Bryce Underwood is the unquestioned starter at quarterback for Michigan football, but that certainly doesn't mean the backup QB has any less value.
All players are one snap away from missing a play, a series, a game, or potentially more time and while the hope is everybody stays healthy, that's just not reality in football.
So when new Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham said in the spring that true freshman quarterback Tommy Carr was the No. 2, it raised some eyebrows, even if there was reasoning for it. Colin Hurley, the transfer from LSU, had left the program and Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi had not yet joined.
The only other quarterbacks on the roster were three-star redshirt freshman
Chase Herbstreit and true freshman Brady Smigiel. Smigiel was originally the headliner at QB in the class of 2026, but when he tore his ACL last October, it set him back.
Carr, meanwhile, had been committed to Miami (Ohio), but ended up flipping late and joining U-M, where his grandfather, Lloyd Carr, was a legendary coach and won the 1997 national championship. Tommy Carr's brother, C.J., is the starting quarterback at Notre Dame and projected to be a first-round pick.
Tommy Carr was not always a heralded recruit coming out of Saline High School, but shot up the rankings late and by the time the spring game arrived, people could see what the hype was about. He completed 21 of 30 passes for 143 yards and ran 10 times for a team-high 59 yards, showing he is a solid processor of defenses (though it was watered down as the spring game rules U-M chose required the defense to play even fronts with a two-high safety look) and a better athlete than many expected.
Now, less than a week out from fall camp, Carr will enter as Underwood's backup.
"Tommy Carr is the No. 2 right now, without a doubt," Whittingham said. "Now, Braden Nicolosi is a guy that's going to get some reps − we got to find out what he's all about. Chase Herbstreit did some good things in spring, but Tommy outplayed him in spring, that's just how it went down. ... Then we got Smigiel, who's coming off that serious slower leg injury, we'll see where his health is.
"Right now, if we lined up and played, Tommy Carr is the No. 2 quarterback here."
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tommy Carr is 'without a doubt' Michigan football's backup QB
