Bryce Underwood describes what his transition to college has been like

Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood has turned heads as one of the early starters at the position. Of course, to those who followed him in high school that comes as little surprise.

Underwood was ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit in the nation in the 2025 recruiting class. But he admits fall camp was a challenge.

“Honestly, we have a great quarterback room, so it was us pushing each other every single day,” Underwood said on The Hard Count with JD PicKell. “I feel like the competitiveness of us bringing it out of each other was just honestly amazing. So it was really exciting between the whole room to be announced as the starting quarterback.”

Since he has become the starter, Bryce Underwood has had his ups and downs. He got off to a strong start against New Mexico, then ran into some struggles on the road at Oklahoma.

He’s had to deal with the mental element of managing criticism and staying even-keeled despite the change in performance. Surprisingly, though, he’s all about it.

“It’s been fun. That’s the biggest comparison I see (coming from high school),” Underwood said. “Having way more fun than I expected to have, honestly. Watching college football as a kid, it was just like who knows how difficult this possibly can be when I get this much older. Just excited to be able to go in and go out every single week and showcase my talents and everything I’ve worked for.”

So far this season, Underwood is 46-of-80 passing for 628 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. He has also run for 108 yards and two scores, having a breakout game on the ground against Central Michigan last week.

That performance was more like the ones fans probably expected when Michigan signed Underwood. Is there more on the way?

Possibly. And if so, you might look for a trademark celebration from Bryce Underwood: a backflip. Well, maybe.

“Coach (Sherrone) Moore, the first week, no, the first day I got here, coach Moore straight said, ‘No backflips. I have no time for you getting hurt,'” Underwood said with a smile. “I’m like, ‘OK, that’s unfortunate.’ So who knows if it might come or not. Because sometimes they give me a pass here or there. So it might.”