Comparing the quarterbacks in the Michigan vs. Northwestern game

At quarterback for Northwestern, it will be Preston Stone getting the starting nod. He’s a Senior who started his career at SMU before transferring to Northwestern prior to the 2025 season. He’s been starting all year for the Wildcats, and thus far he’s completing 59.3% of his passes for 1,522 yards with 11 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

He’s not much of a run threat as he’s totaled just 5 rushing yards on the season. Among Big Ten quarterbacks he ranks 17th out of 17 qualified for the QBR. In passer rating he ranks 17th out of 20 qualified Big Ten quarterbacks, so he has really struggled this year at quarterback for the Wildcats. He doesn’t have a ton of weapons to help him out but he ranks near or at the bottom of the Big Ten in all major QB stats.

At quarterback for Michigan it will be Bryce Underwood starting his 10th game of the year in his true Freshman season. So far this year Bryce Underwood is completing 60.9% of his passes for 1,671 yards with 7 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He’s also added 272 yards and 4 touchdowns on the ground.

In the QBR metric he ranks 9th out of 17 qualified passers in the Big Ten, and in the passer rating metric he ranks 12th out of 20th qualified passers in the Big Ten. As a true Freshman, he's been a bit more up and down this year than Wolverine fans would probably prefer but progress isn't always linear so we'll see if he can get the season back on track in this game against the Wildcats.

In raw stats, Bryce Underwood has the edge in yards but has less 4 passing touchdowns and 6 less interceptions. A lot of that is simply because Northwestern is typically trailing late in games so they need to pass to make up for it and Michigan’s offense isn’t designed to be a high flying aerial attack.

Bryce Underwood’s QBR and Passer Rating are both significantly better than Preston Stone’s though, so while Northwestern has the edge in quarterback experience in this game, Michigan definitely has the more talented quarterback. We’ll see if that holds true in this game or if Bryce Underwood will struggle in the passing game for the third straight game for the Wolverines.

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