{"id":2680,"date":"2025-09-11T15:49:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/bryce-underwood-experiencing-growing-pains\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T15:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:49:06","slug":"bryce-underwood-experiencing-growing-pains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/bryce-underwood-experiencing-growing-pains\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Underwood experiencing growing pains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>It\u2019s Week 3 of college football, so it\u2019s only natural that freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood is experiencing some growing pains.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After an impressive debut against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/bryce-underwood-in-control-in-debut-versus-new-mexico-leads-michigan-to-34-17-win\/\">New Mexico<\/a> \u2014 totaling 21 completions for 31 attempts and 251 yards \u2014 Underwood and the then-No. 15 Michigan football team headed south for the freshman\u2019s second-ever collegiate game. Against then-No. 18 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/no-15-michigan-folds-under-pressure-and-falls-to-no-18-oklahoma-24-13\/\">Oklahoma<\/a> in his first away environment, Underwood\u2019s production dipped, only notching nine completions for 24 attempts and 142 yards.<\/p>\n<p>In short, Underwood performed like you\u2019d expect for a freshman facing off against a robust defensive front. But according to Wolverines offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, against bigger and faster opponents, that\u2019s to be expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hardest thing coming from high school is learning the game,\u201d Lindsey said Wednesday. \u201cYou gotta learn to take care of yourself, understand when the play is over, go down, or go out of bounds. Bryce is making a lot of strides in that area. \u2026 I think it\u2019s just a matter of playing, getting him some reps.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-1{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>While he wasn\u2019t the root cause of Michigan\u2019s lackluster offensive showing, the events that transpired in Norman revealed a few necessary areas of improvement for the young quarterback. One important area is communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Trailing by only one touchdown and sitting at third-and-2 at the Sooners\u2019 14-yard line, Underwood searched downfield for a target. With an Oklahoma defender rapidly approaching from the right, Underwood spotted graduate wide receiver Donovan McCulley by the 5-yard line and fired it to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There was only one problem: McCulley was blocking, and the ball sailed right over his turned back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The miscommunication on this play marked one of several that occurred against the Sooners, the majority of which occurred during the run-pass option. These errors aren\u2019t indicative of Underwood lacking talent. Instead, they paint a picture of a quarterback still working to understand the intricacies of a complex offensive scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first game, we got him into a good rhythm,\u201d Lindsey said. \u201cThat\u2019s what didn\u2019t happen the other night when you talk about offense and rhythm and all those things. \u2026 But I like where Bryce is. \u2026 Lots to build off of.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n<style><![CDATA[@media ( min-width: 300px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 250px;}}@media ( min-width: 728px ){.newspack_global_ad.scaip-2{min-height: 90px;}}]]><\/style>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Struggling to find consistency and convert plays into progress, the Wolverines\u2019 offense lacked rhythm against Oklahoma. But as Lindsey pointed out, the offense is trending in the right direction with a solid foundation to build off of. And one such thing that Michigan hopes to develop is Underwood\u2019s run game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to Lindsey, quarterback runs are a facet of the game that the Wolverines intend to incorporate into their offense \u2014 there just hasn\u2019t been an opportune time. Underwood\u2019s physicality and ability to run, in addition to his passing and prowess in the pocket, are other skills that have been praised. While not all of them have been on display quite yet, it merely serves to highlight the fact that there are still tools left in Underwood\u2019s toolbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou gotta learn to take care of yourself, understand when the play is over, go down or go out of bounds,\u201d Lindsey said. \u201cBryce is making a lot of strides in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sure, Underwood\u2019s performance against the Sooners was a little rough around the edges. But those mistakes are necessary growing pains. It\u2019s Week 3, and Michigan is still figuring out Underwood\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/sportsmonday-michigans-offensive-scheme-is-limiting-what-bryce-underwood-can-be\/\">ceiling<\/a> and the quarterback he\u2019s capable of becoming. It\u2019s just a matter of getting him settled.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-popup hidden  newspack-inline-popup      \" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" style=\"background-color:#FFFFFF;color:#000\" id=\"id_162162\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,0,month\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Please consider donating to The Michigan Daily<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Week 3 of college football, so it\u2019s only natural that freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood is experiencing some growing pains.\u00a0 After an impressive debut against New Mexico \u2014 totaling 21 completions for 31 attempts and 251 yards \u2014 Underwood and the then-No. 15 Michigan football team headed south for the freshman\u2019s second-ever collegiate game. Against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1031,2863,689,690,1032],"class_list":{"0":"post-2680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bryce","10":"tag-growing","11":"tag-pains","12":"tag-underwood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2682,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions\/2682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}