his family ties to the program. In the end, Notre Dames staff kept coming after him and made the stronger impression, and Carr has since backed up that decision with a strong start to his college career and preseason All-American recognition.
For Michigan fans, the part that stings is not just where Carr ended up, but how he explained the choice. The Wolverines did land his younger brother, Tommy Carr, who has drawn positive reviews on campus and could be in line to back up this season, but that does little to change the bigger picture around the older Carr. It is another reminder that in recruiting, legacy connections only go so far if a staff does not keep pressing, and Carrs comments made clear he felt Notre Dame wanted him more. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Fans Still Cringe At These Recruiting Busts
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What makes this list sting for Michigan followers is how different the paths turned out to be. Some players never settled in, some never got the chance to build momentum, and some simply could not overcome the obstacles that followed them into college. The result is a reminder that recruiting stars do not always become college fixtures, and for Michigan fans, these are the names that still get brought up whenever the conversation turns to what might have been. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Returning Player Rankings Just Changed The 2026 Conversation
Michigans 2026 outlook is getting a fresh reset through the lens of what came before it, with a new ranking of returning players built around 2025 Pro Football Focus grades and playing time. The list puts a spotlight on the kind of contributors who can quietly shape a rosters next step, from pass rushers and blockers to linemen whose value shows up in the details rather than the box score, and it gives a clearer sense of which returning names are most likely to matter when next season arrives.
Andrew Marsh is part of that conversation after emerging as the teams best wide receiver with a 78.1 receiving grade, a sign that the Wolverines may already have a dependable piece in place on the perimeter. The broader ranking also tracks players such as Lugard Edokpayi, Bryson Kuzdzal, Jake Guarnera, Dominic Nichols, Andrew Sprague and Trey Pierce, but the order still leaves one key question hanging at the top, which is exactly the kind of offseason debate that tends to linger around Ann Arbor. [Read more 🡒]