{"id":449498,"date":"2026-02-05T00:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/449498\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T00:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T00:34:11","slug":"bryce-underwood-will-make-year-2-jump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/449498\/","title":{"rendered":"Bryce Underwood will make year 2 ‘jump’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along with position coach\/analyst Koy Detmer Jr.<\/a>, Michigan Wolverines football<\/a> offensive coordinator Jason Beck will work closely with the quarterbacks, including sophomore starter Bryce Underwood<\/a>. The 6-foot-4, 228-pound Underwood had his ups and downs as a freshman in 2025, but is set to take a leap forward in his development, Beck is confident.<\/p>\n

Underwood, a Detroit native, completed 202 of his 335 pass attempts (60.3 percent) for 2,428 yards and 11 touchdowns with 9 interceptions and added 88 rushes for 392 yards and 6 scores.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I watched the film, man, he\u2019s a big, athletic, impressive player. He has a big arm, and has a nice presence about him,\u201d Beck said on the\u00a0\u2018In The Trenches\u2019<\/a>\u00a0podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo play at this level as a freshman \u2014\u00a0a true freshman \u2014\u00a0is really hard. That is really challenging for anybody. First year starting for a guy to second year starting, guys take a jump \u2014\u00a0just from the experience, just from being through the ups and downs, the game slowing down. Just the improvement, you make a jump your first year as a starter to year two. Now, not many kids are starting as a freshman, so that even kind of adds to it a little more.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to come in and play as a freshman is challenging, but there\u2019s no doubt he\u2019ll take a jump year two, having all that experience under his belt and the things he\u2019s learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck alluded to the mental aspect of the game being important for Michigan\u2019s quarterback this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll say this just on any quarterback, when you\u2019re watching film, you can kind of see what a quarterback\u2019s thinking by how they\u2019re moving, what their feet look like in the pocket,\u201d Beck noted. \u201cSo, it\u2019s the mental part of the position that is such a key for the quarterback, to have them dialed into what they\u2019re thinking, what they\u2019re reading, what they\u2019re reacting to. Because, as they have a high level of understanding of that and feel comfortable, then they look at ease playing the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re kind of racing and uncertain, then it looks that way with their feet. They\u2019re just fast to get out of the pocket or to take off running or they\u2019re kind of all over the place with their feet. With any quarterback, it starts with, what are they thinking, processing, understanding? And being able to do that at a high level.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the amount of reps you want to invest in a quarterback to get them ready to play, so everything just looks more smooth, more calm. And then, when things aren\u2019t there, OK, take off, go make a play and kind of play from there. But the mental side of it is the focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some reps will go to graduate signal-caller Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi<\/a>, too, though. The Colorado State transfer provides the Wolverines with a capable backup, after starting 27 games at his previous school. He\u2019s completed 583 of his 969 pass attempts (60.2 percent) for 6,938 yards and 38 touchdowns with 29 interceptions during his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so important to address the depth of the room, because you\u2019re just one play away from that next guy going in and how important that position is for the success of your team,\u201d the Michigan coach said. \u201cTo have someone that has a lot of experience was very important, because you have to invest a lot of your reps into getting Bryce ready, and you need to also be developing these other guys who may not be able to get as many reps. So, they have to have that experience to be able to learn, pick it up and be ready if their number is called.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wolverines also added another transfer to the position group in former LSU quarterback Colin Hurley<\/a>, a former four-star recruit who enrolled at age 16 but hasn\u2019t seen the field in a college game yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never heard of that before, being 16 years old in college,\u201d Beck said. \u201cKind of wild. But, yeah, we needed depth, competition. So, Colin brings that to the room, along with a couple other freshmen and young players. To be able to throw him in there, develop, compete and see what comes out.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can never predict. When guys come in and you give them opportunities, some guys will rise and take off and surprise you. So, you just want to fill the room with depth and competition to allow guys to have a chance, and see where they go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michigan has six scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, with the other three being sophomore Chase Herbstreit<\/a> and freshmen Tommy Carr<\/a> and Brady Smigiel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along with position coach\/analyst Koy Detmer Jr., Michigan Wolverines football offensive coordinator Jason Beck will work closely with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[194321,1374,211022,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-449498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-brayden-fowler-nicolosi-22-aledo","9":"tag-bryce-underwood-25-belleville-high-school","10":"tag-colin-hurley-24-trinity-christian-academy","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-ncaafootball","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}