Michigan football eked out a 21-18 home victory over Penn State on Saturday, Oct. 17 — a game in which the Wolverines finally made a highly speculated change at quarterback.
Starting quarterback Bryce Underwood did not start the second half of the game vs. the Nittany Lions, as coach Kyle Whittingham benched him in favor of backup Tommy Carr, younger brother of Notre Dame starter CJ Carr.
The Wolverines trailed 3-0 at the half with Underwood under center, generating 80 yards of offense and two turnovers. Carr led three scoring drives in the second half. Speaking after the game, Whittingham explained his decision to bench Underwood for Carr:
“I supported it,” Whittingham
said of the move to Carr. “I'm not gonna say I was against it but they said, ‘Hey, thinking about making changes.’ Whatever we gotta do. I think that the timing was probably about as good as it could have been.
“People say, 'Well you should have gone to Tommy sooner.' No, I don't think so. I think that how this has unfolded has given Bryce an opportunity to prove himself and, again, I'm not sitting here making a decision going forward who it's gonna be because it was not just Bryce Underwood in the first half that wasn't playing at the top of their game.”
Carr was not much better, statistically, than Underwood: He completed 5 of 7 passes for 47 yards, also running four times for 36 yards and a 12-yard rushing touchdown. Underwood completed 5 of 11 passes for 43 yards and two interceptions. He rushed three times for 11 yards. But he took care of the ball and provided the Wolverines an obvious boost.
The relative statistical similarities might be why Whittingham refused to commit moving forward with Carr as the starter.
"Going forward, we'll take a good, hard look at the tape and see why things bogged down in the first half and why we were better in the second half," Whittingham said. "Because there wasn't a whole lot of scheme change. I'm not prepared to say right now at this desk — at this table — what we're going to do going forward."
Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 recruiting class, has not lived up to his billing as the best recruit in the country. He has completed 72 of 124 passes (58.1%) for 924 yards and five touchdowns to six interceptions. He has also rushed 60 times for 223 yards (3.7 yards per carry) and two touchdowns.
Still, Whittingham said Underwood couldn't have handled the change at quarterback vs. Penn State any better:
"He was out there helping Tommy and talking to him between series. I love Bryce Underwood. He's a stand-up guy, he's competitive, he's got a ton of want-to, and a pleasant personality. Just a great guy to be around," Whittingham said. "It could have gone one of two ways: either you just clam up and put your head down and sulk, or you can be a positive.
"He chose that route. It was great to see. It was great to see how he responded."
Whittingham said Michigan will "know exactly what the plan is" on Monday before it plays Indiana next Saturday.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michigan football benches Bryce Underwood, but Kyle Whittingham’s QB decision isn’t over
