Michigan fans have spent the days since Saturday’s escape against Western Michigan arguing about what they just watched. A 13-12 win that needed a last-second heave from Bryce Underwood and a replay review that went the Wolverines’ way is not how anyone wanted the Kyle Whittingham era to begin.
The offense looked tentative. The line did not impose itself. Underwood completed 12 of 22 passes for 170 yards, added a rushing score, and still put the ball on the ground in the fourth quarter. Those facts are real. They are also incomplete.
The most interesting voice this week, however, did not come from Ann Arbor.
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables, whose Sooners visit Michigan Stadium on Saturday, used his Tuesday press conference to talk about the quarterback standing across from him.
“Bryce, as I said last night on my coach’s show, is one of the most talented players at any position in all of college football,” Venables said. “All of his best days are still in front of him. Won nine games as a starting quarterback as a true freshman, a tremendous feat in itself.”
That is not polite opponent-speak. It is a coach who just shut out UTEP 51-0 reminding everyone that talent and production are not the same thing, and that Underwood still possesses plenty of the former.
Last season, the true freshman started 13 games, threw for 2,428 yards, and helped Michigan to nine wins. The touchdown-to-interception ratio was uneven and the completion percentage sat at 60.4 percent.
Those numbers explain why some supporters have grown impatient. They do not erase the physical tools that made him a prized recruit or the composure he showed when the game was on the line against the Broncos.
Whittingham has already made clear that the starting job is earned, not granted in perpetuity. That is the right standard. It also means the staff has incentive to put Underwood in positions that play to his athleticism rather than asking him to win every down from the pocket.
Offensive coordinator Jason Beck’s Utah teams ran the ball with purpose and used quarterback legs as a feature, not a last resort. Underwood gained 47 yards on the ground Saturday. That is a small sample, but it is a starting point.
Oklahoma will present a far sterner test than Western Michigan. The Sooners limited UTEP to 86 passing yards and 198 total yards. Michigan’s offensive line will have to play with more physicality than it showed in Week 1, and Underwood will have to protect the football.
If those things happen, the praise Venables offered starts to look less like courtesy and more like recognition of a player whose best football can still arrive in maize and blue. The Big House will be loud on Saturday.
The quarterback who won nine games as a freshman now has a chance to prove the next chapter is better than the last.
