Much of the offseason consternation surrounding Michigan football this offseason has been centered around quarterback Bryce Underwood, after an unsightly performance in the annual spring game when the former five-star threw for just 22 yards on 3-for-9 passing. While it’s understandable for fans to ball their fists given the hopes for the former No. 1 overall player in the 2025 recruiting cycle, some analysts in the national media are getting somewhat out of hand.
USA TODAY Sports put together a list of quarterback and offensive coordinator pairings who are entering ‘make or break seasons,’ and Underwood and coordinator Jason Beck are listed as the No. 3 group.
Underwood looked lost much of last season, forced into a one-read and go philosophy without any hands-on coaching. If the first read wasn’t there, he ran.
The numbers showed the struggles: 11 touchdowns, 9 interceptions and a completion percentage of 60.
Beck and the offensive staff have essentially rebuilt Underwood from the ground up, and Whittingham says Underwood made great strides — despite uneven play in the spring game. He has a greater understanding of the position, and passing game concepts.
The goal is to run the ball with physicality (a Utah trademark under Whittingham), and put Underwood in position to have success with play action throws.
While we agree, Underwood has to be much better than he was last year, last season was his very first year of college football, and the column even correctly notes at the beginning that Underwood didn’t essentially get any substantial coaching as a freshman starter fresh out of high school. But given that he has plenty of time to grow into his role in terms of eligibility remaining, and that he has a new coaching staff who appears to know what they’re doing, to list him as entering a ‘make or break’ season is a bit . . . melodramatic.
Even more could be said of Beck, who is coming off two straight seasons of having produced the No. 4 offense in the country at two different schools. Given what he’s been able to accomplish in just a couple of years, it’s absurd to act as if he isn’t one of the more hot offensive coordinators in the country.
Perhaps the notion of the list isn’t exactly what the author intended, as the list is topped with Indiana’s Josh Hoover-Mike Shanahan pairing, while the second is LSU’s Sam Leavitt and Charlie Weis Jr. If it’s more about being curious about these new duos across college football, that makes more sense than calling it ‘make-or-break’ because none of these scenarios are make-or-break in any sense of the phrase.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Why USA TODAY says Bryce Underwood faces a make-or-break season
