Bryce Underwood came out of Belleville High School in Belleville, MI, as the consensus No. 1 quarterback and player in the 2025 recruiting class.
After receiving scholarship offers from the likes of Ohio State, Michigan and LSU, Underwood decided to commit to the Tigers and take his talents to the bayou. It was a commitment he held for quite a while, even turning down a reported $10.5 million offer from Michigan to flip to Ann Arbor and his home school.
This left some people, including Underwood and his family, feeling important and wanted. It also left LSU coach Brian Kelly knowing he had his quarterback of the future.
After Michigan and coach Sharone Moore raised their offer to a reported $12 million, with the help of Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and to a much lesser extent Dave Portnoy, Underwood did decide to flip to the school just 25 miles from his home. This left him rich and talented. But it also left him with a target on his back and ripe for any criticism which would come if he started slow. Which is exactly what happened? So, what else has the recruitment of Underwood left in its wake?
The LSU fallout
Brian Kelly arrived at LSU speaking of family and how it was so much easier to win at LSU than it was at Notre Dame — a fact which while true, does not tell the entire story.
This initial statement left Kelly the butt of many jokes and he started behind. After upsetting Ole Miss and defeating Alabama on a two-point conversion in overtime, Kelly finished his first season with an SEC West division title. After arriving with a depleted roster in front of him, this looked like the beginning of a beautiful partnership. But nothing is meant to last.
Rumors have always circulated that Kelly was not a dogged recruiter. Something which is mandatory at an SEC school, especially an SEC school like LSU, where every coach since the year 2000 has won at least one national championship during their tenure. Kelly felt he knew better than Nick Saban though, and this cost him over the coming seasons. While they went 8-4 the following season and saw a Heisman Trophy win for Jayden Daniels, this was still a step backwards for the Tigers and fans were not happy. After this season, two things happened which hastened the downfall of Kelly even more.
These were correlating moves which started with offensive coordinator Mike Dembrock — the longtime assistant to Kelly at Notre Dame and LSU — returning to Notre Dame to work as offensive coordinator under coach Marcus Freeman. This move left LSU without an offensive coordinator, problem they remedied by promoting quarterbacks coach Joe Slone. This move was done due to Slone leading Daniels to the Heisman Trophy and to keep him from leaving for the position at a different school. But, after a season of uneven offensive play, highly influenced by Kelly, Sloane was on the hot seat and he turned to the recruitment of Underwood to save his job.
LSU, who had already been recruiting Underwood as the five-star quarterback that he is, ramped up their pursuit mightily. After finally landing his commitment, Kelly thought he had his starting quarterback and Sloane thought he had his next Heisman Trophy winner to coach up — something he would fail to do in 2024 and 2025 with Garrett Nussmeier and something which eventually helped Underwood to decide to flip to Michigan.
Kelly, who has had a few moments where he put his foot in his mouth, had another one in stating that LSU was not in the market of buying players when asked why the Tigers were not more aggressive in the portal before the 2024 season. He continued to show blatant disregard for the new way of things while at Notre Dame, Freeman was able to overcome the considerable limitations of Notre Dame to get the Irish to the National Championship Game against Ohio State.
In 2025, with Nussmeier returning to school as a Heisman Trophy favorite, the echoes around LSU were that of national championship or bust. Underwood had flipped his commitment in November of 2024, but if Kelly led the Tigers to the title in 2025, Kelly would get a massive extension, and no one would care.
Unfortunately, things went off the rails, Kelly was fired for being Brian Kelly and Underwood had his first victim.
The Michigan year
After arriving at Michigan to applause and expectations, Underwood was supposed to be slowly working into the team while Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene started for the Wolverines to start the year.
But Keene was injured in camp and this led Underwood to taking over the practice snaps and eventually the play snaps starting from the first game of the season and continuing throughout the entire year.
During his freshman season, fans had no clue what else was going on within the Michigan locker room and administration office, something we know far too much about now. But this could not have made it easy for Underwood to get the training and valuable insights he needed to improve to the best of his abilities.
During his first season, Underwood was 202-of-335 for 2,428 yards, with 11 touchdowns and 9 interceptions while overseeing a run-first offense for the Wolverines. On the ground, he finished with 392 yards and 6 rushing touchdowns on 88 carries. He ran for 100 yards in one game and more than 60 yards in one other game for Michigan. These numbers show his clear talent, and he was done no favors by having Moore as his head coach for a season before he was terminated and Kyle Whittingham was brought in to replace him.
Under Whittingham, the team will go through a culture change. This will not include the offense as Whittingham and offensive coordinator Jason Beck will continue to be a physical, run-first program and this is what Underwood was used to in 2025. Whittingham spent time all summer praising the growth shown by Underwood in just their limited time together, while also making sure to heap praise on backup quarterback Tommy Carr.
Carr, the grandson of Michigan legendary coach Lloyd Carr and younger brother to Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, is being set up to succeed after Underwood moves on. Whether that time comes as Underwood departs for the NFL or, what is looking more likely now, moves onto another school for a fresh start in a new program.
Whittingham said this week that Underwood’s position as the starting quarterback is “for now” which elicited a response from Underwood of “that’s cool” when he was informed.
This leaves the relationship between coach and quarterback at a crossroads. Something Underwood has been dealing with his entire college career and in many ways before his college career.
What's next for Bryce Underwood?
Even though he has been a main topic of conversation during the dismissal of two coaching staffs, he has not performed up to the level that either would have wanted had they been around to be a part of it.
He is already being discussed as though he were Brock Vander Griff or Max Johnson but, he is only a true sophomore and has been a starter for only 13 games.
The $12 million that Michigan allotted to Underwood is a drop in the bucket for a school in the Big Ten. Especially a school like Michigan whose athletics budget annually reaches past $200 million. During Michigan’s report in 2024 to the Board of Regents, the department expected a surplus of just under $200,00 as there were operating costs of $230.4 million while there were revenues of $230.6 million. This is certainly going to be higher in 2026 after the men’s basketball team won the national championship, which will give them the most revenue available from the NCAA Tournament and the increase in television rights from the conference deal. This means that Michigan needs to just let Underwood keep any money he has already been awarded and let him move to the next school in his career trajectory.
Listening to contacts, it is clear there will be several schools who will vie for his commitment when Underwood inevitably enters his name into the transfer portal. If you want to read about some of these schools, you can read here, (Link) to see some of the schools who will be involved.
Some other schools on the list will be Ohio State, who is likely to lose Julian Sayin to the draft after this season, Nebraska, who has Trey Turner coming in 2027 but will need someone for a season while he gets ready, USC, who will be losing Jayden Maiava, and Penn State, who will have money and a need after the departure of Rocko Beck.
All these schools and dozens of others will find a willing partner in Underwood. He will not only need to leave Michigan, but he will also want to, and with his choice of suitors ready to spend big, he will be the highest paid college player by the time he leaves the ranks of amateur sports and heads off to his next chapter. Whether that be as a first round selection like many five-stars, a late round selection like Quinn Ewers, or on to something else in life like so many other college athletes. No matter what, he will do so with a headstart of financial security. Something he will be entitled to for the money to be brought to all his schools.
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