Is Bryce Underwood’s Job Safe at Michigan? What Kyle Whittingham Really Meant
Michigan beat No. 11 Oklahoma 17-10 at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, and the first question Kyle Whittingham got was not about the defense that held the Sooners to 10 points. It was about a quote from a week ago.
Whittingham had said Bryce Underwood’s hold on the starting job was “not infinite” after Michigan’s grim 13-12 survival act against Western Michigan in Week 1. That single word set the internet on fire for six days. On Saturday he made it clear that everyone read way too much into it.
“I was asked if his job was infinitely and etched in stone. Whose job is ever etched in stone?” Whittingham said. “I don’t agree that I opened that can of worms because Bryce is our quarterback, and that’s where we are right now.”
He is right, and the people who ran with it know he is right. No coach in America is going to stand at a podium and promise a quarterback the job forever. That is not how the sport works, and it has never been how Whittingham operates.
Underwood answered the only way that matters
Forget the press conference. Underwood went out and had the best game of his young career against a top-15 defense.
He carried it 18 times for 87 yards and broke a 38-yard touchdown run. He threw for 111 yards. He did not turn the ball over once. Against Oklahoma, in a game Michigan needed, that combination is more than enough.
The passing number is going to get picked apart, and fine, 111 yards is not going to win anybody a Heisman. But Michigan built a game plan around his legs and the offensive line, leaned on it, and walked off with a win over a ranked team. The quarterback executed the plan he was given.
Compare that to Week 1, when Underwood got roasted from every corner of the sport for an ugly performance against Western Michigan. He still threw the game-winning touchdown in that one, which nobody wanted to talk about. A week later he was the reason Michigan controlled the fourth quarter.
The bigger picture in Ann Arbor
Michigan is 2-0 with a win over a ranked opponent in the bank. That is the whole story. The offense is not pretty yet and the passing game has real work to do, but a 2-0 start that includes Oklahoma is a fine place to be in mid-September.
What stood out more than the stat line was the sideline. Underwood and Whittingham embraced after the game. If there were ever any real tension between the sophomore and his head coach, it did not show up when it counted.
Whittingham’s original comment was never a threat. It was a coach refusing to hand out lifetime guarantees in September, which is exactly what a coach should do. The reaction said more about the temperature around Michigan football than anything happening inside the building.
UTEP comes to Michigan Stadium on Sept. 19, and that is the kind of game where Michigan can actually open up the passing game and let Underwood work without the season hanging on every throw. He needs those reps. The run-heavy approach that beat Oklahoma is not going to carry this team through the Big Ten schedule by itself.
For now, the quarterback question is settled. Whittingham said it plainly: Bryce is our quarterback. Everything after that is noise, and Underwood just spent 60 minutes proving he can play through it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
