Michigan Wolverines football has a quarterback competition during fall camp, with multiple players in the mix. Freshman Bryce Underwood is widely viewed as the favorite to win the job, and teammates have been impressed with the way he’s worked since joining the program for bowl practices last December. During fall camp ahead of the 2025 […]
Michigan Wolverines football has a quarterback competition during fall camp, with multiple players in the mix. Freshman Bryce Underwood is widely viewed as the favorite to win the job, and teammates have been impressed with the way he’s worked since joining the program for bowl practices last December.
During fall camp ahead of the 2025 season, Underwood and the signal-callers have been testing the Michigan secondary.
“He’s made a couple throws where it was like, ‘That’s a big-time throw,'” Berry said of Underwood.
Michigan defensive backs must stay close in coverage for a long period of time, knowing Underwood can move around and use his big arm to find receivers down the field.
“Bryce can do it all,” Berry said. “He can run, he can throw.
“No matter how far it is, he’s gonna throw it. You gotta stay on your guy, just gotta be as close as you can to the receiver, because he can make any throw — back shoulder, over the shoulder, it doesn’t matter what it is.”
Berry has also been impressed with the rest of Michigan’s quarterbacks who are getting reps.
“They can all make those throws,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who’s in at quarterback, they can challenge us. They all throw back shoulder, over the shoulder, it doesn’t really matter.”
Junior defensive back TJ Metcalf said it’s been Underwood, graduate Jake Garcia, an ECU transfer who joined the team this summer, and sophomore Jadyn Davis who have gone against Michigan’s defense in practice.
Keene, a Fresno State transfer who’s started 34 career games, missed spring practices with an upper-body injury and told TheWolverine.com in late-July that he was “coming along just fine” in his recovery.
“Mikey, he’s still getting into it, so we’ve only been competing against Bryce, Jake and JD,” Metcalf said.
“But I think Mikey Keene, once he comes back in, I think it’s gonna be like he never lost a step. I know he put in a lot of work, just making sure his throwing is right and making sure he’s still locked in on what he has to do.”
Metcalf has seen positives from Underwood during camp.
“He’s been doing a good job from spring until now,” Metcalf said of the 6-foot-4, 228-pound Detroit native’s progression. “It’s kinda hard with the way we do practice, the maize and blue practices, but when we’re all combined, he’ll be making some good throws. He made a couple good throws the day before yesterday.
“I think they’re all moving in the right direction. I like what I’ve seen seeing from Jadyn Davis, and Bryce has been doing pretty good.”
As for the Michigan receivers that are giving him the most trouble in practice, Metcalf listed a few.
“Me and [junior] Semaj [Morgan] go at it,” said Metcalf, who’s playing both safety and nickel. “I’d say Semaj, [graduate] Donaven [McCulley]. [Junior] Fred[rick Moore] has been flashing. Really those three. I haven’t really competed against a lot of the other guys — mainly just those three.”
The Michigan pass game is revamped this season, with offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey now in charge. Lindsey spent the last two seasons in the same position at North Carolina and has a long track record of leading productive and dynamic offenses.
“Route combinations are some things that are different than what we’ve seen,” Berry said.
Berry added that he believes there’s a difference between the Michigan receiving corps in terms of personnel, too, between last year and this season.
“It kinda feels like it, I would say,” Berry said of an upgrade. “These guys are challenging us this year. As a defense, we had a meeting to say, ‘Hey, we haven’t had this before, so we gotta do something about it.'”
Category: General Sports
