Michigan overcame a slow start against Wisconsin to win 24-10. There are good and bad takeaways from the game, but Bryce Underwood has delivered. He’s learning to spread his wings, finally. It’s something the Wolverines offense has to allow him in a greater amount as the season progresses. Underwood pulled off a key play that helped Michigan wake up in the game. Connor Stalions singled it out as a huge advantage for the star QB.

The Wolverines after the game were 24-10 on the back of an impressive display by their star freshman QB Bryce Underwood and Alabama transfer RB Justice Haynes. At halftime, the game was still tight at 10-7 in favor of the hosts, but in the 3rd quarter, the QB showed why Michigan invested millions in the raw talent. He connected with Donaven McCulley for a 29-yard TD completion. The duo repeated it again on another drive in the 4th quarter. Connor Stalions, who helped flip the star to Michigan, is rooting for the QB to pull off that RPO to McCulley.

Stalions couldn’t hide his excitement. He took to X and said, “Bryce is an RPO connoisseur. More please. Thank you.” The RPOs are bringing the best out of an offense that is still in transition. Yes, we’ve seen how Michigan is still relying heavily on a run game that is alive because of Justice Haynes. But Chip Lindsey’s genius is showing. He had revamped Auburn’s offense as OC by adopting an RPO-heavy style. But since it involves more decision-making from the QB, Lindsey has been restricting Underwood’s true potential.

Experts agree that whatever we’ve seen from Underwood is yet to hit the highs he made during his prep career. Sherrone Moore and Lindsey are being cautious with their freshman QB. He’s also stumbled multiple times in the season, including against Wisconsin. But Underwood needs to be given the freedom to take these risky calls. After all, it was his heroics that prevented this game from being a close win over the Bearcats. Sherrone Moore had already hinted that Underwood will be given a lot more room to be his elite self in this game.

Sherrone Moore opening up to let Bryce Underwood excel

After the Nebraska game, it was clear that Bryce Underwood had done very little to reclaim his star reputation from his prep career. The coaches realized that it was time for him to do things his way. “We’re going to let him play and play free and play loose and have fun,” Moore said a week before the Wisconsin clash. He’s worked in an RPO in a slow game to give Michigan no chance of messing it up afterwards. Decision-making is still an area that needs to be cleaned up by Underwood. The drops continue for Michigan even in Week 6, adding 3 more after Wisconsin.

But if they’re risking it all to play a freshman QB, they might just go all the way. Underwood has supreme help in the backfield, thanks to Justice Haynes. The receiving corps needs to kick back into gear, but Underwood has the potential to show what he’s worth. It’s the coaching staff that has to find the confidence. “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 a drop-back pass and doing this and a play-action pass and whatever that recipe is for that game, we know we’ve got to go do to win the game,” Moore added.

Justice Haynes has continued his dominance from the Nebraska game, and on the other hand, Underwood is showing why everyone was in awe of his arm talent when he came out of high school. After that RPO play that changed the course for Michigan today, it also shows that Underwood is making good use of his decision-making skills.