Outside of the noise from people trying to rob Michigan football of a legitimate victory, the biggest talking point around the Wolverines this week is Bryce Underwood.
The freshman quarterback came into the season with plenty of hype after an offseason full of talk about a major jump. But when the lights came on at Michigan Stadium last week, he looked more like a player searching for his footing than one ready to take over the program.
That kind of performance makes the conversation obvious: should Michigan already be looking elsewhere? On the surface, it’s easy to say Underwood should be better in his second season. But that skips over some of the messier details.
He is not operating in the same offense he learned before. When Sherrone Moore was fired, offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey went with him, and Bryce lost the system he knew.
Jason Beck is viewed as a strong offensive coordinator and should be able to sort things out, even if some of the play calls last week were strange. Still, learning a new offense is never simple.
Then there’s the rest of it - the pressure, the spotlight, and the fact that Underwood is only 19 years old while trying to be the face of one of college football’s biggest brands. That’s a tough spot for anybody.
Kyle Whittingham didn’t recruit Underwood. He didn’t hand him the massive NIL deal, either, so he may not be as invested in Bryce’s success if he believes Tommy Carr can do the job. Even so, that feels like a break-glass-for-emergencies kind of move, not a real plan.
And Underwood is hardly the first highly touted quarterback to hit turbulence. Arch Manning sat for two years, then struggled badly last season for Texas before finding his way.
Dante Moore wasn’t nearly as good as Underwood in his first season. Bryce is 10-4 as a starter, and he already has two game-winning drives on his résumé, against Northwestern and Western Michigan.
That’s the part that matters here: quarterback development isn’t linear. Underwood needs to trend upward, but maybe the idea that he’d be a national-championship quarterback by year two or three was always a little too neat.
Manning and Moore both needed until their third years before things really clicked. Not every quarterback follows that path.
CJ Carr and Julian Sayin played well after a year of sitting and learning, but that was still one more season than Underwood got.
Go back even further and the point holds. Cam Newton and Vince Young, two names Underwood has often been compared to, also weren’t immediate answers.
Newton sat at Florida for two years, transferred to a JUCO, then became Auburn’s starter in his fourth year of college football. Young redshirted as a freshman, then passed for 1,155 yards, six touchdowns and seven interceptions as a redshirt freshman.
Even as a redshirt sophomore, he threw for 1,849 yards and 12 touchdowns before finally breaking through as a redshirt junior, when he hit 3,000 passing yards and led Texas to a national title. For two full seasons, he completed under 60 percent of his throws.
That’s the reality with these elite quarterbacks: sometimes it takes time. The problem is that programs don’t always get the luxury of waiting.
Michigan’s issue is that it doesn’t have a veteran safety net. There wasn’t another option last season, and while Tommy Carr is probably a gamer, tossing him into the fire doesn’t sound like the clean answer either.
Whoever lines up at quarterback, the Wolverines have to run the ball. Both quarterbacks can run, so that has to be part of the offense.
Michigan also needs to be more aggressive. Underwood completed five passes to JJ Buchanan, but there should have been more deep shots.
If Oklahoma wants to give Michigan single coverage on Marsh or Buchanan, Underwood has to take those chances, even if that means living with the possibility of interceptions.
The Hail Mary touchdown was the perfect snapshot of why Bryce is so intriguing. He fired a 60-yard pass off his back foot while taking a hit. That doesn’t suddenly mean he’s accurate enough or processing defenses well enough, but it does show the arm talent that keeps everyone interested.
Michigan needs to put him in position to succeed this weekend with RPOs, rollouts and a committed run game. That’s easier said than done, and at times it could get ugly.
Still, it’s too early to give up on Underwood. Michigan has all its eggs in his basket, so it might as well ride with him this season and see where it goes. Tommy Carr isn’t coming off the bench to lead this team to a Big Ten title, and forcing him into that role could do more harm than good for his development.
If Underwood looks as bad as he did last week, Michigan may not have much choice. If the offense can’t complete a pass the way it struggled to do for most of the game last week, then there’s a real problem.
But Underwood should be better. He really can’t be much worse.
In Other News...
Urban Meyer Sees A Bigger Michigan QB Problem Than Fans Realize
Urban Meyer spent part of The Triple Option Podcast looking beyond the usual chatter around Michigans quarterback room and zeroing in on what he sees as the real issue. He pointed to the relationship between head coach Kyle Whittingham and Bryce Underwood, but also noted that the young quarterback is still physically underdeveloped, which adds another layer to a situation fans have mostly framed as a simple depth-chart discussion.
Meyer also brought Tommy Carr into the picture as a possible source of competition, and his larger point was clear enough: Whittingham will lean on whoever gives the team the best chance to win. The early schedule only sharpens the pressure, because Meyer suggested a loss to Oklahoma could force significant changes around the team, leaving Michigans quarterback situation even more unsettled than it already looks. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Has A New Pass Rusher Facing His First Real Test
Dom Nichols wasted little time making his presence felt in his first start, setting the tone for Michigans edge rush in the opener against Western Michigan. The production was there, but so was the broader message from coaches and teammates, who have pointed to Nichols as a player whose physical and mental growth has quickly made him a factor in the defense.
Now the challenge gets bigger. Nichols is already looking ahead to Oklahoma and quarterback John Mateer, and he knows the next test will be a better measure of where his game stands against a skilled, experienced opponent. For Michigan, that makes Nichols one of the more interesting pieces to watch as the matchup gets tighter and the pass rush is asked to hold up under real pressure. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Hockey Faces Disturbing Lawsuit Over What The Program Allowed
A federal lawsuit filed in Detroit has put a long shadow over Michigan hockey, with 16 former players accusing the program of tolerating ritualized sexual hazing from 1984 through 2001. The complaint says coaches and staff knew about humiliating and abusive initiation practices and allowed them to continue, naming longtime figures such as Red Berenson and Mel Pearson as part of the environment the plaintiffs say enabled the conduct.
The university has not yet formally responded, and the case now pushes beyond the sport itself into the question of how much a high-profile program can be held accountable for what happened inside it. The former players are seeking financial damages, along with prevention training meant to keep similar behavior from being repeated, leaving Michigan to confront a deeply serious allegation that reaches back across nearly two decades of its hockey history. [Read more 🡒]