ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Fans who were excited to see what freshman quarterback Tommy Carr was able to do in the spring game in April had to feel like it was a bit prescient. After all, Michigan football QB Bryce Underwood has been a turnover machine, and the offense had appeared to be stuck in the mud under the former five-star.
Down 3-0 at halftime against Penn State, Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham made the change, supplanting Underwood in favor of Carr. And the maize and blue scored 21 points offensively after the first-year player got his opportunity.
After the game, Whittingham said that Carr clearly provided the spark that that side of the ball really needed.
"Well, that's the exact term -- a spark for the offense. And he provided it," Whittingham said. "And he came in, and the players rallied around him. And that's not to be disparaging against Bryce because that's pretty typical when you have a change in quarterback. Everybody rallies and (plays with more intensity).
"And that's a big difference in our production, obviously in the second half as opposed to the first half."
At this point, Whittingham isn't ready to fully say that job is Carr's to lose. But he's liked how Carr has prepared to this point, even though he noted his frame is slight at 6-foot-3, 195 pounds. However, his preparation put him in this position to succeed, and thus, it's likely to go a long way toward him retaining the job.
"Well, he only had about 70 yards or thereabouts in the first half, and no points, and we just needed to get something done and create a spark, as we said," Whittingham said. "So, he responded very well, but it wasn't perfect. There were some things he obviously needs to get better at, but he had some key runs for us. That option there for that final touchdown was a great one, and a great job by him making the offense and making the pitch. He took care of the football. He had no turnovers in the second half. He did a nice job.
"He's always prepared. I walk by the quarterback room 12 times, 15 times a day. He's in there pretty much every second he doesn't have class, he's in there watching film. So, he's very prepared when his number was called. Like I said, he responded very well. Going forward, we'll take a good, hard look at the tape and see why things bogged down in the first half and why we were a little better in the second half, because there really wasn't a lot of scheme change. And making a decision, not prepared to say right now at his desk, at his table, what we're going to do going forward."
The run game took off with Carr at the helm. After all, he threw for just four more yards than Underwood had in the first half, with 47. However, after having just 37 rushing yards in the first half, the Wolverines had 174 in the second. And Whittingham believes that that was entirely the Carr effect.
"I think it was a product of Tommy and the spark that the O-line was fired up to be able to help him out," Whittingham said. "Again, it's nothing like Tommy's better than Bryce or anything like that. It was just a chance for them to really elevate their play to help out the new quarterback. You see that through my 30, 40 years of coaching. I've seen that many times before. When you get a backup quarterback in, everybody gets a little bit excited and elevates their play."
It did also appear that the run game went to less 'rhino' and utilized the tailbacks going more downhill than in the first half. But given Underwood's propensity for turnovers, if Carr can limit the potential takeaways, he very well may be the signal caller that Michigan has needed.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kyle Whittingham explains why Michigan benched Bryce Underwood