{"id":622152,"date":"2025-12-23T11:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/622152\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:32:12","slug":"biff-poggi-on-bryce-underwood-future-the-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/622152\/","title":{"rendered":"Biff Poggi on Bryce Underwood future, the portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan Wolverines football<\/a> interim head coach Biff Poggi<\/a> is keeping the program together as it prepares to face Texas in the Dec. 31 Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., while simultaneously getting ready for next season amidst the uncertainty that comes with a coaching search, following the firing of Sherrone Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since Moore\u2019s firing Dec. 10, Michigan has seen one player announce that he\u2019s planning to enter the NCAA transfer portal<\/a> when it opens Jan. 2, sophomore quarterback Jadyn Davis<\/a>. The Wolverines have had two 2026 signees leave the class in offensive lineman Bear McWhorter<\/a> and tight end Matt Ludwig<\/a>. So far, only three Wolverines have opted to leave the team before the bowl game against the Longhorns, all to prepare for the NFL Draft, in senior EDGE\u00a0Derrick Moore<\/a>, senior linebacker\u00a0Jaishawn Barham<\/a>\u00a0and graduate left guard\u00a0Giovanni El-Hadi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have three guys opting out who are going into the NFL,\u201d Poggi said in a press conference Monday morning. \u201cThat\u2019s really it. What\u2019s going into it, what\u2019s gone into it and what\u2019s keeping the guys on this current team here and what\u2019s keeping the guys who are committed to us, committed to us, is a lot of relationship building. I\u2019ve had eight Zoom calls with parents and even two Zoom calls with the moms. It\u2019s just a lot of listening, a lot of talking to them, a lot of talking to the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019ve changed basically everything in the last 10 days. We\u2019ve changed basically everything. Meetings are much shorter, kids are out of the building faster, practices are much shorter but much more up-tempo, much more good versus good work.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to talk to them, but I think they\u2019re actually having fun playing football again, and I\u2019m really proud of them and proud of the coaches who are here who have stayed here to do this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gotten a lot of support from [director of athletics] Warde [Manuel], a tremendous amount of support from Warde and [U-M athletics chief of staff] Doug [Gnodtke]. It\u2019s been a team effort, but it\u2019s been different. There\u2019s no manual for this. I mean, I\u2019ve never had to figure this one out, but very pleased with where we are and what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

NIL collectives for college football programs around the country are working on deals for current and prospective players, and Michigan\u2019s is no different despite the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s the thing about the transfer portal: Everybody thinks it opens the 2nd,\u201d the Michigan coach said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t. Deals are being done now, OK? They\u2019re being done now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we\u2019ll know for sure who\u2019s in and where they\u2019re going on the 2nd, but not only with Michigan but every school, big school in the country, those deals are getting done right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poggi is a candidate for the full-time head-coaching job, having had multiple interviews, and having players sticking by his side could be a feather in his cap.<\/p>\n

Freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood<\/a> is one to watch since he was one of the most highly coveted recruits in recent history, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 class. Poggi was asked if the 6-foot-4, 228-pounder is planning on returning for next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly hope so. I would hope so, yeah,\u201d the Michigan coach replied. \u201cIf you want to ask that question, you should probably ask him or his dad or mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re focused on Texas right now. He\u2019s focused on Texas. Have you seen any film on Texas? They\u2019ve got a bunch of monsters on their football team, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re focused on. That\u2019s what Bryce is focused on. We\u2019re not focused on who\u2019s going to go where next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

How could one focus on next season when things are such in flux?<\/p>\n

\u201cHell, I might not even be here next year,\u201d Poggi added. \u201cYou never know, so I\u2019m not thinking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan Wolverines football interim head coach Biff Poggi is keeping the program together as it prepares to face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[5977,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-622152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-bryce-underwood-25-belleville-high-school","9":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115768665525004220","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}