Joel Klatt explains how worried Michigan should be about Bryce Underwood after win vs. Northwestern

Michigan QB Bryce Underwood had another up-and-down game in the 24-22 win over Northwestern at Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon. That, though, is just what the maize & blue are going to have to deal with, with their team too rather than just the true freshman at quarterback, as they go through the growing pains of gaining experience.

Joel Klatt broke down the performance of Underwood against the Wildcats during his show on Monday. He felt it was another mixed performance by him, with him starting off well before being a big part of the near collapse in the second half, specifically the fourth quarter, for the Wolverines.

“A game like that is exactly what they need, and you would much rather win a game like that than lose a game like that, okay, because, even in a win, there are going to be learning opportunities, in particular for a young quarterback. And, I think Bryce is going to get the focal point of everybody’s analysis and talk and maybe even criticism from that game because of everything that happened late in the fourth quarter,” said Klatt. “He did not play well in the fourth quarter after, and this is what’s wild, playing his best game of the season. So, Bryce was a microcosm of this roller coaster I’m talking to you about. For two and a half quarters, he played the best football of his career, and he’s only 18.”

Underwood was 21/32 (65.6%) for 280 yards and two interceptions in the fourth quarter, while also rushing for 30 yards and a touchdown in the two-point, walk-off win in Chicago. In calling the game for FOX, Klatt thought Underwood has clearly gotten better about “pass(ing) the football effectively” with different types of throws, but that he’s still turnover-prone with nine total as compared to a dozen scores, namely just being a freshman as they often “pre-determine what they want to do with the football”, and has to “learn from that.”

But, Klatt thinks that’s just the nature of this team for Michigan. They’re still very young, despite being nine games into this season, and, because of that, unpredictable performances are predictable for the Wolverines.

“There’s two ways you can look at this. You can say, man, that’s a young team that’s finding a way to win, even in an impossible situation. You can be up on it and be like, ‘That’s incredible! They won even though they made all those mistakes!’ Or, you can say, gross. I mean, I don’t know which way, and, listen, there’s going to be Michigan fans on both sides of that, and I think I kind of understand both sides. I lean a little bit more toward the optimistic version. Because, listen, they can’t play that way and beat, you know, a great team,” said Klatt. “And yet, I look at this team? It is the youngest team in the Big Ten, by a wide margin, by the way. And, they win that game, and it takes a lot of grit and resolve. It takes a lot of bounce back, you know, from a lot of different people on that team, including the coaching staff.

“With youth – and they had freshmen everywhere, six starting on offense…There is youth everywhere – everywhere. And, with youth is inexperience, and, with inexperience, you’re going to ride the roller coaster. There’s going to be peaks, and there’s going to be valleys. When you’ve got more youth – if it’s just one freshman on the field, you can kind of weather the storm and you’re not going to ride the roller coaster as much. But, when all the players on the field are this young and this inexperienced, you are going to ride the roller coaster – period, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The shoulder straps come down, they’re like wrrr, and they lock in, and it’s like, hey, three, two, one, whoosh, and you’re riding the Incredicoaster at California Adventure. And, you know what you can do? Nothing, because you’re on the roller coaster, and you’re going to be up and you’re going to be down. And, you know what? All you can do is not throw up. So, good luck, because that’s what it’s going to be until they develop consistency through experience.”

Because of that too, Klatt wishes they’d get a little more grace in Ann Arbor. He understands the expectations for that program, but he finds some of them to be unreasonable at this point just because of inexperienced that the Wolverines are.

“I think life, in a lot of ways, is about expectation and expectation management. And, I’m not telling Michigan fans to lower their expectation, but I am saying that I think that this team is getting a bit of an unfair rap, in particular on offense,” Klatt said. “There are some of you, as Michigan fans? I’m just telling you right now. All you do with this group is view them through the lens of the ’22-’23 Michigan team. Like, c’mon. You can’t do that. That team had, like, 500-plus total starts. That’s how much experience they had on that team that won the national championship. You think this team has that? This team has, like, a total of like 100, you know. I don’t have the exact number, but it ain’t 500-plus. I can tell you that, you know, so that’s an unfair comparison.

“This young team, youngest team in the Big Ten? Sherrone Moore in his second year? Got an 18-year-old quarterback? And, some Michigan fans want to just compare them to the best Michigan team that they’ve had ever, a 15-0 team that won a national championship, and the number one in the country this year (in Ohio State). Now, that’s fine. I get it. You want to have high standards. More power to you. I’m all in on all of that. But, like, you understand that that’s a little off, right?”

That applies to Underwood as much as anyone at Michigan. Still, there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of talent there, and it should only get better as learns what he doesn’t yet know as a starting quarterback in college.