It is but a strange world when a blue-blooded program retains a five-star quarterback with starting experience and we must question whether that’s a good development.
These are unusual times for college football, aren’t they?
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Bryce Underwood says he’s not entering the transfer portal after Michigan’s coaching change. He’ll return for his sophomore season.
Hail to Michigan?
More like hail to Indiana, which recently secured TCU star Josh Hoover to be its next quarterback in Curt Cignetti’s assembly line of star transfers.
While Indiana refuels in the portal, it’s crickets for Michigan in these free agency sweepstakes. That’d be OK if the Wolverines were set to return a national championship roster. They’re not.
New coach Kyle Whittingham’s done well making key roster retentions. Anyone who watched Michigan this season knows it needs additions, too.
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Maybe even at quarterback.
Michigan plays long game with Bryce Underwood
Underwood flashed potential throughout a debut season in which the Wolverines went 9-4. He lacked varnish. He peaked in October. His completion rate ranked 14th in the Big Ten. If he’s racing toward a sizzling 2026, he’s not established that. He struggled against rivals Michigan State and Ohio State. He threw three interceptions in a bowl loss to Texas. He’s no blue-chip bust, but he didn’t look like a budding future Heisman winner, either.
Michigan’s retention of Underwood impedes it from pursuing any of the ballyhooed transfer quarterbacks who hit the market, guys like Hoover or Sam Leavitt, the outbound Arizona State quarterback.
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A program playing the long game with a quarterback amounts to a risky strategy in a sport thriving on microwave meals. Each of the College Football Playoff’s four semifinalists start transfer quarterbacks. The two starting quarterbacks in last season’s national championship game were transfers, too.
Retaining and developing Underwood for another trip around the sun smells of embracing a high floor while accepting a ceiling that stops short of January playoff games.
It’s a bet that, by 2027 or ’28, Underwood will be a star. Maybe, he will. One wonders where he’ll be playing by then.
That’s the thing about spending years developing a blue-chip quarterback. By the time he starts looking like something resembling a polished product, nothing stops him from hopping in the portal and letting another program reap the benefits of your hard work and investment.
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Michigan keeping Underwood aligns with its hire of the veteran Whittingham.
Whittingham is a fine choice to prevent bad seasons — and embarrassing scandals. Considering Michigan’s circumstances, it’s irrational to call hiring Whittingham anything but a solid landing place. But, his uninspiring record against ranked opponents at Utah paired with Michigan’s timid start to roster rejuvenation makes me wonder about U-M’s objectives.
Is the goal a return to the Citrus Bowl, or is it a stimulating overhaul that’ll put Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon on edge? This offseason seems aimed at another crack at 9-4.
As Big Ten rivals respawn in the portal, Michigan’s lone transfer commitment is that of a long snapper. Well, glory be. If only pristine punt snaps unlocked the path to snuffing out Cigs or surpassing Ohio State.
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Sure, anything’s an improvement compared to the bind Sherrone Moore put Michigan in, while he incinerated his life and career, but I’m having a hard time squaring a program that cheated its way to glory a couple of years ago is suddenly fine with trips to Orlando and a loss in a bowl game sponsored by Cheez-It.
Kyle Whittingham: Michigan offense ‘is going to suit’ Bryce Underwood
Whittingham counts Underwood’s return a win.
“The offense we’re going to bring in here, I think, is going to suit (Underwood) to a ‘T,’ and I think he’s going to really, really excel,” said Whittingham, who never had a quarterback selected in the NFL draft in his 21 seasons coaching Utah.
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Of course, Whittingham wasn’t coaching quarterbacks with Underwood’s recruiting ranking at Utah, either.
But, teams don’t need a five-star trigger man to win big. Plenty of coaches have decided they’d rather have a proven 22-year-old transfer, no matter his high school recruiting ranking, than a blue-chip teenager. Underwood might one day become a star, but he’ll have only turned 19 shortly before next season starts.
Mississippi’s star transfer Trinidad Chambliss was a zero-star recruit out of high school. Indiana’s Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza was a high school three-star. Oregon’s Dante Moore is the only former five-star in the semifinals, and he began his career at UCLA.
A decade ago, nobody would dispute Michigan’s strategy to develop the blue-chipper. Nowadays, spending years investing in a five-star seems almost more of a gamble than the rent-a-transfer quarterback approach Cignetti keeps using at Indiana.
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Bryce Underwood needs help at Michigan
No matter who quarterbacks Michigan, it cannot afford to let this shopping window pass without putting better playmakers around Underwood. Reheating last year’s roster won’t produce a substantially different result in 2026.
Give Underwood a chance, at least, by installing a couple of big-time transfer wide receivers around him.
Otherwise, Michigan is accepting another year with a citrusy finish while playing the long game in a sport that’s moved on to instant fixes.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bryce Underwood is back at Michigan, Kyle Whittingham needs to get him help
