Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham is sticking with quarterback Bryce Underwood and offensive coordinator Jason Beck. "Jason is calling plays and Bryce is our guy," Whittingham said Monday. The Wolverines (3-2, 0-2 Big) host Penn State (3-3, 0-3) on Saturday in a matchup of disappointing teams led by coaches in their first year with two of the winningest programs in college football.
Michigan was No. 16 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, fell out after a controversial win over Western Michigan, earned a ranking again after beating then-No. 11 Oklahoma, only to go back to being unranked with losses to then-No.
17 Iowa and Minnesota. The Wolverines are 0-2 in conference play for the first time since 2014. The Nittany Lions started the season No.
18. After three wins against Marshall, Temple and Buffalo, they dropped out of the poll with a loss to Wisconsin and stayed unranked with setbacks to Northwestern and then-No. 19 USC.
Since the first snap this season in Ann Arbor, all eyes have been on Underwood. Coming off a shaky freshman season as the nation’s No. 1 recruit, he has struggled to sustain success in large part because of turnovers.
Underwood, who mishandled the second snap of the season, has lost three fumbles this season and thrown four interceptions with just five passing touchdowns. He threw interceptions on two straight snaps against the Golden Gophers. He was picked off on an ill-advised pass against the Hawkeyes at their 2, taking away a chance to go ahead by two scores in a game Michigan lost by one point after giving up a game-ending touchdown pass.
While Whittingham reiterated that Underwood would continue to start, he did leave an out for an eventual potential change. Michigan’s backup quarterback, Tommy Carr, took some snaps with the first-string offense during the team’s bye week. "If we don’t get this turnover thing fixed rapidly, then something’s got to give," Whittingham said.
The Wolverines’ minus-4 turnover margin ranks No. 122 out of 138 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. "That’s pretty bad," Whittingham said.
Michigan isn’t much better on offense, scoring just 23 points a game to rank No. 101 in the nation and ranking 98th with 135 yards rushing per game. Last year at Utah under Whittingham in his 21st season with the program and with Beck calling plays, Utah was fifth in scoring at 41.2 points a game and second in rushing with 266.3 yards rushing on average.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
