When things went south on Saturday, it was Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck who made the decision to bench starting quarterback Bryce Underwood.
Beck also had to break the difficult news to Underwood, a former five-star recruit and No. 1 ranked high school player in 2025, that freshman Tommy Carr would replace him.
Beck made his first comments Monday after the change and the Wolverines’ 21-18 win over Penn State, telling the Inside Michigan Football radio show that it was “best for the team.” Michigan trailed 3-0 at halftime and had only 80 yards of total offense, hampered by Underwood’s two interceptions.
“It can definitely be a tough conversation,” said Beck, who is also the team’s quarterbacks coach. “But from the start I felt it was the right time. The move had to be made. And that provided a spark for that second half.
“For whatever reason, the offense was able to click and play a little better.”
Carr finished just 5 of 7 for 47 passing yards, but his presence seemed to spark Michigan’s sleepy rushing attack: Bryson Kuzdzal broke a 43-yard touchdown run, the team’s longest run of the season; Savion Hiter had a 41-yard run; and Carr himself had runs of 22 and 12 yards, including the game-winning touchdown.
“I was really impressed with how calm he was when he got there,” Beck said. “That’s the big question mark: You don’t know when someone gets into really meaningful minutes for the very first time, in a Big Ten game, what it’s going to look like. Man, it looked like practice.”
Beck admitted that Carr missed a few things, but reiterated that the 6-foot-4, 195-pound quarterback played exactly like he practiced.
“Which is really impressive,” Beck said.
Earlier in the day, Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham declined to publicly reveal who the starting quarterback will be for Saturday’s game against No. 6 Indiana (12 p.m., FOX). Whittingham said a decision was made Sunday night and a plan was in place for practice this week, but he didn’t want to reach out to the Hoosiers. All signs point to Carr taking the reins, but we may not get a concrete answer until this weekend.
Meanwhile, Beck says Underwood has done a good job improving his ball handling since the start of the season and remains a threat in the moving passing game.
“He made some of the best throws I’ve seen a quarterback make when he’s in motion,” Beck said. “Pushing the ball accurately down the field was one of his strengths, but it was just one of those things.”
Beck cited turnovers as the reason he gave Underwood the hook on Saturday. His interceptions were his fifth and sixth of the season, giving him more INTs than touchdown passes (five), in addition to two lost fumbles.
Limiting turnovers was a key theme of the bye week. And instead of cleaning them out, they continued with Underwood behind center.
“Turnover margin is a very important part of winning football games, and we were on the wrong side of it early in the season,” Beck said. “And we were on the wrong side in that first half. So that ruled out the need to make a change for that second half.”
Michigan’s defense made up for it in the second half, forcing three turnovers and two short-field situations for Carr and the offense. The Wolverines scored three touchdowns on the takeaway, highlighted by an 11-play, 74-yard drive that gave Michigan its first double-digit lead since the second half against UTEP.
“We ended up taking the lead on that turnover margin, but you don’t want to rely on three takeaways to get a +1 result,” Beck said. “We had to protect the football because we do everything we do to give our team the best chance to win.”
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