Freshman QB Bryce Underwood joins the Michigan Wolverines as the most highly-touted passer for the program in quite some time. One year removed from archrival Ohio State hoisting the national championship trophy, Michigan looks to secure a second title in three years. Pressure in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is growing and growing.
Will he live up to the expectations being placed on him already?
Analyst Breaks Down Bryce Underwood’s Early Expectations
From the day Bryce Underwood flipped from Brian Kelly and LSU to join Sherrone Moore in Ann Arbor, fans have been envisioning him raising a national title trophy with the Wolverines. On3’s J.D. PicKell doesn’t think those hopes are unfair.
“I think most people, now, that are paying attention, understand he’s gonna start for you in 2025,” PicKell said Tuesday on “The Hard Count with J.D. PicKell.”
“He’s going to be your guy from Game 1 — and he should be. Dude’s freakishly talented, got a rifle for a right arm, is an absolutely elite athlete, throwing down backflips like 225-plus. Like, yeah, he’s gonna start for you. But is he good enough to get you to where you wanna go?” PicKell explained.
“A lot of people outside of Michigan will cackle a little bit as I say this, but I think internally, the expectation is College Football Playoff. They’re snickering and laughing. No, like, look at what they did last year.”
The Wolverines upset eventual College Football Playoff national champion Ohio State on the road, then defeated Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
“They expect to go make the college football playoff, and, to be real now, they’ve spent money to make the College Football Playoff,” PicKell said.
“So, is Bryce Underwood good enough to get you there? … As of right now, we’re sitting here in the month of May, like, nobody actually knows. We won’t actually know until we see him in the fall, but I will say this. Watching Bryce Underwood in that tape-delayed spring game, man, I like the early signs. I do. I like the early signs.”
He continued, “As confident as you can be in a player during spring ball, heading into the fall, I like a lot of what we saw from the true freshman quarterback.”
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PicKell attributed how Underwood looked more like a college quarterback in a new offense than he did a passer who’s supposed to still be a high school senior. There will be a learning curve for the former Belleville (Mich.) standout, but PicKell sensed composure, even against blitzes the defense threw at him.
Rather than scramble away from incoming defenders, PicKell said Underwood remained calm and knew where he was supposed to put the ball.
“He didn’t look sped up,” PicKell said. “Which you see a lot from early-enrollee freshmen their first time playing college football, whether it be in spring football or whether it be in Game 1.
“There’s this certain tempo to them where it’s a little bit jittery, it’s a little bit, you can tell they’re thinking, getting from one read to the next. Bryce Underwood was smooth out there, brother. Like, he looked poised, he looked calm.”
Underwood, Moore, and the Wolverines will kick their season off on August 30 against New Mexico. Later in the schedule, they’ll have dates with Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wisconsin, USC, Washington, Maryland, and then, of course, the regular-season finale against Ohio State.
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