Bryce Underwood critical errors overshadows early success amid Michigan Wolverines frustrating Citrus Bowl loss to Texas Longhorns
Bryce Underwood shines early, but then folds under pressure with three interceptions as Arch Manning dominates
No one knew how the Michigan Wolverines football team was going to look following the Sherrone Moore scandal.
Biff Poggi and the remaining staff tried to block out all the outside noise, and five-star Bryce Underwood had his team starting off hot in the Citrus Bowl against Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns. Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long. In the end, critical errors from Bryce Underwood overshadowed what was well on its way to being a good day for the Michigan program trying to bounce back from embarrassment throughout the month of December.
Bryce Underwood shows off his five-star ability early against Texas
Early on, Bryce Underwood and company jumped out to a quick 10-3 lead over Texas in the first quarter. The Michigan Wolverines wide receivers and tight ends were playing some of their best football of the year. Kendrick Bell made a phenomenal touchdown catch. Underwood hit Andrew Marsh on a nice short throw score. Donaven McCulley was showing off his ball skills. Both Marlin Klein and Hogan Hansen made impressive explosive plays. Then the worst began happening early in the second half.
Underwood threw his first interception shortly after Texas took a 24-20 lead on an impressive 80-yard drive from the Longhorns. It looked like Underwood was going to get his Wolverines back on track shortly after as he ran in a somewhat controversial rushing touchdown early in the 4th quarter (because it looked like he fumbled as he was going into the end zone). Sadly, things only got much worse from there.
Bryce Underwood throws terrible interceptions costing Michigan the game
The first interception was perhaps Underwood’s worst as he completely missed the underneath defender, Wardell Mack. He was trying to hit Andrew Marsh on a deep out-breaking route, but Texas read him all the way as if they were trying to bait that exact throw (as you can see in the post below).
Then following another long Texas touchdown drive (nine plays, 75 yards), Underwood clearly got impatient. It was 3rd down and 8. Michigan needed to keep the drive alive with just five minutes to go in the game, down 31-27. The Wolverines called a play that had worked multiple times earlier in the game where Underwood had found his tight ends breaking over the middle. This time Texas was ready and waiting. Underwood tossed it directly into the defenders arms, which set up an immediate 60-yard touchdown run from Arch Manning.
It only took Bryce Underwood two more plays to throw his third interception in a four-drive span and the game was essentially over.
Underwood made some incredible plays throughout the game with both his arm and legs. A couple balls should have been caught by his wide receivers and tight ends that would have made his game look even better too. However, Underwood simply cannot commit the silly turnovers like that, and it’s now becoming a trend. Underwood has thrown seven interceptions in his last five games, eclipsing 215 passing yards just once in that span.
Kyle Whittingham has his work cut out for him if he’s going to fix some bad habits in Underwood that have been quickly forming down the stretch this season. If the problem persists into next season, there is no way that Michigan will repeat (let alone exceed) their 9-4 effort in 2026.
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