One player named by new Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham during his introductory press conference in Orlando was quarterback Bryce Underwood. With the former No. 1 overall recruit in the country starting a full season as a freshman, Whittingham has a responsibility to retain the top talent already in Ann Arbor.
However, he noticed some flaws where the previous coaching staff failed to seriously invest in its top product.
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Whittingham appeared on Fox Sports’ Triple Option Podcast and was asked about Underwood by his former boss at Utah State, Urban Meyer, and the new Wolverines leader said the bottom line is that he doesn’t have a dedicated quarterbacks coach. Now that he’s done that, he’s already seen his game improve.
“First of all, it’s my understanding that without a dedicated quarterbacks coach working with him every day, that’s what has to happen,” Whittingham said. “He’s got a very, very young guy, 17 years old. He didn’t turn 18 until midway through the season. So for his age, he was really a guy that could go into high school last year. But there’s something about the throwing mechanics and — it seems to be smoothing out in his fundamentals and technique. We’ve got a good start on that.
“And Jason Baker and Coy Detmer, who are outstanding quarterback developers and coaches. So we’re already down that path, but you talk about a lot of upside. I mean, Bryce Underwood has it all. He’s 6-foot-4, 225-something, has a big arm. So he’s the whole package. We’ve got to round him out.”
It took a little over a week for Underwood to announce his return, but did anyone doubt he would? Whittingham said there was some concern, but few thought he might leave.
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Still, he’ll have to adjust to the star quarterback and vice versa, but once that happens, it pays dividends in more ways than one.
“It’s beautiful, let’s go, you know,” Whittingham said. “There was probably a little bit of hesitation before he got to know me and the rest of the staff, but once he got to know us, everything was on a good track from that point on. And certainly, when he announced it a couple days ago, it really helped our recruiting. It was a stabilizing factor for us.”
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kyle Whittingham laments lack of quarterbacks coach in Bryce Underwood in 2025