Chip Lindsey outlines Michigan QB battle, calls Bryce Underwood a ‘football junkie’

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines flipped their quarterback room this offseason, and now have to figure out who is going to lead it during the 2025 season.

Offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey is at the forefront of that discussion and evaluation. Fall camp begin this week in Ann Arbor, and the pads finally came on Saturday, but there does not seem to be a rush to name that guy before they know who it should be.

Freshman Bryce Underwood, graduates Mikey Keene and Jake Garcia and sophomore Jadyn Davis are all in the mix for the job.

WATCH: Michigan coordinators Chip Lindsey, Wink Martindale speak to media

 ”Yeah, I think you always wanna know as soon as you can,” Lindsey said on Saturday afternoon. “I mean, that’s the goal. I do think that we have a good plan with the competition and getting guys reps, and I think more than just getting reps, putting them in different situations. It takes time to do that. For instance, you can have so many days of what they call install. Usually base downs and so forth. But then, as you get to third down, you don’t do that early in camp sometimes, and you get to the red zone.

“So I think for us, we’re trying to rotate those guys and put them all in those different situations and see how they respond. The key to playing good quarterback is understanding situational football and making great decisions. And they’re all competitive. They’re all smart, they’re all doing a great job when they get their reps. When the heat’s and you’re in those tight moments, you know who can run the team and who can make the best decisions.”

It is not just about having one guy ready to start, either. Last year at North Carolina, Lindsey wound up playing three quarterbacks due to injuries. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unknowns. They have to get as many players ready as possible at Michigan.

“We made a decision, probably a couple of weeks before we played, and then we had an injury in the first game of the season and lost him for the season,” Lindsey said of the 2024 season at UNC. That was why the competition was so important too, to give those other guys reps. As the season went, we ended up playing two more guys and finally settled on the guy who outta camp was our third guy. I do think you have to be prepared. I’ve had another season where we had to play, due to injury, five different quarterbacks at Arizona State. So getting them all prepared, getting them all reps and getting them all opportunities is important to us.

There is also a different wrinkle to the quarterback competition compared to the spring. Underwood and Davis got all the snaps due to Keene’s injury, and then Garcia entered the program this summer. The veterans are going to have a say in setting the expectation and determining how it goes.

“We got two new guys that are now in the mix and with two guys getting reps in the spring, it’s pretty easy to rotate them there,” Lindsey said. “Now we’re getting all those guys in the mix, and it’s been good. Jake has been here a month or something like that. You can tell he has experience. He handles himself well. Mikey, the same thing. Very good at just the little things. Dealing with a huddle, understanding, communication, how to prepare. Both of those guys have helped [Davis and Underwood].

“Mikey, whom I’ve been with before, it’s an advantage for him a little bit. He might make a point as well. So all those things are good. We have a very collaborative room where we’re all trying to help each other out. At the end of the day, it is a competition and we understand that.

Lindsey speaks on Michigan’s five-star freshman

Much of the hype in the Michigan quarterback battle has centered around Underwood, a five-star recruit and the No. 1 player in the 2025 class. Most expect him to be the starter, and he has checked a lot of important boxes thus far.

“I think very, very advanced for his age from the standpoint of I think he had good high school coaches,” Lindsey said. “I think he’s trained physically, obviously he looks the part and all that. I think the surprise for me is the football knowledge is really high for a 17-year-old and a high school kid that just got here. Pretty impressive now learning our terminology and why we call certain things and so forth. There’s been some learning process there, but the guy’s a football junkie and really, he’s here early and stays late and loves to study football and this is a good place to do that.

Michigan knows that it might be playing a true freshman this season, which makes the looks he gets in practice and how he grows off of that even more critical.

“We’re fortunate that we have a defensive coordinator here that’ll present a lot of things for the quarterback,” Lindsey said. “So he’s gonna get anybody who’s playing quarterback for us ready. Wink’s been awesome to work with, though. He’s great. We help each other give each other the looks we need and so forth.

“I think it’s good we get to practice against good players every day in practice. And it’s hard. It’s not easy. We hope if you make it hard in practice, you go into the games and you build some experience that way seeing the different looks, seeing different coverages, different pressures and so forth. At the same time the way we see it, it’s a team game. We want the quarterback to do his job and make plays when it makes sense. Whoever the quarterback is, just make plays, make the routine throws, get us in and outta the right plays when we need to, and really take care of the football.”

Lindsey’s quarterback critera

Lindsey was asked to specify his criteria for the Michigan quarterback derby and said the guy who serves as the rising tide for the offense will be the one who gets the nod in the season opener on Aug. 30 vs. New Mexico.

 ”Whoever affects the other 10 guys the best,” Lindsey said. “Whoever can manage the whole offense communication, getting us in and out of the right place, making sure we’re in the right protection and so forth. It’s just kind of who has that ability to affect the others. I think playing quarterback is such a leadership-type position. You’ve gotta have the right mindset. I think you gotta have the right approach.

“The best guys that I’ve had are not always just the loudest and guys that holler and scream. They’re the guys that can motivate the other guys, and also learning how certain guys are motivated. Some guys don’t like to be called out in front of people. Some guys, you’re better off getting them on the side. All these guys we have, we’re lucky in this room. They’re smart, they’re great people, they’re great kids and they wanna win.

“But in the heat of the battle, who handles those stressful situations the best? I think Sherrone’s done a really nice job of laying out practice and trying to put our quarterbacks and our team in those situations throughout training camp before we get into games. There’s nothing that replaces playing a game. But at the same time as a coach, you’re trying to do everything you can to put them in those adverse situations.

“The guy who does that the best will be the guy that we’ll go with.”