According to a report from 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz, it appears the Wolverines may have their guy at quarterback before fall camp even starts.
In Zenitz’s report, he detailed how Bryce Underwood is the betting favorite to be QB1 for the Michigan Wolverines in 2025.
“He is the clear favorite to start at Michigan,” Zenitz said. “Everything that I’ve gotten from Michigan sources throughout the offseason has been beyond terrific. His advanced maturity level and leadership characteristics for someone that young
have impressed people at Michigan.
“It’s not common for someone at the stage of life that he’s at to be as mature as he is and be as much of a natural leader as he is. When you combine that with his rare physical ability, he’s positioned himself to be the heavy favorite to start at Michigan this year. The future is extremely bright for him at Michigan based on what he has done behind the scenes. There’s a lot of internal optimism about him and what they can do offensively as a team.”
Not that this is a stunning development by any means, but it’s still worthy of pointing out as Michigan kicks off fall camp next week. Sherrone Moore and a few players are at Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas this week — Thursday, to be exact — so it would be good to get his perspective on the quarterback battle prior to fall camp starting.
Underwood will face competition in fall camp from redshirt freshman Jadyn Davis, and transfers Mikey Keene and Jake Garcia. Davis Warren likely would have factored into the competition had he not tore his ACL in the ReliaQuest Bowl against Alabama.
However, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Underwood had a leg up on the competition at this stage considering that Garcia joined the program after the spring, Keene is seemingly still recovering from an ailment that sidelined him in the spring, and Davis did not perform as well as Underwood did this spring — at least in the spring game.
While Underwood may be the frontrunner to be Michigan’s starting quarterback this year, nothing is official until fall camp plays out. Moore has maintained that every position will be earned, and the starting quarterback job is no different.
“Look, I know you’re extremely talented, but I’m not promising you anything,” Moore told Underwood, via 247Sports, before Underwood committed to Michigan in November. “You’ve got to go earn it. You’ve got to go take the job.
“I treat (Underwood) like I treat the rest of them. I treat them all the same. I love them all the same. I care them all the same. But if he does something wrong, I’m going to coach him exactly the way I’m coaching everybody else.
“I think that’s the biggest piece is the fairness piece of it, of treating them all the same. And he’s a talented young man, but we’ve had a lot of talented young men. We’ve got to make sure that level playing field has to keep the same because that keeps the Michigan culture the right way.”
While Underwood will have to earn the starting job, it’s clear he possesses the talent and work ethic to be Michigan’s first true freshman to start at quarterback since Chad Henne in 2004. And if the early signs prove true, Michigan fans could be watching the beginning of a new era in Ann Arbor, with a highly regarded, generational talent ready to take over.
