Indiana football: Breaking down Michigan’s quarterback quandary

Indiana football heads to Michigan on Saturday for a matchup with a Wolverines team that’s off to a shaky start to Kyle Whittingham’s tenure as head coach. In fact, it could look a lot worse if their first loss to Western Michigan was recorded as such – for now it’s a win by virtue of an enforcement jurisdiction technicality.

While the Wolverines have struggled for a number of reasons, the quarterback controversy has been the most obvious issue in Ann Arbor.

Heading into the season, Bryce Underwood, a former five star recruit who was rated No. 1 overall in his class by 247 Sports, had the job locked up. Not only was he the most talented guy in the room on paper, but Michigan is widely reported to have spent several millions to retain his services.

Underwood has struggled from the jump, completing under 55% of his passing attempts (in a losing effort) against Western Michigan, going 12/22 for 172 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. It was a performance that was underwhelming to the point that Whittingham had to publicly declare that Underwood would not be losing his job so soon.

Michigan seemed to rebound from the Western Michigan fiasco with a win over Oklahoma, which looked good at the time, but carries less weight with every passing week.

The Sooners’ John Mateer is one of just five power conference quarterbacks with more interceptions on the year than Underwood, who is tied with the likes of Rutgers’ Dylan Lonergan and Maryland’s Malik Washington with six interceptions on the year. Lonergan and Washington also have more touchdown passes than Underwood.

For the reasons listed above, it was only somewhat surprising when Whittingham made the switch to freshman Tommy Carr at haltime against Penn State, when Michigan trailed the Nittany Lions 3-0. With Carr taking the snaps, Michigan tallied three second-half touchdowns to eke out a 21-18 win.

Giving Carr full credit for the win would be unfair though. He attempted just seven passes, five of which were completed, for 47 yards and no touchdowns. Instead, it was the Wolverine rushing game that took over, as demonstrated by Bryson Kuzdzal’s 43 yard rush that got Michigan on the board.

Carr is a true freshman with a good football pedigree, the younger brother of Notre Dame’s CJ Carr and a strong quarterbacking prospect in his own right. What is not, though, is the multimillion dollar elite prospect that Michigan started the season with.

Because he has regressed from last season in just about every stat, excepting yards per completion, Underwood is starting to look like a guy who may not fit in his new coach’s offense. The question for Whittingham is whether he can adapt his offense to fit Underwood’s skill set, or whether it’s time to cut their losses.

He seems to have made that move, with reports indicating the Wolverines will start Carr against Indiana this weekend.

However, Underwood is not to be overlooked in this matchup. He clearly has the physical tools not just as a passer, but as a runner and scrambler – the exact kind of player that’s given Bryant Haines some trouble over the last few years. Whittingham has used two quarterbacks before, perhaps he goes back to it?

Indiana should expect a heavy dose of running either way, both from the backfield and on scrambles. Carr is a passer first, but a scramble threat like Underwood deserves attention.