Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood turned 19 last month. He just started his second year of college and played his 14th career college football game. His first 12 came under the supervision of a coach who was, to put it as gently as possible, somewhat distracted from his job.

He’s just starting out in a new system with new coaches. He’s had nothing to do with his school’s astounding run of turmoil on various fronts. He was thrust into the spotlight before most of his peers, because waiting is generally the smart thing to do.

And people want to draw firm conclusions on Underwood’s ability to perform the most difficult, important, rewarding, scrutinized job in American sports. It’s a sign of the times, of the grace reduction for major college quarterbacks now that they’re all making millions. But it’s also an absurd conversation given the specific circumstances — overshadowed by absurdities galore in the Wolverines’ 13-12 win Saturday night over Western Michigan.

What in the world just happened at Michigan?

Austin Meek

Underwood was bad, very bad, in that game before his Hail Mary that won it. He looks like a mess right now. He’s too ponderous, not trusting what he’s seeing and too often betrayed by poor footwork. My colleagues Antonio Morales and Sam Khan Jr. wrote, in their Week 1 QB overreactions, that his performance “did nothing to shake the concerns and doubts that hovered over him after a very disappointing freshman season.”

I don’t disagree. But I must wonder what other freshman quarterback seasons that were never put on display might have looked like.

Of the 30 quarterbacks ranked ahead of Underwood on our quarterback tiers list, three — Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, Maryland’s Malik Washington and BYU’s Bear Bachmeier — were given the keys to a Power 4 program from the start of their first season in college. It’s generally a dumb thing to do.

None of the top 13 started right away. The closest is No. 2 in the rankings, Oregon’s Dante Moore, who got five starts at UCLA in 2023. Check what they were saying about Moore, who might be the No. 1 pick in the next draft, after those rough early glimpses and compare it to today’s Underwood discourse.

Oh, and the average age of those 13 quarterbacks is 22.

Bryce Young got a year as a backup in college. CJ Stroud redshirted (an old-timey college sports term that will soon be as archaic as “amateurism”). We didn’t get a real look at Joe Burrow until his fourth season in college and one transfer.

Arch Manning’s third season of college was an overhyped disaster until he hung in and finished it with promise. Imagine the same level of hype and an attempt by Manning to live up to it two years earlier.

That was the Underwood experience in 2025.

By the way, his freshman season ended with a 41-27 loss to Manning and Texas in the Citrus Bowl, playing for interim coach Biff Poggi after Sherrone Moore was fired amid criminal charges. Manning was better. Underwood threw three picks. He also passed for 199 yards and two touchdowns, ran for 69 and a score, and looked like he belonged.

That’s a fair way to assess his first season. It wasn’t great — 60.3 percent passing for 2,428 yards, 11 touchdowns and nine picks while running for 392 and six scores. It wasn’t Trevor Lawrence, Jalen Hurts or Jake Fromm — the rare cases of first-year college students playing major college quarterback at a high level. It wasn’t terrible, either.

Compare the circumstances around those three guys as freshmen to the circumstances Underwood encountered. He was not supported at anywhere near the same level. There was plenty of hope after his debut season. There still is. Or should be.

We’ve got NFL quarterbacks who get discarded, bounce around for years and emerge in their late 20s in better situations looking like new players. Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold is one of the best quarterbacks on the planet at age 29, and was just hoping to hang on somewhere as a backup at age 24. Yet people want to act like the outcome is clear on a 19-year-old with a fraction of that experience?

The film study analyses are not kind right now. The boos at Michigan Stadium on Saturday came through loud and clear on the broadcast. The screams at a Michigan bar in New York invoked Underwood’s name. Here’s a small sampling of Michigan message board thread titles: “Bryce is unplayable at this point”; “What could possibly be the justification for not benching him?”; “Just wait until Bryce turns 20!!!!!!!”

The money matters here. Of course it does. College athletes are pro athletes and will be treated as such by fans.

Michigan flipped Underwood from LSU with a $12 million deal that earned a ton of attention — Michigan fan Dave Portnoy getting involved and braying about it made sure of that — and persists as a talking point even though a large number of quarterbacks are making more than Underwood’s $3 million this season.

He hasn’t helped himself with the occasional cocky statement. He hasn’t helped himself with his play. But the conditions have been far from ideal. And for as rough as Underwood looked against Western Michigan, I didn’t see enough answers provided by coach Kyle Whittingham and offensive coordinator Jason Beck.

Whittingham joined the “blame Bryce” discourse to some extent Monday, saying Underwood is “our QB right now” but said it’s “not something that’s infinite” and that “there does come a time for everybody where we’ve got to look at an alternative if you’re not getting what you need.”

Whittingham came in to win right now. Oklahoma visits Michigan Stadium on Saturday. A similar Michigan performance will create more boos and no need for anyone to check a clock at the end of this one. Urgency is high.

So it would be nice to see Whittingham lean in more on the quarterback run game that was central to his Utah success and should be a bigger part of Underwood’s repertoire. He needs more easy throws, more open receivers, fewer drives from the opponent that gobble up nearly a full quarter of football. More of a chance.

Saturday is being framed as a referendum on Underwood in his 15th game. It’s at least as much a test of the new Michigan staff. Last I checked, college football coaches get paid a lot, too.