“The focus is on [Bryce] Underwood, but it should be on finding new backs to go with him.” Sherrone Moore’s entire conquest of landing and perfecting Bryce Underwood might have been the saving grace for the Wolverines’ 2025 conquest. However, a big question still remains: Is putting a national title defense on the shoulders of a true freshman with no safety net truly the right way? Well, seems like Moore has something planned in the quiet corridors of Ann Arbor; the HC has been building a ghost plan, a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ button for his golden boy. It’s a move made not for the headlines of September, but for the deafening silence of a Saturday afternoon if the unthinkable happens.

Enter Jake Garcia. RJ Young makes it clear, Garcia isn’t here to create quarterback controversy—he’s here to fill the “Alan Bowman spot”—the role of a veteran in a room of young guns. Look at the current options Moore has behind Bryce Underwood: Alex Orji, a good player but still a major question mark as a passer, and Davis Warren, a walk-on healing from the ACL. This screamed desperation, and while signing a quarterback in the middle of June might not look like a chess move; it’s a confession that Chip Lindsey saw a problem and Moore moved in to answer it with, as Young puts it, “A guy that knows from offensive scheme and perhaps can act as something like a mentor to your quarterback room.”

To doubters, this might seem like a hasty decision, and some fans might even say Moore still had redshirt freshman Jadyn Davis—you have to understand one thing: he is a promising but still-developing prospect. This opens up Michigan to a whole slew of problems IF Underwood gets sidelined. Garcia’s entry into Moore’s band camp is a fascinating turn of events. At the core of the ex-Miami QB’s journey is an elite degree.

Blue-chip prospect, the No. 48 overall player in the 2021 recruiting class, a four-star quarterback with a “polished, almost classic three-quarter release” and solid arm strength. The perfect “vagabond,” as MGoBlog puts it. And while his start at ECU imploded (12 INT for 8 TDs) with him getting benched for Michigan State QB Katin Houser, his flawed resume is the answer Moore and Co. need: veteran QB + the perfect political shield if the Underwood undertaking flops at Ann Arbor.

And this brings us full circle to the golden boy himself. Shouldering what one would say “the most physically gifted and talented quarterback that has ever stepped on campus” tag, Josh Pate has delivered a verdict about Underwood, which could come true in the foreseeable future.

Looking beyond the Bryce Underwood hype

“He could be the best player in the league, he could struggle most freshman do he’s not most freshman so I know what the Michigan push back on this is going to be.” While some might call Pate’s take on putting Underwood on No.8 a heresy to the hype train, we think it has some depth to it. A true freshman, no matter how godly their talent is, rarely survives the pure violence in Power 4.

There are no brakes on this ride, and if Underwood is not ready before the season starts, he will get squashed like a bug. Sherrone Moore isn’t rolling out the red carpet; he’s setting up a steel cage match. In the center stands his golden boy, and in the QB room, a pair of broken and battered talent depth.

Either this $10+ million investment, along with the Garcia safety-net, flips Michigan’s script or dooms the entire squad to a premature “The End.”