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At his introductory press conference in Orlando, the one player that new Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham mentioned by name was quarterback Bryce Underwood. Given that the former No. 1 overall player in the country as a recruit started all season in his freshman year, it was incumbent upon Whittingham that he retain top talent that was already in Ann Arbor.
However, he noticed some flaws, with the previous coaching staff having not taken precious care investing in its top commodity.
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Whittingham appeared on The Triple Option Podcast by Fox Sports, and was asked by his former boss at Utah, Urban Meyer, about Underwood, and the new Wolverines leader said that the big thing was that he didn't have a dedicated quarterbacks coach. And now that he does, he's already seeing improvement in his game.
"First of all, from what I understand, there was no dedicated quarterback coach working with him on a daily basis, which has to happen," Whittingham said. "He had a young, young man, 17 years old. He didn't turn 18 till like mid-season. And so he's a guy that really could have been in high school last year, as far as his age. But there's some things in the throwing mechanics and the -- just seems to smooth out in his fundamentals and technique. And we're already got a good start on that.
"And Jason Beck and Koy Detmer, outstanding quarterback developers and coaches. And so we're already going down that path, but you talk about a ton of upside. I mean, Bryce Underwood's got it all. He's 6-foot-4 and 225-plus and has a cannon arm. And so he's the whole package. We just got to get him refined."
Underwood took a little over a week to announce his return, but was there any doubt that he would? Whittingham says there was some concern, but it was very little in the way of thinking he could be gone.
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Still, he had to get acclimated to the star quarterback and vice versa, but once that happened, it paid dividends in multiple ways.
"It was pretty, pretty much let's go, you know," Whittingham said. "There was maybe a little hesitation until he got to know me and the rest of the staff, but once he got to know us, it was on a good trajectory from that point. And then he announced, of course, several days ago, and really helped our recruiting when he announced. And it was a stabilizing factor for us."
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kyle Whittingham laments Bryce Underwood lacking a QB coach in 2025
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