Michigan names Bryce Underwood starting quarterback ahead of 2025 season

The future is now in Ann Arbor. After months of anticipation, Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore did what Wolverine fans have been clamoring for and has named Five-Star Plus+ freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood as the team’s starting quarterback for the 2025 season per On3’s Pete Nakos.

Underwood landed at Michigan as the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class according to the Rivals Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all three major recruiting media companies, and gets the nod over more experienced QB options in veteran transfers Jake Garcia (East Carolina) and Mikey Keene (Fresno State).

Currently listed at 6-foot-4 and 238 pounds according to The Wolverine’s Clayton Sayfie, Underwood is a Detroit native who flipped his commitment from LSU late in the recruiting process after Michigan improved its NIL package to between $10 to $12 million over four years, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.

With an On3 NIL Valuation set at $3 million, Underwood is the highest-rated freshman on the list at No. 11 overall and ninth-highest ranking quarterback despite not having played a collegiate game yet.

And while his NIL commitment may have factored into the decision to name him the starter, it was ultimately Underwood’s natural ability and rapid growth — both physically and mentally — since landing in Ann Arbor as an early enrollee that led to his elevation to QB1.

“He’s grown every single day since he’s been on campus,” Moore said last month at Big Ten Media Days. “He’s been with us since December, continues to do everything he can to be, one, the best teammate he could be. Two, to be best student he could be. And then, three, to be the best football player he could be and quarterback that he could be for our football team. He does everything the right way.

“He makes sure that he attacks everything the best way. And I literally just got off the phone with him calling me, asking me what time he’s got to be at the team meeting on Tuesday,” Moore continued. “So, he wants to make sure he’s on time and do everything right. He’s a great teammate, great kid, great young man. Jay and Beverly, his parents, have done an outstanding job of raising him, but I consider that for all our student-athletes at Michigan.”

Some of Underwood’s teammates, such as linebacker Ernest Hausmann, praised the way he fits in with the rest of the Wolverines so early in his career.

“Bryce is as good as advertised,” Hausmann said last month during an appearance on the Big Ten Network from Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas. “The thing I’m most impressed by Bryce is his maturity. You would never tell how old he is when he first came in that locker room. Just the way he conducts his business, he just fits right well with that quarterback room.”

Now Underwood will be leading that quarterback room — and the Michigan offense — as a true freshman when the Wolverines kick off their 2025 season Aug. 30 against New Mexico.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs and Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this report.

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