Michigan may be headed for another quarterback switch, and Kyle Whittingham isn’t tipping his hand yet.
A day after firing offensive coordinator Jason Beck, the Wolverines’ head coach said Monday that the starter for next Saturday’s game against the Oregon Ducks is “to be determined.” That leaves the door open for Bryce Underwood to reclaim the job from Tommy Carr, who has opened the last three games at quarterback.
Whittingham had already shown a willingness to wait until the last possible moment before making the call. The last time Michigan changed quarterbacks, he followed the same route and kept the decision quiet until game day.
Carr, a freshman and the grandson of former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, had earned the recent run as the starter after replacing Underwood. Before Carr’s first collegiate start, Whittingham was openly complimentary about the young quarterback’s preparation and football instincts.
“There’s not a quarterback that I’ve ever been around that studies any more than Tommy Carr,” Whittingham said before the freshman’s first collegiate start. “And his football IQ is off the charts.
He’s got a football mind. He’s a football junkie, and he is a real student of the game.”
The early returns were uneven. In Carr’s debut as the starter, Michigan didn’t reach the end zone and managed only six points across regulation and overtime.
He looked much sharper the next week, completing 22 of 27 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 54 yards and two scores. That outing made it seem like, if he stayed healthy, Carr would hold the job the rest of 2026.
Then came Saturday’s loss to the Michigan State Spartans, and Whittingham said Carr’s play fell off. The stat line supports that view: 14 completions on 26 attempts for 138 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Those picks were especially costly, tripling his interception total for the season.
Underwood’s own stint at quarterback before the change wasn’t exactly a clean answer, either. He also has more interceptions than touchdowns this year, though his touchdown rate is about twice that of Carr’s.
What keeps Underwood in the conversation is the different kind of stress he can put on a defense. Carr has made some plays with improvised scrambles, but Underwood gives Michigan the option to call designed runs, something the offense has used even after Whittingham made the quarterback change.
There’s also the way Underwood handled being benched. Instead of sulking, he kept leading the team, which makes a return to him easier to sell than it might be in a different situation. Even so, whether any move at quarterback can change the direction of a season that has already gone sideways is still an open question.
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Michigans MSU Loss Forced A Change Whittingham Couldnt Delay
The loss to Michigan State pushed Michigan football coach Whittingham to make a change he said he could not put off any longer. After reviewing the performance, he dismissed offensive coordinator Jason Beck, the Utah import who had been guiding the offense, and turned the play-calling duties over to offensive line coach Jim Harding on an interim basis.
Whittingham framed the move as a direct response to offensive regression, and he was clear that the decision came from his own evaluation rather than any outside pressure. For a program trying to steady itself after a disappointing showing against its in-state rival, the change signals both urgency and accountability as the Wolverines try to reset on offense. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Just Hit A New Low And Bigger Changes May Follow
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Kyle Whittingham has already signaled that bigger roster changes could be coming next year, which adds another layer of uncertainty to a program already staring at a difficult stretch ahead. With ranked opponents still on the schedule and questions hanging over key leadership roles, Michigan is running out of time to stabilize the present while also figuring out what the future should look like. [Read more 🡒]
Michigans Rivalry Loss Exposed A Bigger Problem Than One Bad Night
The loss to Michigan State looked like a familiar rivalry letdown on the scoreboard, but the bigger concern for Michigan was how little the offense could do with the game in front of it. John Henry Daley gave the defense a lift in his return from injury with two sacks and seven tackles, and Troy Bowles was all over the field with 15 tackles and multiple quarterback hits, yet the Wolverines still spent most of the afternoon chasing the game after falling 15-6 at home.
Michigan needed steadiness from its offense and instead got a rough outing from freshman quarterback Tommy Carr, who finished 14 of 26 for 138 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns. Even with Jordan Marshall in the lineup as a team captain, his carries were limited, leaving the Wolverines without much rhythm or balance as the rivalry loss exposed how much more than one bad night is at stake. [Read more 🡒]