Michigan Back Where They Belong Under Bryce Underwood: ESPN

When it comes to confidence, Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore never runs out of it. The 2024 season has been no less than a disaster. Forget defending the National Championship title, they even failed to punch the playoff ticket. Does that mean Moore has given up on all his hopes of a rebound? No way.

At the Big Ten Media Days, one could notice the fierceness in the head coach’s voice when he said, “We go by this theory: don’t let a speed bump become a roadblock. Last year, we hit a couple of speed bumps, but we didn’t allow those to become roadblocks. We overcame a lot of adversity and had a successful end to the year, but really we’re not living on that.” A team that went 15-0 in 2023, lifted the Natty, breaking the 26-year-old drought, had to accept an 8-5 season fate. But turns out that the Wolverines’ luck is going to flip. From Paul Finebaum to ESPN, everybody believes it.

Well, the ESPN analyst might not be counting high on Moore’s Michigan, but atleast he thinks that the Wolverines will be able to keep themselves afloat. “I think Michigan is slightly better than average,” Finebaum said. This was then doubled down by ESPN’s Bill Connelly. The analyst placed Moore’s program under the ‘Teams most likely to rebound from a 2024 stumble’ segment. Based on the 2025 projections (as of May), Moore and his boys will come up with 9.8 average wins, 10th (+21.5). Time for some 2024 recap that exposed the biggest problem that Moore’s program was plagued with, the crumbling quarterback position.

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A report from Big Ten preview read, “The Wolverines went unbeaten when scoring at least 24 points (national scoring average: 28.0), but they reached that mark in only six of 13 games thanks primarily to a black hole at the QB position. They ranked 91st in Total QBR and 131st — last nationally among non-service academies — in passing yards per game (129.1).” The QB room was a mess, with JJ McCarthy gone for the NFL, without passing the baton to any experienced starter. And the end result? Moore’s offense struggled massively. But this time, things are bound to be different.

Thanks to Moore for going to great lengths and flipping the No.1 quarterback, Bryce Underwood from LSU, against a fat NIL check worth $12 million. As the preview noted, “Either five-star freshman Bryce Underwood or veteran transfer Mikey Keene (Fresno State) will begin the season at QB for Moore’s second Michigan team, and it’s probably fair to assume that Underwood will finish it there. His first spring was up-and-down, but going from the aforementioned black hole to the best high school prospect in the country is quite the leap.” If it’s Underwood, it will be a steal deal for Moore.

The quarterback stands at 6-4 and weighs 230, which is ridiculous for a freshman quarterback. He comes off as the perfect package, having cannon for an arm, with his USP being compact delivery that can rifle passes downfield. The Belleville star engineered a 38-game winning streak from week four of his freshman year into the state title game of his junior season. So, Moore has enough reasons to count on him. But what if we tell you that the head coach is yet to arrive at a conclusion with Underwood?

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Sherrone Moore’s cautious gamble with Bryce Underwood Maybe that’s what happens when you have suffered too much. Moore has now become extra cautious about choosing the starter to hand over the Wolverines’ torch. First things first, Underwood is only 18 years old. If that makes Moore inch towards Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene, there too comes a hurdle. The young chap missed most of the spring with an upper-body injury. But in the race to earn Moore’s trust, Keene seems to have an edge. After all, he has worked with the Wolverines’ offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey back at UCF in 2022. So, what’s Moore thinking about the quarterback battle?

The head coach is yet to arrive at a conclusion. As On3’s Bret McMurphy tweeted on July 24, “Michigan’s Sherrone Moore on QB1: “Before anyone asks, it’s an open competition. There is no starter. When they ‘have the team’ we’ll know we have our starter.” Now, if it’s not too much to handle for Underwood, here comes some more news.

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On his podcast, RJ Young sent a message to Bryce Underwood. To him, the quarterback would have made a better decision had he not signed up for Sherrone Moore’s squad. On his Adapt & Respond podcast, he shared, “You’ve signed the number one player and the number one quarterback in the 2025 class in Bryce Underwood, for the cool price of $12 million over the course of his time. The University of Michigan, which in and of itself is interesting to me. Bryce Underwood going to LSU would have made a lot more sense for me because LSU is going to be a place where you throw the ball around.” Yes, that’s because Moore’s Michigan had a hard time and threw for just 115 yards per game through the air through six games in 2024. Now, with all that swirling and Moore still holding back the starter’s job, will Underwood start feeling the sting of betrayal?