Surprisingly, Michigan’s 20-14 loss to Minnesota wasn’t the worst part of my weekend.
In a world where contrarian takes dominate all topical discourse, one of the few unassailable, universally agreed-upon sentiments remains; oving sucks. Sure, a new home and/or zip code is always exciting, but the arduous process of loading up your entire life and transporting it somewhere else can break even the strongest among us.
Mix in a family stomach virus, no paid movers, the absence of a U-Haul – my Midwestern
self-reliance proved to be more of a bug than a feature this weekend – and a scheduled two-day move turns into five. After 50+ trips to the new house and more intermittent trips to the bathroom, we have finally settled in.
But with two days to reflect on that four-hour respite (FOX has to do something about the length of these broadcasts) to watch the Wolverines, it is time for someone to call FEMA, because this offense is a disaster. One week after a 429-yard, turning-of-the-page performance against Phil Parker and Iowa, the offense regressed to 180 total yards (with the longest drive of the game coming on the final possession, where the unit drove all of 37 yards before Bryce Underwood chucked a fourth-and-five ball into the stands) and was matched in scoring by the defense. The defense was on the field for all but 45 seconds of the third quarter and over 37 minutes of game time, forced two turnovers, and reached the end zone.
I would say ‘take a bow,’ but their backs might be too sore from carrying the team. The defense deserved better. Back to the issue at hand.
The offensive line was a mess – center Jake Guarnera couldn’t remember whether to snap the ball or miss a block first. Wide receiver Andrew Marsh decided a dropped pass wasn’t impactful enough, so he also muffed a punt. Underwood tossed two picks on consecutive passes – Denard Robinson’s NCAA record of five picks on five straight passes was in jeopardy for a moment – and looked illiterate reading the defense. And offensive coordinator Jason Beck must have been in the bathroom more than me, because he called the game like he wasn’t paying attention.
This Iowa follow-up performance was Rise of Skywalker bad, with even less originality. Instead of playing pissed off after last week’s collapse, Michigan let the Iowa Hawkeyes beat them twice. Michigan thought they could stroll into Minneapolis and row the Gophers out of the building with a C-minus effort. Instead, the Fighting Flecks keep the Little Brown Jug for the first time since the Obama administration and the Wolverines are spiraling into rare waters. At 3-2, with a daunting schedule looming, will the Wolverines make a bowl game? Indiana, Oregon, and Ohio State were circled before the season, but now UCLA has one of the best offenses in the country, Michigan State will be a rock fight like always, Rutgers rosters two of the best skill players in the Big Ten, and Penn State is in full-blown desperation mode.
I am getting ahead of myself here, but since Bo Schembechler took over in 1969, Michigan has only had four losing seasons: 2008, 2009, 2014, and 2020; that’s it. Bo’s 1984 team is the only .500 squad in that time frame and that was only due to quarterback Jim Harbaugh breaking his arm against Michigan State. But even that team showed enough fight to have eventual national champion BYU on the ropes in the Holiday Bowl.
Where is the fight with Team 147? Where is the heart? Where is the leadership? The team enters the BYE in a precarious situation. There is enough talent, from the coaching staff to the players, to win every game on the schedule. You read that correctly. But there is also enough inconsistency and self-sabotage to lose every game. You also read that correctly. Facing an inflection point, the player who affects the road not taken the most is the one who should come under the most scrutiny — the quarterback.
One week after his best game as a Wolverine, Bryce Underwood delivered his worst. This game was worse than Western Michigan — it’s not his first game in a new offense in primetime; worse than any big game last year, where he was neutered by the game plan, and worse than his 2025 Northwestern performance, where he at least showed the heart to dig himself out of his mistakes. Moreover, it’s worse because for three weeks, we have seen the evidence that he has been rapidly improving. This season has been like a game of Chutes & Ladders (I am showing my age); he has been on the rise for several turns, but now he’s been sent tumbling back down to the first row.
Saturday was Underwood’s 18th career start and he looked more woefully unprepared than he did in his first. Speculatively, it looked like someone skipped film this week. You can’t tell me the person who did this…
… was as prepared as the person who missed this on the final offensive play of the game.
Underwood was pre-determining where he was going with the ball all afternoon like he was playing College Football 26. He was taking the pre-snap Wikipedia notes of the defense over actually reading it.
The worst example we already know. On the first interception, he wanted J.J. Buchanan on the wheel route no matter what as if he had written a note to himself on his wristband that morning. After all, he found him earlier on a similar throw to set up Michigan’s lone touchdown of the afternoon.
So why not try it again? But on that throw, Buchanan was the designated target and Andrew Marsh settled into a curl to draw defenders away and create space. This time, he carried his route vertically, anticipating the defense overplaying the wheel and expecting him to settle into coverage again.
Credit to Jason Beck on this one in an otherwise forgettable day of play-calling.
2nd & 3 // 12-Personnel Switch Release Z-Wheel
Notice the same Trips formation to the top of the route. Tight end Eli Owens is again going to work a post route to draw the middle safety and open up space along the boundary. Buchanan is again going to switch release and run the wheel route. Only Marsh is different because he is the primary option on this play and he is WAO (wide-ass open) for a touchdown.
Minnesota brings heat, but the offensive line does a great job of creating space for Underwood to step up into the pocket and deliver a strike to Marsh. But instead, he drifts like a freshman quarterback and throws a five-dollar footlong of a ball, off his back foot, over his predetermined non-primary option, right into the hands of a Minnesota defender.
His second interception isn’t entirely on him, although the window was tight on that RPO read with an underneath linebacker watching Underwood’s eyes. The decision I took more umbrage with was a throw that didn’t actually count.
1st & 10 // 11-Personnel Curl-Flat Concept
On the final drive of the game, Underwood, for better and mostly for worse, threw caution to the wind. As a runner, he was taking hits and fighting for every yard. As a passer, he was throwing to his guy – *checks note on his wristband* – no matter what.
Michigan is running a variation of a curl-flat concept on this play, which is simply a deep 12-yard outside curl by the boundary receiver (Marsh) and a five-yard out route by the underneath tight end. Minnesota is dropping eight players into coverage, with the safeties playing Cover 6, which looks like Cover 3, but the field safety has half-field responsibility and the two toward the boundary are playing quarters coverage. This leaves FIVE defenders playing underneath.
Against a base coverage, the read here is the linebacker or safety. If the player widens out to take away the curl, you take the flat. If they crash to take away the flat, you take the hole shot to the deep curl. But against this look, it should have been abundantly clear from the snap that the only option was the tight end in the flat. However, Underwood had already made up his mind and thought he could open a window with a pump fake. Similar to this one against Oklahoma.
But what the young quarterback failed to realize is that faking a wide receiver screen that is equally being sold by your receivers, against a base defense, is much different than trying to pump fake a two-man passing concept into the boundary with eight defenders playing zone and reading your eyes.
Nonetheless, Underwood pulls the trigger on this pastrami-and-rye ball and lobs it into the vicinity of three defenders, where one easily picks off the pass. Fortunately, Minnesota was caught with an extra man on the field. A fact that Underwood was not aware of because the flag was thrown away from the play. This isn’t meant to be hyperbolic… This is one of the three worst throws of Bryce Underwood’s college career.
Of all of Underwood’s shortcomings on Saturday, what drove me the craziest was that even when he was right, he was wrong.
3rd & 3 // 11-Personnel Z Curl, Y-Delay
Early in the game, Underwood was acclimating himself nicely. It wasn’t flawless, but it was fluent. But on Michigan’s second possession, this play leapt off the screen and signaled to me that he wasn’t seeing the field. This is the moment that Underwood’s approach reverted back to freshman standards.
Facing a third-and-short, Andrew Marsh at the top of the screen is going to run a seven-yard curl and Underwood is going to connect with him to move the sticks. No harm, no foul. However, the defender Underwood should be reading is the linebacker. The linebacker widens out and if he is a step more instinctual, he is taking this ball down the sideline and hitting his head on the goalpost. And that’s my issue — this play isn’t designed for Marsh.
This play is designed for tight end Hogan Hansen, who is delay-releasing and is WAO in the middle of a defense that has been vacated by blitzers and the aforementioned widening linebacker. Running back Savion Hiter is getting his ass kicked with dignity in pass pro, but Underwood still should have been able to sidestep and hit Hansen for an even bigger gain. Once Underwood had success getting away from his primary options and going with his predetermined read, it exacerbated his performance by inspiring false confidence.
Now, for the 12-million-dollar question for the 12-million-dollar player… Do you start Bryce Underwood against Penn State? In support of Underwood, he has shown flashes of becoming an elite player — “It was all good just a week ago!” — and without a supporting run game and a sieve of an offensive line this week, how much better could true freshman Tommy Carr do?
Furthermore, if you bench Underwood, that’s the end; there is no going back. Underwood’s confidence has been volatile at best and this decision would quickly be accompanied by a “You up?” text from Bryce’s representative to a Big 12 school.
If you don’t go with Carr, with two weeks to prepare him before Penn State, do you risk throwing away the season at a critical juncture? Or throwing him to the wolves a week later against Broyles Award winner Bryant Haines and the Indiana defense? This team clearly needs to find some fight, some heart during the week off and that starts with the quarterback position. Whether it’s Underwood or Carr or both in two weeks, the road not taken will make all the difference.
