While Bryce Underwood has received rave reviews since joining Michigan, he’s still just 17. Veteran additions to the QB room in Mikey Keene and Jake Garcia should push Underwood, help him learn, and bring the best out of him.
The Michigan quarterback room is going to look much different in 2025 than it did in 2024. Davis Warren started nine games but tore his ACL in the ReliaQuest Bowl and will be out for the foreseeable future, Alex Orji started three games but has since transferred to UNLV, and Jack Tuttle started one game, medically retired during the season and is now a graduate assistant at Michigan.
Despite the turnover at QB for the Wolverines, the room isn’t weaker by any means heading into the fall campaign. Michigan landed the No. 1 overall recruit in the nation in QB Bryce Underwood and has also given him veteran competition to push him for QB1 duties. Michigan added Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene back in December, and this past week also added East Carolina transfer Jake Garcia. Michigan’s QB room now consists of Underwood, Keene, Garcia, redshirt freshman Jadyn Davis, and true freshman Chase Herbstreit.
Both Keene and Garcia have starting experience. Garcia has seven career starts while Keene has 35. Garcia has passed for 2,376 yards in his career, with 15 touchdowns and 16 interceptions and a 60.6 completion percentage. Keene has passed for 8,245 yards in his career with 65 touchdowns and 28 interceptions and a 67.8 completion percentage. Underwood, Davis, and Herbstreit haven’t taken collegiate snaps.
Back in December, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore made it clear that Underwood wanted other quarterbacks brought in to strengthen the room.
“Just wanna make sure you have enough guys in the room to push each other, and Bryce wanted it,” Moore said . “Bryce, a big thing when we were recruiting Bryce is, ‘who’s gonna push me? Who’s gonna make me better?’ All his life, he’s been pushed to make better. He doesn’t wanna be given anything, so that was huge for us.”
While Underwood hasn’t been given the starting gig and Moore has said that the quarterback competition will continue during fall camp, reports continue to surface that Underwood has been turning heads.
“He reads the field really well, he gets the ball out, has a quick release, and can deliver the ball on all three levels,” an unnamed source told CBS Sports . “That was stuff the quarterbacks struggled with last year. So to see him doing that stuff is very encouraging.”
While Underwood’s been praised for his on-field abilities and even the way he’s trying to be a leader by learning everyone’s name in the building, he’s still just 17 years old, and more time on task is needed before he’s given the keys to lead the offense this season.
After Michigan’s spring game, where Underwood was 12-of-26 for 187 yards, with one touchdown and one interception, Moore talked about areas where Underwood can make strides.
- “He’s a young guy, he’s talented, he’s got ability, obviously he’s got the high (recruiting) ranking, but he’s still gotta work to be great to be where he wants to be.”
- “All those little things you gotta do to be a great quarterback, it’s a lot more than just throwing it down the field — it’s processing pre-snap and post-snap, so he’s gotta continue to work on that.”
While Underwood provides the biggest upside and has the highest ceiling of Michigan’s quarterbacks, experience matters, too. Underwood is learning his first college playbook and getting acclimated to the speed of the Big Ten Conference while Keene has learned different systems playing for Central Florida and Fresno State, as has Garcia with Miami (FL), Missouri, and East Carolina.
Underwood’s raw talent alone could push him across the finish line and be named the starting quarterback for Week 1 against New Mexico, but at least he now has peers in Keene and Garcia that he can not only be pushed by, but can learn from as well. A win-win for Underwood and the Michigan Wolverines.