TAMPA, Fla. — Michigan football made the biggest recruiting news of the year when it flipped five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood from LSU just before the end of the regular season. Now, as the Wolverines prepare for Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl, Underwood has had a little over a week’s time actually practicing with his new team as an early-enrollee.
While Underwood can’t play in the bowl, getting practices now helps him have something of an inside track to seeing the field early. To see him in person, you can tell he’s an enigmatic prospect, but acting offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Steve Casula says it isn’t the talent that necessarily stands out to him at this moment. It’s that he’s one of the first players into the building every day, and he isn’t coming in with an aura commensurate with being the top-ranked player in the 2025 recruiting class.
“The biggest thing I would say about him is great spirit, great energy, committed to learning what we’ve got going on,” Casula said. “He’s doing really good. He’s great. He great personality. He’s funny. You know, I watch him depending on the schedule, he walked by my office in the morning. He’s one of the first guys in the building. So he’s been awesome.”
Michigan started former walk-on Davis Warren through much of the 2024 season, and though it appears he’s set to return, he hasn’t shown one iota of jealously toward a man who may take his job next year.
Warren last spoke to the media immediately after Underwood’s first practice last week, but now that Underwood has a week under his belt, he’s gotten a stronger impression of what he brings to the table. Like Casula, he sees a willing participant, an active learner, and someone who isn’t coming in on his high horse thinking he’s already got everything figured out.
“He’s been great. He wants to learn, wants to get better,” Warren said. “Obviously game’s different, and you got to adjust and there’s a lot of things you got to do differently. I learned that coming in, me and J.J., kind of working through a lot of those things together, and I know Bryce is gonna have to do the same, but he’s coming out with the right mindset, the right mentality, and just really is excited to be in here every day and has a passion about getting better football. So that’s the biggest thing I’ve seen out of him. And I know he’s gonna keep doing that and it’s a great addition.
The humility, hard work ethic, and willingness to learn doesn’t surprise Casula, because Underwood fits in very well with the ethos of the building. He may be a phenom football player, but he also is a part of the team — even a week in.
“No, because what I’ve been exposed to at the University of Michigan, that’s how pretty much every guy has entered our program,” Casula said. “And he’s a great fit, and he’s been great. I think I saw (Davis Warren) say like you would never know it. He fits in with all of our other mid-years in the best way possible. I mean that as a big-time compliment. He’s been awesome.”