Week 1 showed that Michigan football had itself a quarterback in Bryce Underwood. In Week 2, Underwood appeared to be in a box, stifled by the coaches wanting to keep him constrained into a drop-back passing scenario. But in Weeks 3-4, Underwood was unleashed, showing off his ability to scramble and make plays with his legs.
Some mused that that was acting head coach Biff Poggi and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey ignoring edicts from head coach Sherrone Moore. However, Poggi said after the Central Michigan game that was Moore’s plan after all.
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And now, Moore says the plan is to let Underwood be himself, and then let the chips fall where they may.
“It just keeps getting better,” Moore told Jon Jansen on the Inside Michigan Football radio program. “The kid just is constantly working, constantly striving to get better.A nd he’s going to continue to do that. And we’re going to let him play and play free and play loose and have fun. Have fun doing it. And he does that when he touches the football field or gets in the facility, you can — there’s always a smile on his face. There’s always that glimmer in his eye of him wanting to be really good at football. And he’s starting to do that even more and more, and he’s got immense talent and just excited for him to show it as we go through the season.”
So while it made sense that a first-year player in his first road game would be somewhat constrained, the more he gets acclimated to college football, it makes sense that he would be set free to do what he does best.
As Moore says, the plan is to do whatever it takes to win. If that means running Underwood, that’s what the Wolverines will do. If it means him sitting back in the pocket, they will do that also.
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“I think the biggest thing, as we look at it as a staff, is you want to win,” Moore said. “So we’ve got to do everything we can in each game plan to win. And if sometimes it’s running them, we’ll run them. If it’s drop back pass and doing this and play-action pass and whatever that recipe is for that game, we know we got to go do to win the game.”
Fans will get another chance to see Underwood in action on Saturday when Michigan football hosts Wisconsin at noon EDT at The Big House.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Sherrone Moore ready to let Bryce Underwood play free, loose
