Kyle Whittingham on Michigan QB Bryce Underwood: 'Still got a long ways to go, but he’s on the right path'

The 2026 season is a big one for Michigan Wolverines football sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood, who has 13 starts under his belt, tremendous upside but a lot of room for growth. Head coach Kyle Whittingham plans to unlock that potential beginning this year, after Underwood completed 60.3 percent of his throws for 2,428 yards and 11 touchdowns with 9 interceptions and ran for 392 yards and 6 scores in 2025.

“First of all, Bryce was thrown into a pretty tough situation last fall — a true freshman, 18 years old, starting quarterback at not only a P4 program but Michigan,” Whittingham said on ‘The Blueprint’ podcast. “You’re under the spotlight, also didn’t have a dedicated quarterbacks coach last year, from what I was told. So, he was a little rough around the edges, still is a little bit.”

Offensive coordinator Jason Beck is also the quarterbacks coach, but Michigan has analyst Koy Detmer Jr. working with the position, too. Detmer is a former BYU quarterback who’s new to coaching, entering his third year as an FBS analyst.

The Wolverines are seeing the 6-foot-4, 228-pound Underwood make strides throughout the offseason, despite the tough performance in the first quarter of Michigan’s spring game April 18, where the Detroit native went 3-of-9 passing for 22 yards with 2 ‘sacks.’

“You talk about spring ball, but long before that — January, February — we were in the film room and talking him through mechanics and footwork and read progressions and all that,” Whittingham said. “It continued through spring. He has made progress. Still got a long ways to go, but he’s on the right path.”

Whittingham noted that Michigan was working on installing the offense at large and will whittle it down as time goes on, playing to Underwood’s strengths. Running the football is one of the areas he’s proven adept at, for example — and that wasn’t something he was able to show in the spring game, since he wasn’t live to tackle.

“It’ll be very important this summer that he continues to work,” the Michigan coach continued. “And one thing about Bryce, he’s got a great work ethic. There’s no worry about him putting in the time. He’s going to put in all the time he needs, and he’s completely dedicated to his craft.

“So, we’re still finding out — we’ve got a much better, clearer picture through spring ball — what he does well, what suits him, what aspects of the offense are his strong suits. We’ll start to gravitate towards that as we move closer to the season. Expose him to everything this spring, but we got to know him a lot better and we’ll continue to move and evolve the offense in a direction that really suits what he does best.”