Normally, Urban Meyer would likely be gleeful to see Michigan football in tatters following Week 5. But given that his former assistant, Kyle Whittingham, is leading the charge in Ann Arbor, he's a bit more reticent to dance on the Wolverines' grave.
"I normally could give a damn about that place, but I do now. Understand, I got five or six former players, coaches on that staff," Meyer said on the Triple Option Podcast. "Plus, it's an enigma right now. And I'm going to do a quick history lesson and go back when Coach Whittingham called me, who to this day is still arguably the best I've ever been around, Mark. I've said that many times. What in the heck is going on?"
The one thing that Meyer can point to is that he believes that Underwood is the
only first-round talent in Ann Arbor on the offensive side of the ball at the moment. But not necessarily as the quarterback. Outside of him, Meyer doesn't believe that the maize and blue have the horses to contend.
And with that, he doesn't believe that this is all on Underwood's shoulders.
"They had three turnovers, bang, bang, bang, right in front of me," Meyer said. "You can blame Bryce Underwood all you want. I don't see any explosiveness on offense. I see a quarterback getting hammered. You know, I don't know."
So does Michigan need to make a change? Meyer is a little reticent to pull the trigger if it were him. But he says that if the Wolverines are going to make a change, then Tommy Carr should have been notified first thing this week and that the team would need to rally behind him.
However, he still doesn't believe that Underwood is being deployed in a way that's consistently helpful.
"I know how Coach Whitt feels about Carr. He brought that up to me in the spring. He really likes him," Meyer said. "He's a little under, you know, a little slight development-wise because he's a skinny dude. And I saw him on the sideline there. So you made a good point.
"So here's where we're at. I'd say the previous weeks, no. Because I saw some improvement with Bryce Underwood. He played his best game, Mark, against Iowa. He looked like a quarterback. Looked like they were doing some good things with him. You saw the athleticism. I didn't even see, they didn't run him very much Saturday. 10 carries. But I think the result is now, it's been thrust upon you. If (Tommy) Carr, in your mind, can give you a chance to win."
Michigan is on bye this week but will host Penn State at The Big House next week.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Urban Meyer weighs in on whether Michigan should bench Bryce Underwood
