Sherrone Moore on Bryce Underwood: 'He's an exceptional leader'

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore had a heck of a November, finishing the season off in style with a blowout win over Northwestern and a huge upset of No. 2 Ohio State in Columbus. He also added the nation’s top recruit, quarterback Bryce Underwood of Belleville (Mich.) High, in getting him to flip from LSU earlier in the month.

The Wolverines have since signed him and added several other elite recruits to the 2025 class, as well. But Underwood is the big fish, one of the top recruits the state of Michigan has ever seen. He will undoubtedly play in 2025, if not start, and has given the Moore and the program a huge boost with his signing.

“It’s huge,” Moore said. “He’s an excellent player, obviously. He has an elite skillset from the pocket, out of the pocket, deep ball, touch, intermediate, short. He’s talked to me about different things we want to do with him to expand his game, and we’ll do that.

“He’s an exceptional leader. He loves the game, loves the grind, loves to get better. The first question he asked me was, ‘how late is the indoor [facility] open? How late can I be in the building? As late as you want, buddy. We’re excited, very excited to get him here and get to work.”

There were no guarantees on starting next year, Moore added, noting Underwood wants to earn everything and doesn’t want to be given anything. Much of the time spent recruiting him was about getting to know each other and making Underwood comfortable with a potential switch from LSU. There was a lot of communication [“constant”], Moore said, and he kept in touch with him as much as he could even when Underwood was pledged to build a relationship — “that’s what this thing is all about, relationships,” Moore said — to make him know he was a priority and they wanted him to be part of the program.

Part of it was his vision for the offense. Moore kept those conversations to himself, but it’s clear they plan to bring in a new coordinator who will know how to use Underwood and help him improve. They will also likely add depth at quarterback from the portal.

“Unfortunately, I had to make a change,” Moore said in moving on from Kirk Campbell. “I thought it was the best direction we had to go. But offensively, we want to be explosive in the run and pass, and have balance. That’s as much a I’ll give you right now … we’ll find the best one that fits us and fits this program and wants to be at Michigan. Obviously, they’ll have a lot of tools at hand to use. We’re excited for this journey.

“The passing game just depends on the game; depends on the defense. Sometimes we run it; sometimes we throw it. And the goal is to win … to try to put more trophies in the trophy case. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”

Underwood will help, and it was a team effort in landing him, Moore said. He was thrilled to get the commitment call, even though he was pretty sure it was headed that way at the end.

“Just extremely excited for that to happen, all the hard work we’ve done in the communication and relationship,” he said. I felt like it was coming to that, but was really happy. … He’ll be here as fast as he wants to be here, as fast as he can — I think in the next week and start to do stuff. You can’t practice and do stuff with the team yet, so we’ll do as much as we can from a compliance standpoint with him.

“For him, he’s going to have to put the work in day in, day out, and his mentality, his family, how he’s been brought up, that’s going to play a huge role into it and who he is. There’s not going to be a humbling session because the kid is very humble. The kid wants to be good, and the kid knows it takes work to be good.”

He’s got the skill set to be as good as any quarterback Michigan has had. Now, it’s up to him and his coaches to make it happen.

Champions Circle’s role in Underwood pledge

Michigan’s Champions Circle NIL collective, now raising funds with its “New Blue” campaign, played a huge role. Less than 12 hours after announcing his flip from LSU, Underwood had already announced a partnership with Champions Circle and Valiant Management to release autographed trading cards priced at $1,900 and jersey T-shirts for $50, all available for pre-order. He’s also selling merchandise on his site BryceUnderwood.com.

“I am beyond excited to announce my commitment to the University of Michigan,” Underwood said in a statement on the NIL collective’s website. “Growing up here, it’s been a lifelong dream to wear the Maize and Blue. I’m ready to give my all for this team, this university, and our incredible fans.”

And Moore and Co. are ready to coach him up and work to get the program back on top after following up last year’s national championship with a 7-5 season. Underwood will likely play a huge role in that, and he’ll enroll later this month to get a head start on his career.