Bryce Underwood grades himself a C+ in first start at Michigan

Sherrone Moore knows how hard on himself that Michigan QB Bryce Underwood is. He proved that postgame with how he graded his performance in his collegiate debut starting as a true freshman at quarterback for the Wolverines.

After Moore had mentioned that his freshman was one of his own toughest critics, someone asked Underwood postgame how he’d assess his play in the 34-17 opening win for No. 14 Michigan over New Mexico. He gave himself an average mark of a C+, with work to do for himself and their team coming out of game one.

“A C+ today,” Underwood determined.

“It’s a lot of things I got to work on, and also us as a team as well,” explained Underwood. “So, we’re going to go back to the drawing board. We’re going to come back better next week, so.”

Again, this came after Moore said earlier to the media that several players like Underwood have a high standard for themselves but for their program at Michigan. Still, considering all things, Moore thought his quarterback had himself quite a good opening night.

“There’s thing we’ve got to clean up and we’ve got to get better at and we know that, and the best part about it is our kids know that. They understand the standard of Michigan Football, and they’re as disappointed at times as anybody else. You know, they’re more disappointed because they’re the ones putting in the work, and our coaches putting in the work,” said Moore. “They know the standard that they want to uphold and we know what we want to uphold, so we’re going to work to get better.”

“For this young man, I thought he played really well. And, he’s going to be very critical of himself when he watches film. He was critical of himself during the game. He has a high standard for himself and we have a high standard for us as an offense, but it’s not just him. It’s everybody on offense together pulling on one string,” Moore said. “To play the way he did, not turn the ball over, throw touchdown passes, and go down on that two-minute drive? I couldn’t do that as a freshman, so that was impressive.”

So, Moore wasn’t surprised at all at the C+ when Underwood said it. That’s about what he expected him to say, even despite the way he did play against the Lobos.

“That’s how he is,” Moore said with a smile.

Underwood, the No. 1 incoming freshman in the country per Rivals’ 20025 Industry Ranking, began his career by being 21-31 (67.7%) for 251 yards and a touchdown throw to close the first half to TE Marlin Klein. There were a few risky throws, namely in the first half that could have led to picks, and a couple of misses but, all in all, he was efficient in his passing statistics, especially without turning the ball over with any picks. He also threw several strikes that suggested the talent and potential that made him the top incoming prospect in college football.

Whether fair or not, Underwood set himself with a C+ after his first game. Either way, he’ll need to continue to be better with game two being a ranked road game for the maize & blue against Oklahoma in Norman.