The annual spring game did little to inspire confidence from Michigan football fans in second-year quarterback Bryce Underwood, despite all of the talk from Kyle Whittingham noting he’s making marked improvements. While there has been some experience in Ann Arbor of not seeing signal callers reaching their full potential, it’s more of a theme beyond just the maize and blue.
And that’s precisely where ESPN also has concerns.
The worldwide leader took all of the quarterbacks in college football and put them into tiers. As for Underwood, he fell in line with two other second-year quarterbacks, who each also showed promise as starters in their freshman campaigns, but are in danger of perhaps not developing beyond their opening foray. As ESPN calls it, it’s ‘the Christian Hackenberg Paradox,’ named after the former Penn State phenom-turned-borderline bust.
Tier 5: The Christian Hackenberg Paradox (three players)
BYU (Bear Bachmeier)California (Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele)Michigan (Bryce Underwood)
Already picking on former Penn State quarterbacks, let’s use Hackenberg as another example of a unique QB subset.
Flashback to 2011, when Hackenberg, a 6-foot-4 archetype for a quarterback, earned Penn State’s starting job as a true freshman and wowed, throwing 20 touchdown passes and announcing himself as a burgeoning star, a near certain first-round NFL draft pick.
From there, things didn’t quite go as planned. There was a coaching change and too many turnovers and, while he did ultimately get drafted in the second round due almost entirely to his measurables, his NFL career amounted to just a few snaps in the preseason.
The point is, true freshmen putting up impressive seasons is a rarity and it often portends greatness. But not always. Witness the DJ Lagway roller coaster from 2024 to 2025 as another prime example.
And so Tier 5: Three highly regarded QBs who looked, at times, like elite players as true freshmen in 2025 but whose miscues left at least a little room for concern over their future development.
At least one — and maybe all three — of these QBs will be a first-round draft pick in 2028. But, it’s also possible there’s a Hackenberg in here, too.
Did you know?
Just 16.6% of Underwood’s throws last year came vs. man coverage, the lowest rate among Power 4 QBs.
Underwood was off target on 20% of his throws beyond the line of scrimmage last year, the fourth-worst rate among returning quarterbacks.
Given that Underwood is in the same category as Bachmeier and Sagopolutele indicates less that it’s the obvious trajectory rather than he’s got some ways to go to become a Trevor Lawrence or Vince Young type — which is, oddly enough, reasonable given his traits and recruiting ranking of being the former No. 1 overall. But much of the discourse this offseason has seemingly eschewed the idea that Underwood is still young and in development. Even if he didn’t progress much in his first year, with a new staff this time around (unlike Hackenberg moving from Bill O’Brien to James Franklin), he has coaches who should be more capable at putting and keeping him on the right track.
But until he starts to showcase more of his skills in a consistent fashion, there will be concerns about who and what he can be at the college level.
As noted, he does have elite traits, and that’s likely enough to get him into the NFL, no matter how his college career goes. But fans in and around Ann Arbor are yearning for much more than that — especially after the last two years.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Will Bryce Underwood avoid the ‘Hackenberg’ trap?
Reporting by Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire / Wolverines Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
