Fans got an opportunity to see a bit of what the new-look Michigan football team will look like last month in the annual spring game. But, unlike some previous iterations, where there wasn’t a split squad, and there were more position battles up for grabs, this was more about establishing depth.
New Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham met up with former tight end and BTN broadcaster Jake Butt on The Blue Print podcast, where he shared that the 15th practice, otherwise known as the spring game, wasn’t completely devoid of importance, but it pales in comparison to the 14 that preceded it.
“Well, it’s all important, but the 14 practices are far more valuable,” Whittingham said. “As far as when you were in our situation that we were in, we had a lot of things that we needed to accomplish this spring. Get two completely new schemes installed on both sides of the ball. In fact, special teams as well. Kerry Coombs, who is doing a fantastic job for us with special teams, got hired late in the season and really didn’t have a chance to install all of his stuff.
“So the spring ball, we had a chance to put in schemes, both sides of the ball, and special teams. Needed to find out who our playmakers were, needed to make every single player in the program fundamentally and technique-wise. That’s another big objective. And so in the spring game, it was more of just finding out in as game-like a situation as we could create, who’s going to step up and make plays. So it had value, but far more intensity and just learning in the first 14.”
Much, if not all, of the spring game discussion has centered on Bryce Underwood, who went 3-for-9 for 22 yards through the air, compared to Tommy Carr, who went 21-for-30 for 143 yards. While Carr’s performance was admittedly much better than that of Underwood, Whittingham hasn’t at all changed his stance that Underwood is QB1. Though he admits there’s still a lot of work to do, he’s pleased with the progress that his starting quarterback has made thus far, though there’s much more that he will be adding to his table through summer and fall.
But the Michigan offense won’t be predicated as much on how Underwood fits the scheme as much as how the staff can figure out what Underwood is best at and cater the scheme to him.
“Well, first of all, Bryce was thrown into a pretty tough situation last fall,” Whittingham said. “True freshman, 18 years old, starting quarterback at not only a P4 program, but Michigan. I mean, you’re under the spotlight. Also, didn’t have a dedicated quarterback coach last year, from what I was told. And so he was a little rough around the edges, still is a little bit, but we had — you talk about spring ball, but long before that, January, February, we’re in the film room and talking him through mechanics and footwork and read progressions and all that — continued through spring. He has made progress, still got a long ways to go, but he’s on the right path.
“It’ll be very important this summer that he continues to work. And one thing about Bryce, he’s got a great work ethic, and 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. And so we’re still finding out, we’ve got a really good, much better, clearer picture through spring ball, what he does well, what suits him, what aspects of the offense are strong suits, and we’ll start to gravitate towards that as we move closer to the season. We exposed him to everything this spring, but again, 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.”
Now that spring ball is done, the team has the month of May off and will resume with summer conditioning on June 1 with eyes on the Sept. 5 season opener.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan coach Whittingham on QB Bryce Underwood’s ‘tough situation’
Reporting by Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire / Wolverines Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
