When Tom Brady speaks, you listen. It’s as simple as that. The person who reached the heights of his potential through sheer toil. Someone who wasn’t spoken of among Heisman contenders or first-round prospects when he was emerging at Michigan. But he retired at the upper chamber of football, looking down at other players as the sole occupier of Tier 1, or, in plain terms, as the GOAT. Just like Brady, another QB is looking to start his CFB innings at the Wolverines. And the former Pats QB has some words. Not just for Bryce Underwood.

Underwood enters college football as a star. Tom Brady, on the other hand, was nowhere near those rankings out of high school. Brady went on to have a phenomenal record of 20-5 as the Wolverines QB1, and he made the NFL his own league during his time with the Patriots. But his 4 years at Ann Arbor were unlike what a usual Michigan tenure looks like today. Underwood will already have $12 million in the bag by the time he gets to the NFL. This complete do-over of college football over the past few years is weakening players, according to Brady.

In an August 11 episode of The Joel Klatt Show, Brady tore into the current dynamic of college football, where the player has the upper hand. “I wouldn’t want it any other way than the way that I did it. My college experience was very challenging. It was very competitive. The lessons I learned in college that I referred to earlier, and certainly about competition—those traits transformed my life as a professional,” he said. Today, with the ease of the transfer portal and beyond lucrative NIL deals, it’s normal for a player to jump ship if he sees a better opportunity, which is usually one that has an easier roadmap to a starting position and a good career.

“I was ready to compete against anybody because the competition in college toughened me up so much that I had a self-belief and self-confidence in myself. That whatever [I was faced with], I could overcome that. And I think if we take that away from a young student athlete to say, ‘You know what, I know it’s tough to compete. But what we’re going to do before you have to compete is we’re actually going to put you somewhere else so that you don’t have to compete.’ That is absolutely the wrong thing to do to a young child,” Brady added passionately.

Underwood would not have been as big of a storyline had he stayed at LSU. Garrett Nussmeier was coming back this year, and then there’s Ju’Juan Johnson. Brian Kelly added Colin Hurley and Michael Van Buren to the room. Underwood would not be getting a starting opportunity this year at Baton Rouge, that’s for sure. Michigan, on the other hand, desperately needed a strong fix for its glaring QB problems from last season. Underwood is emerging as the easy winner in the QB1 race here, more so because senior Mikey Keene is coming back after an injury. Underwood hasn’t quite been in the grind the way Tom Brady had.

Brady started out seventh in the depth chart in his Michigan career, which was also under the reign of established QB1 Brian Griese. His first-ever collegiate pass attempt was intercepted by UCLA’s Phillip Ward. Brady had to constantly battle Drew Henson for the QB1 role. Tom Brady became Tom Brady after burning the midnight oil. Bryce Underwood, despite being a phenomenal player, is kind of getting his college career handed to him on a platter. At 18, the QB will be carrying a CFB blueblood on his shoulders if Sherrone Moore crowns him as a starter. To be someone like Brady, Underwood has a long way to go.

Tom Brady attacks the development of college football QBs entering NFL

It’s been 2 years since Brady hung up his cleats. A 22-year-long career has taken him through everything possible in the league to know better. He had some strong words about the level of college QBs coming to the NFL, which should put extremely young ones like Underwood on notice. The QB phenom, once again, did not hold back. “There’s a lack of development at the pro level… In some ways they’re overdeveloped, because they actually are starting at a young age. Maybe there’s a physical development that I see, that’s probably a bit better based on all the instructional videos that are out there on YouTube or Instagram,” he said. That is 100% a dig on the young generation of QBs.

“But the mental learning how to study the game, learning the tactics, learning how to watch film, learning how to deal with the emotions of a competitive program, going up against a school rival, failing in front of 70,000 people. I think we’re lacking the mental, emotional development,” Brady added. All of these tasks will surely fall on Underwood’s still young shoulders. Bryce Underwood is worth an 8-figure sum without playing a single college football game. Imagine the pressure he would have to take when they take on a National Championship defender in Ohio State.

Tom Brady’s time at Michigan is one for the books. Bryce Underwood, too, stands a chance at writing himself into Wolverine history. But the icon started as a footnote, and Underwood had the luxury of entering college football as a great. How Sherrone Moore develops this young phenom will shape the way he approaches football. Is this easy opportunity going to bring out the best in Bryce Underwood?