Bryce Underwood came to Michigan football as one of the most hyped high school quarterbacks of all time.
He was ranked No. 1 overall. At 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, Underwood has all the tools you could want. Urban Meyer said if you created a quarterback in a lab, he would look something like Underwood.
Despite some struggles in his first season as a college starter, which shouldn't surprise people, Underwood has incredible arm strength, he has flashed incredible accruacy too, as well as having the abiliy to run the ball, and create from the pocket.
Last season, it felt like Michigan didn't want him to run or to make a mistake. The Wolverines handcuffed Underwood at times, and it hurt his development. Having Sherrone Moore for a head coach didn't help either. Even Kyle Whittingham was shocked that there wasn't a dedicated quarterbacks coach for a kid who joined the program at 17 years old.
Whittingham fixed that instantly. He hired Jason Beck, who has become known as a quarterback guru. His work with Devon Dampier should give Michigan football fans hope, although the breakout season came in Dampier's second season under Beck.
Quarterback development is not linear and people have written off Underwood way too early.
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Yes, Underwood has talked the talk, while not always walking the walk. He wasn't the best freshman college football has ever seen, as he hinted that he would be. He needs to chill on the bravado, to a point, but you don't want the kid not to be confident.
Underwood said he still believes he's the best player to come out of the state of Michigan. Some scoffed at that, throwing out the names Dante Moore and CJ Carr. They are each great players, but neither is the best to come out of the state.
They might be the most high-profile in recent years, but their freshman seasons don't stack up that well compared to Underwood's. Carr didn't even play. He sat on the bench and watched. Moore completed 53 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Moore threw for 175 yards per game and rushed for -9.3 yards per game for an average of 166 yards per game with 11 total touchdowns. He didn't have a single rushing touchdown.
For all the criticism, Underwood was more productive than that. He completed 60.3 percent of his passes, throwing 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The freshman starter averaged 186 passing yards, as well as 30 rushing yards for 216 yards per game. He accounted for 17 touchdowns total when you add in six rushing scores.
Were there growing pains? Yes. Will there be more this season? Absolutely.
It might be easy for Michigan fans to look at Carr and Moore, and say what if? But there is still a chance that Underwood is the best quarteback of them all. He certainly had the best season as a freshman, despite a less-than-ideal situation.
This season will be much more comparable to Carr's first season as a starter. Hell, Moore got an entire season to sit on the bench, before taking over as a starter in 2025. That was his second full season as a starter.
So let's see how things play out. The truth is that Michigan was probably only ever going to get one of three quarterbacks to play in Ann Arbor. They are each starting for Big Ten programs, and have multiple years of eligiblity. Moore is expected to contend for the No. 1 pick in April, but has another year to play if he wants it.
Carr has three more seasons. Underwood technically has four with the 5-for-5. If Michigan had signed Moore in 2023, it wouldn't have signed Carr. Signing both wasn't going to happen. And if Moore sat behind J.J. McCarthy in 2023, he would have started in 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Underwood wasn't going to wait for two years to start. Maybe one season, not two. If Michigan football had landed Carr, last season probably would have been his first as the starter, and again Underwood would have needed to wait two years -- something that wasn't going to happen.
Michigan won its national championship, and got one of the five-star quarterbacks from 2023-2025, which was the maximum it was going to get anyway.
Right now, it's easy to say Underwood is the worst of the three. Many people have said that, but there is plenty of time for Underwood to prove them wrong and himself right.
One true thing is that rival fans, and even some Michigan fans, are trying to write him off way too early. Heck, it feels like most of the college football world is writing off Underwood too early.
Overlook him at your own risk.
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