Michigan finally found some life on offense against Penn State last Saturday. It took a quarterback change, two defensive interceptions, and a spark from the backup’s legs to get there.
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Backup QB Tommy Carr helped the Wolverines escape with a 21-18 win, and now Kyle Whittingham has another decision to make as reports indicate that Carr will start this Saturday against Indiana. But a prominent UM donor isn’t yet sold on Carr, and he isn’t putting the blame for the offense’s struggles on Bryce Underwood either.
“I’m not seeing Bryce do what [Julian] Sayin [did] before he got hurt and [Josh] Hoover did was just miss wide-open guys with plenty of time,” Dave Portnoy said on October 22 on The Sage Steele Show. “They both were horrible in that game. I haven’t seen that from Bryce. He’s under pressure 24/7. They can’t run. So, I don’t blame it all on him. I hope that he sparks it, but I’m not sold.”
Michigan’s performance gives both sides of that argument something to work with. Underwood completed just five of 11 passes for 43 yards before Whittingham benched him at halftime.
Carr went five of seven for 47 yards, rushed for another 36, and scored on a 12-yard run.
That improvement is worth examining before giving Carr all the credit for the turnaround. The criticism around Bryce Underwood is particularly relevant after Michigan’s 20-14 loss to Minnesota on October 3.
Underwood completed 10 of 21 passes for 101 yards and threw two interceptions in that game. He followed it with another two interceptions against Penn State, taking his season total to six.
Underwood enters the Indiana game with a 58.1% completion rate, 924 passing yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions across six games. That production falls short of what Michigan expects from its starter, especially one who arrived in Ann Arbor with so much hype.
But his season hasn’t been uniformly poor. Against Iowa on September 26, he threw for 276 yards and two touchdowns in a one-point defeat. A week earlier, he completed 19 of 25 passes for 223 yards and two scores against UTEP.
That puts more of the focus on the staff than on the quarterback, and Portnoy made clear where he thinks the bigger problems are.
Portnoy also pushed back against the claim that Underwood simply cannot process defenses quickly enough.
“A lot of people have been like, ‘Oh, Bryce can’t read defenses. He’s too slow processing what’s going on,'” Portnoy said. “I think there’s way bigger issues than Bryce Underwood. I’m not pinning it all on him. Maybe it’s the spark they need.”
Portnoy also has a financial connection to Michigan’s quarterback situation, having publicly said he pledged $3 million a year toward the program’s pursuit of a top quarterback.
That makes his defense of the sophomore more interesting than an ordinary fan’s opinion. Portnoy isn’t pretending that investment has delivered the expected return.
“He’s practiced hard from all indications, and he’s got screwed by the coaching situation last year, new system, but it’s not like he’s getting in trouble off the field,” Portnoy said. “He wants to be good. So, I don’t care about the NIL.”
He pointed to NFL players who land big contracts but fail to live up to them. Teams can spend heavily on someone they believe will make a difference, only to find that the performances don’t match the paycheck.
Whittingham also had good things to say about Underwood’s response to losing his starting spot against Penn State. Rather than sulking on the sideline, Underwood cheered when Carr scored and helped him between series.
Whittingham said Underwood couldn’t have handled the benching any better. Underwood clearly hasn’t checked out on his teammates.
Still, Michigan moved the ball more effectively with Carr running the offense, and that left the coaching staff with a difficult decision. The Indiana game tomorrow will now determine the fate of Kyle Whittingham’s QB room for the rest of the season.
Carr’s family name carries plenty of weight in Ann Arbor. Lloyd Carr, his grandfather, led Michigan to the 1997 national title. His other grandfather, Tom Curtis, remains the school’s career interceptions leader.
CJ Carr, his older brother, is the starting quarterback at Notre Dame. None of that will help him complete a third-and-long pass against No. 6 Indiana. But if he clinches that QB1 spot despite all the odds, it would probably be the end of Bryce Underwood’s UM career.