Brent Venables Praises Michigan Football's Bryce Underwood

Bryce Underwood is under fire. After a poor freshman season, his debut in his sophomore season did not look much better.

There is plenty of information out there at this point that suggests it was worse.

If not for JJ Buchanan’s heroics on the final play of Michigan’s 13-12 victory over Western Michigan, it would be a wonder as to how the conversation surrounding Underwood would look this week.

What’s on deck?

Just the Oklahoma Sooners, who are led by Brent Venables, one of the most respected defensive minds in college football. Venables has been tasked with stopping some of the top quarterbacks in the sport during his time at both Clemson and Oklahoma with varying degrees of success, and he still sees plenty of potential in Underwood.

Venables Praises Underwood

“Bryce (Underwood) as I said last night on my coaches show, one of the most talented players at any position in all of college football,” Venables said. “All of his best days are still in front of him. Won nine games as a true freshman starting quarterback — a tremendous feat in itself. We’ve got a great, great challenge in all three phases. We’ve got to have a great week of practice. Our guys are excited about the game and, as I told them, if you want to have an opportunity to play well and win, you’ve got to have a great week of preparation, great detail.”

This could certainly be a case of damning with faint praise, but there are more than one example of Underwood receiving praise from coaches around the country.

During the summer, Underwood drew similar praise from former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer.

The talent is evident with Underwood. That remains true regardless of Saturday’s performance. Unfortunately, after the way the game on Saturday went, Michigan feels like they’re back to square one with quarterback play.

My Take

My thought on Underwood has changed a little since the beginning of the season. I stated before the year that I was buying the hype on Michigan’s sophomore quarterback. I felt like the talent was going to shine through, and that the coaching staff was going to put him in better positions to succeed than what Underwood dealt with a season ago.

Admittedly, it’s hard to have much confidence in anything related to Michigan’s offense at this point. Yes, Western Michigan is a good program as the defending champion of the MAC.

They are still Western Michigan, that’s not a program that should be on the brink of defeating the Wolverines at any juncture.

I don’t think that Venables is saying anything to talk out of both sides of his mouth. There is a talent level that someone like Underwood has that has to be respected on its face.

That type of talent that Underwood possesses means he could go on a tear at any point during a game.

The lack of polish is what has been the problem for Underwood during his short career as Michigan’s starting quarterback.

I know that Whittingham was committed to Underwood in his press conference, stating that the controversial sophomore was their guy right now.

I think that was stated with some intent to let Underwood know that improvement was going to follow. I also don’t think we’re anywhere close to getting ready for Tommy Carr to be the team’s starting quarterback.

The backup quarterback is almost always undefeated. It was not that long ago where the entire crowd in Ann Arbor was chanting for Alex Orji during the season opener of Michigan’s 2024 season.

The chants for Orji were silenced by an audible groan once Orji skipped a simple out route to a receiver that night.

Eventually, the switch to Orji was made. Then he was not good enough, and the switch was made to Jack Tuttle. Then Tuttle was hurt and ineffective, and everything came full circle back to Davis Warren.

The point being, if you start playing musical chairs with your quarterback, you’re likely going to be disappointed no matter when the music stops.

As frustrating as things have been for Underwood through two seasons, he still has only started 14 games.

Only one of those games have come under this coaching staff. These things do require, as crazy as this may sound, some patience.

Underwood has plenty of talent. As Venables said, his best days are in front of him. It’s up to the Wolverines’ coaching staff and Underwood himself to ensure one of those best days comes Saturday afternoon against Oklahoma.

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