Michigan Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood suffered the first loss of his college football career on Saturday, a 24-13 win for the Oklahoma Sooners over the maize and blue from Gaylord Memorial in Norman.
The circumstances were damning for Underwood, though, as the Detroit Free Press’s Tony Garcia noted. Unlike J.J. McCarthy, who had Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards establishing the run via methodical ground-and-pound chain-moving, Underwood had Justice Haynes, who, outside of one 75-yard run, couldn’t get anything going against Brent Venables’ Sooner defense.
“J.J. McCarthy never had to deal with what Bryce Underwood just did,” Garcia wrote.
“No, not a swarming defense. The former Michigan football quarterback and his compatriots faced that many times − Penn State, Ohio State and Alabama, to name a few − en route to three Big Ten titles and a College Football Playoff championship over the Wolverines' epic three-season run.
“But McCarthy never had to do it by himself.”
Not only did McCarthy have two NFL-caliber running backs during his storied career in Ann Arbor, but he played with four eventual pro receiving threats: Ronnie Bell, Roman Wilson, Cornelius Johnson, and tight end Colston Loveland.
The jury is out on how many NFL players Underwood will have played with by the end of his Wolverines career. Still, the team’s various recruiting sanctions certainly make head coach Sherrone Moore and GM Sean Magee’s jobs harder to surround the Belleville star with elite talent.
Underwood as a talent may be superior to McCarthy, but his situation won’t be as amenable as the ex-national champion signal-caller for at least his freshman season.