Bryce Underwood was — and still is — supposed to be the difference.
Yet, the Michigan football team returns from the West Coast in parallel with last season. Despite all the recruiting wins and lessons learned from being a first-year head coach, Sherrone Moore’s flight home from Los Angeles was as somber as last year’s from Seattle.
In a season-by-season lens, a 4-2 record means there is no margin for error and the team’s College Football Playoff hopes are on life support. But two losses at this point in the season carry an entirely different meaning for Moore and the state of his program than it did last year — and Underwood is why.
After traveling three time zones last year in the newly expanded Big Ten, the Wolverines were down 24-17 late in the fourth quarter against Washington. Then, an interception from Michigan’s third starting quarterback of the season, Jack Tuttle, ended all hopes of a comeback.
Sure, Moore could have called a better game. He could have prepared better in practice. You can always do both of those things. But Tuttle was 10-for-18 for 98 yards. There simply wasn’t the talent at quarterback to get the job done.
When the Wolverines went on to lose three of the next four games, the quarterback play remained the number one reason why. It was holding Michigan back. And although it’s part of Moore’s job to bring in more talented arms, albeit following an abrupt transition, the poor quarterback play kept Moore from showing what he’s capable of as the man in charge.
The void at quarterback in combination with the players lost to the 2024 NFL Draft, coaches lost to Jim Harbaugh’s Los Angeles Chargers staff and a win over eventual national champions Ohio State made an 8-5 record excusable. Excusable on the condition that this year is different, that is.
Because this year, Moore retained his defensive coaching staff and brought in Chip Lindsey to revamp the offense. Then he won half the battle by securing Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit.
So at 4-2, the narrative is completely opposite of last year. It’s not whether the quarterback play can improve to turn things around. Underwood has flashed his potential and is on his way to being acclimated.
He is averaging more than 200 yards per game, a number the Wolverines eclipsed just twice last season, and he’s also dynamic with his legs. Even if he’s raw, he’s not losing Michigan games.
If things go south like they did at this point last year, Underwood won’t bear responsibility. It’ll be squarely on Moore.
“We got to keep getting better. That’s it,” Moore said Saturday after Michigan’s loss to Southern California. “That’s where we’re at. We got to keep getting better. We got to go win games … So our job now is to figure out what we can do when we land in Ann Arbor to get better, and that’s it.”
Two days later, Moore showed up in his “blue-collar jacket,” proclaiming hard work and execution are the solutions. Hopefully for the Wolverines, he’s practicing what he’s preaching.
Missed tackles resonated heavily after the loss to the Trojans — it was graduate safety Rod Moore’s answer repeatedly when asked about the loss. On the offensive end, failing to convert on third down was the primary issue. Those, like most things, tie back to coaching.
Then there’s Michigan being outmatched on scripted drives, which reflects heavily on Moore and the coaching staff’s gameplan. USC marched into the end zone on its first drive of each half. Wisconsin also opened last week’s game with a touchdown. Before that, Nebraska went the length of the field before being stopped inside the 10-yard line.
“We self-scout every week,” Moore said Monday. “So whether its alignments, pressures, whatever it is, everything is self-scouted every week. Whether you have a tendency, whether you want to keep creating it or play into that tendency, there is something that we do every week to make sure we self-scout that.”
Ahead of a formidable Washington team, Moore needs to be realistic in his assessment of his players and himself. He has to do a better job in positioning the Wolverines to succeed.
Michigan has Underwood and the talent elsewhere to be better than a two-loss, unranked team. In the backfield, junior running back Justice Haynes rushed for 100 yards in five consecutive games before getting banged up against USC. The defense, even having lost two first-round picks in the offseason, returns much of last year’s production.
Then there’s Underwood. Even as a freshman experiencing growing pains, he’s an unequivocal upgrade over last year and someone Moore should be capable of winning games with.
An 8-5 record is inexcusable with Underwood under center. If the Wolverines don’t head into The Game with a chance to make the College Football Playoff, Moore won’t have a scapegoat — only himself to blame.
