Michigan football begins spring practices this week, and all eyes will be on the quarterback room. The No. 1 overall prospect in his class, Bryce Underwood, will take snaps alongside Jadyn Davis and Mikey Keene in a battle to earn the starting role come this fall.
New U-M offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey spoke with the media on Monday afternoon and previewed the quarterback competition. Underwood will command the majority of the headlines, he acknowledged, but everyone in the room will have an equal opportunity to claim the job. The QBs will split snaps evenly throughout the spring, and he thinks it’s unrealistic a starter will solidify himself before fall camp.
Mikey Keene, a Fresno State transfer, is an established starter with a prior relationship with Lindsey at UCF. In his career, Keene has thrown for 8,265 yards and 65 touchdowns. He led the Mountain West in completion percentage each of the last two seasons, and last fall led the conference in completions and passing yards.
As spring practice begins, here’s what Lindsey said about Bryce Underwood, Mikey Keene and the quarterback room:
On how much Bryce Underwood contributed to making the Michigan job appealing:
It was appealing before that. But yeah, that made it, that made it a little more exciting for sure. Bryce has come in and really done a nice job of assimilating himself into the team. And he’s all into our culture. And it’s been a lot of fun getting to know him. But really all the guys, but definitely, definitely a guy that we’re excited about his future.
On Bryce Underwood’s high profile and pedigree compared to a college veteran in Mikey Keene:
I think anytime you sign a high-profile guy that’s a freshman coming in these days with as good a job as everybody does of knowing — it used to be when I was growing up, sometimes you wouldn’t know about guys, right? And now 30, 40 years later, whatever, you know about everybody, it seems like. And having those guys come in before, I think it’s always fun. It’s exciting.
But at the end of the day, it’s really about what they do out there on the field. If he’s ready to go, he’ll play. If he’s not, then we’ll get somebody else ready to play. But so far, I love his approach.
He’s all business, man. He loves football. That’s the most important thing. And he really wants to be the best player he can be.
He wants people to push him. One of the things we talked about was: Whatever your dreams are, your aspirations are, they’re going to be mine. My goal is to help you reach those things. And whatever it takes.
And I think that’s what his attitude is. He’s a team first guy. If you ask the older guys on our team right now, I think they would tell you that they love his approach. And really, that whole room I’ve got in there right now, they’re all the same way. They’re all wired that way or probably wouldn’t be at Michigan.
But it’s exciting to see. And we’ll see how he grows and progresses throughout spring.
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