ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The big question entering 2026 for Michigan football was what it was going to get out of quarterback Bryce Underwood. It's a bit of an incomplete at the moment, but his past two games have been vastly superior to his first, where he had looked as if he had regressed as much as he appeared to in the April spring game.
But Underwood executed the game plan well against Oklahoma in Week 2, and could have had more than his 223 yards passing in Week 3 had Michigan not switched to backup Tommy Carr, given that the game was out of hand by the fourth quarter.
With that in mind, offensive coordinator Jason Beck has one primary concern as it pertains to Underwood, and it's not about him going through progressions or his ability to read
a defense. It's simply: hang onto the football.
"There's always, with any quarterback, when you hit the real game situations, there's always that learning curve," Beck said. "The No. 1 thing we're emphasizing right now -- we'll kind of take it that way -- is the importance of ball security as a runner. So we've put it on the ground one time each game. He's done a really nice job in the run game. It's been a real positive. We just really have to tighten that up and emphasize that at a higher level now that he's live and really getting his nose in there. And that's been a negative we want to address."
Underwood has lost two fumbles thus far this season, and has fumbled more than that. But he's not the only offensive player who's had issues -- Savion Hiter lost a fumble last week, and Jordan Marshall was close to losing one. Andrew Marsh fumbled on a special teams play in Week 1.
As far as the pass game itself goes, it had appeared as if Michigan had dialed things back against the Sooners after an uneven performance in Week 1. But Beck says that they haven't had to do so -- he's confident in Underwood's ability to read defenses and execute the offense.
More so, Beck feels that simplifying things doesn't mean scaling back the offense as much as getting him to not overthink what he's seeing or doing.
"No, not necessarily," Beck said. "Bryce has a real good understanding of everything. You get good feedback from him when you ask him, 'Hey, what do you see and why are you doing that?' He has direct answers. He's seeing things. Sometimes the quarterback isn't quite sure. They're not certain. Bryce sees it.
"There's been an emphasis on, 'Hey, don't overthink some of these things. So you're seeing this. Just focus in on the main things and go from there,' versus maybe taking too much into account. But he's doing a nice job with knowing what he's doing and why he's doing it. Seeing the stuff out there, and it's just a matter of kind of building from there and keep growing."
Saturday will present another challenge for Underwood and the offense with Iowa coming to town. The Wolverines and Hawkeyes will kick off at 3:36 p.m. EDT, and the game will be broadcast live on CBS.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Jason Beck identifies Bryce Underwood's biggest issue through 3 games
