Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham said the bye week was going to provide an opportunity to self-scout the entire team, which may include some “tough decisions.”
At this point, moving on from quarterback Bryce Underwood is not one of those decisions, as Whittingham said Monday, Oct. 12, the sophomore will remain the starter for U-M’s Week 7 matchup against Penn State (3:30 p.m, CBS). Offensive coordinator Jason Beck also will hold on to play calling duties.
“Nothing else matters if we keep losing the turnover margin,” Whittingham said at his weekly press conference.
To this point, Underwood hasn’t had the bounce-back campaign many in the program hoped for in 2026. He's completed 67 of 113 (59.2%) passes for 883 yards with five touchdowns
and four interceptions across five games and has run 57 times for 212 yards and two touchdowns, though he's lost three fumbles.
There were calls from the fan base earlier this fall for Underwood to lose his job following a lackluster season opener against Western Michigan, when he needed a 47-yard Hail Mary touchdown as time expired to avoid a colossal upset. Whittingham at the time said his hold on the job was not “infinite,” but he slowly started to re-cement himself.
He ran a career-high 18 times for 87 yards and a touchdown in a 17-10 win over Oklahoma, passed for two touchdowns with no interceptions as the offense put up 52 against UTEP, then threw for a career-high 276 yards and two scores against Iowa in what ended as a 20-19 loss as time expired.
But the Minnesota tape was a tough watch, as he completed 10 of 21 passes for 101 yards and two interceptions, which came on back-to-back snaps in the second half and flipped the momentum of the game. Whittingham appears prepared to allow Underwood to stay at the controls as U-M looks for what would be its first win in four weeks.
And even though Beck has come under fire in his first year in Ann Arbor, there's seemingly no plan for an overhaul.
U-M has been unable to establish the run and Whittingham has frequently said the team needs to go "downhill" more than it is "east to west." Beck didn't seem to tailor the Minnesota game to Underwood as much as the prior week; there were fewer designed rollouts, not enough play-action passes (where Underwood has been better as opposed to straight dropbacks) and a questionable Wildcat call on third-and-inches that was stuffed.
“I see massive problems. ... I believe that there is a fit problem between the scheme and the players," said Fox analyst Joel Klatt, who called the last game. "Because there is a fit problem between the scheme and the players, that becomes a coach's problem. So the problem now for Michigan lies in all three categories.
"Because it's both scheme and players, it becomes a coach's problem. And the only way forward is to adjust either the scheme or the players."
While there may be some tweaks to either player or scheme coming, there doesn't appear to be at the top, be it the quarterback or offensive play caller. Penn State's defense looks as though it could be a get-right spot − the Nittany Lions are 0-3 in their past three games and have allowed an average of 28.3 points per game in that stretch.
Michigan, of course, hasn't scored even 20 points in a single game this year outside of UTEP. Something is going to have to give in this weekend's matchup, but it seemingly won't be Whittingham's faith in his guys.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan 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: Michigan football sticking with Bryce Underwood, Jason Beck to resurrect offense
