The Michigan Wolverines were the story of Week 1 after an improbable 13-12 win over Western Michigan on a last-play Hail Mary. Outside of the clock controversy and wild finish, the biggest story coming out of Ann Arbor was the play of quarterback Bryce Underwood.
The sophomore QB came into this season with massive expectations to take a step forward and show significant improvement with a full year of experience under his belt and, most importantly, a new coaching staff led by Kyle Whittingham. That clearly did not happen in Week 1 against a MAC opponent, which has seemingly led Whittingham to start having serious thoughts about the future of Underwood as Michigan's starting quarterback.
On Monday, Whittingham dropped some very telling comments, stating that Underwood is their quarterback “right now,” but that the situation is not “infinite” and that “at some point, we've got to turn a corner and see improvement.”
These comments are interesting compared to what you may commonly see from other coaches, who will often chalk up a poor performance from their quarterback as just one bad game. Instead, Whittingham's comments show that Underwood's status as Michigan's starting quarterback for the rest of the season is far from a sure thing. This begs the question of how much longer can Michigan go on with Bryce Underwood as the starter if he continues to play the way he has so far?
The Wolverines won't have long to figure things out, with Oklahoma coming to Ann Arbor in Week 2 with their elite Brent Venables defense that is extremely difficult to play against. On top of that, the rest of Michigan's schedule is very tough, and this is a team that should be in win-now mode with a very talented roster that might be a quarterback away.
What makes this situation so fascinating is the financial investment Michigan made in Underwood, allegedly paying him around $12 million to come to Ann Arbor out of high school. It makes me wonder if Michigan would have already moved on from Underwood if they weren't paying him so much money. It is also important to note that Whittingham was not in Ann Arbor when the push and pitch were made to get Underwood to Michigan.
If Michigan were to decide to bench Underwood, the next man up would be QB2 and true freshman Tommy Carr. Carr was originally committed to Miami (Ohio) but flipped his commitment to Michigan in November of last year. He generated a lot of positive buzz this offseason for his play in camp and earned the backup role, beating out an experienced QB in Colorado State transfer Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi. In addition, Carr is the grandson of former longtime Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and the brother of Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr.
Ultimately with an extremely tough schedule, Michigan does not have much time to figure things out, and if Underwood keeps playing the way he has, a change at the position feels inevitable. The Oklahoma game will be very telling. With their elite defense, it could quickly answer a lot of questions, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a change made at quarterback in Week 2 if Underwood struggles again.
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