A week after being the punchline of college football, Michigan football is now getting its flowers.
Next to no one believed that the Wolverines would rebound and be able to take down an Oklahoma team that dominated UTEP in Week 1, but after 60 minutes of football, it was the maize and blue who emerged victorious.
Joel Klatt was on the call in Ann Arbor in Week 2, and he was impressed by what he saw, even if the game wasn't pretty. His biggest thing was seeing quarterback Bryce Underwood deployed in a fashion more conducive to his skill set, which helped the Wolverines improve to 2-0 on the young season.
"Gus, Jenny, and I called Michigan and Oklahoma; that was a great game, great game," Klatt said. "And again, was the Texas-Ohio State game perfect?
No. There were a lot of mistakes. Was Michigan-Oklahoma perfect? No. There were a lot of mistakes. Was it awesome? Yes, it was awesome.
"Michigan comes back from what can only be categorized as like a wild, crazy, stressful week after the win over Western Michigan. They're public enemy No. 1, a lot of criticism of their quarterback Bryce Underwood, including on this program. But again, like I watched the film, everything that I said about the way Bryce played against Western Michigan is true. Then he came back, and he answered the bell. He played so much better. So much better in every facet: throwing the ball, running the football, decision-making. He was much, much, much better."
But it wasn't just about Underwood. It was a whole team effort.
After Klatt shared some analogies about head coach Kyle Whittingham and how he'll improve the state of Michigan football, he got back into the game on his podcast, discussing both sides of the ball (though punter Cam Brown should also get some credit for the job he did on Saturday). With the mixed effort, with Underwood being the offense and the defense stifling the Sooners, Michigan was able to win in all three phases of the game.
"They absolutely destroyed Oklahoma with man coverage out of their secondary," Klatt said. "Bryce was able to do just enough offensively with that quarterback run, and they were able to get the win. Was it pretty? No, there's still things to clean up; penalties need to clean up, clean up so on and so forth. But that's exactly what he wants it to look like. Underwood runs it; what was it? 18 times in that game for almost a hundred yards? They'll get the run game going a little bit more from the running backs, I'm convinced of it. The offensive line looked better. Bryce was making better decisions in the passing game.
"You go over to the defensive side. They were all over the place: eight TFLs, three sacks. Defensive line won against what is now just can only be categorized as a question mark for Oklahoma up front with their offensive line. You see that defense -- there was nowhere to throw the football. The man coverage was stifling. Those guys were getting home. John Henry Daley, Dom Nichols -- like those guys can rush the passer. They've got good guys in the middle of that defensive line. They can run, they're athletic. Mateer had nowhere to go. He had nowhere to go with the football."
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Joel Klatt raves about Bryce Underwood, Michigan after Oklahoma win
