After Michigan's narrow escape against Western Michigan on Saturday, which required a Hail Mary touchdown pass on the final play of the game, fans have been talking about the future of Bryce Underwood.
As in, how long can the Wolverines stick with the former five-star quarterback, who was ranked No. 1 overall in the 2025 recruiting class?
It's a tough situation. Underwood started all 13 games as a freshman, but had plenty of ups and downs as the Wolverines posted a 9-4 record. He seemed to regress as the season went on.
Kyle Whittingham and Jason Beck were supposed to fix that. Despite all the positive buzz from fall camp, Underwood struggled mightily against Western Michigan, completing 12-of-22 passes for 170 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He had a fumble, too.
It was a clear regression from last season. On Monday, Whittingham was asked about Underwood. He said Underwood is Michigan's quarterback, but that it's not "infinite."
“It’s not infinite. At some point you have to turn a corner. It’s not just on Bryce. … I don’t have a great explanation right now. We hope to see improvement from game 1 to game 2," Whittingham said. "You've got to perform week in and week out. Become somebody that we feel is playing at a level that we can win with. That goes far beyond Bryce. It goes throughout the whole team. What you've done lately is very important in football.”
Michigan HC Kyle Whittingham asked how established Bryce Underwood is as QB1:
— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) September 7, 2026
“He's our QB right now. It's not something that's infinite. At some point, we've got to turn a corner and we've got to see improvement.
“As we do with a bunch of stuff, we've got to see improvement…
Kyle Whittingham makes it seem like Bryce Underwood's leash is getting shorter
Whittingham said he doesn't have a great explanation for why the offense was "awful," in his words. It's hard to argue with that assessment after the Wolverines scored 13 points in the season opener and were extremely fortunate to get that.
The Michigan football head coach said the coaching staff hopes to see improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. Yet, with Brent Venables and Oklahoma coming to town, that's easier said than done.
You also have to wonder if Underwood struggles, how long will Whittingham stick with him? We haven't seen Tommy Carr play since the spring. He looked solid, but throwing out a true freshman is asking a lot.
However, Underwood "left several things out there", according to Whittingham, in the running game and the passing game. There was one missed read where, if Bryce had kept the ball, as he should have, he would have been one-on-one with a DB, with nothing but green grass to follow.
Underwood fixated on his first read too much. He got a failing grade from us and received a similar ranking from Pro Football Focus. Essentially, he was the worst player on the offense.
Regardless of the name, the NIL money, and all the extra stuff, that can't keep happening. One game is one game. If things look just as bad, or even worse, at some point, Whittingham will have no choice but to give Tommy Carr a shot.
No Michigan football fan should want that, but after Week 1, it feels inevitable unless something changes quickly, as in this week.
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