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Sherrone Moore's early thoughts on Chip Lindsey, Bryce Underwood: 'We're in a really good place'

Anthony Broomeby:Anthony Broome•about 12 hours•

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Michigan football flipped Bryce Underwood from LSU on Nov. 21 (Bryce Underwood's Instagram)
Michigan football flipped Bryce Underwood from LSU on Nov. 21 (Bryce Underwood's Instagram)

One of the biggest stories of the Michigan Wolverines football offseason was the change in leadership on offense, bringing in coordinator Chip Lindsey to run the show and coach the quarterbacks.

Lindsey, who spent the last two seasons at North Carolina, is drawing early praise for his work as the team revs up ahead of spring ball.

Michigan wants to be more explosive and creative in the passing game, and TruMedia has UNC as the 18th-best team in the country over the last two years in explosive play rate under Lindsey’s leadership. Before his time at North Carolina, he oversaw offenses that averaged at least 30 points per game in 8 of 11 seasons.

Head coach Sherrone Moore spoke with college football analyst Adam Breneman this week to discuss his new OC and the quarterback situation in Ann Arbor.

“Chip is an awesome, innovative offensive mind. Very excited about the direction we’re going,” Moore said on the nearly 50-minute interview. “Just constant conversations about how to change, how to do things different, but how to keep some things the same and really all about the strengths of the guys you have on the field and how can we tool to them and really excited about the things that he’s done in the past.

“But with the explosive passing games he’s been a part of, measuring the run games that we’ve had and he’s had and super excited for him and for us as a program with him here.”

Lindsey will be tasked with coaching up a Michigan quarterback room that has taken on a much different look, headlined by No. 1 overall recruit Bryce Underwood and Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene, who has thrown for over 8,200 yards with 65 touchdowns in college. He also included praise for sophomore signal-caller Jadyn Davis.

“I feel like we’re in a really good place with the quarterbacks,” Moore said. “I’ll really start with Mikey Keene, a transfer from Fresno, who’s great player. Yeah, really great player. And you watch the cutups of Coach Lindsey’s showing us things from different places he’s been, and also Mikey Keene shows up on different cutups, and the dude can really spin it. He’s thrown for over 8,000 yards in his career, and he had, I think, the third-highest adjusted completion percentage in college football last year. So he’s a guy that’s won a lot of football games, played a lot of football in different environments. Super smart, excited to have him.

“Jadyn Davis is a guy that just keeps getting better. He was a high-ranked quarterback going out of high school, and he’s here. And then obviously, you have Bryce, who’s an immense talent. So we’re in a really good place, and I’m not going to make any predictions on what it is, or who it is, or make any comments.  We’ll let it play out in spring and fall camp and see what happens.”

Reflecting on Michigan landing Bryce Underwood

The Underwood recruitment was a game-changer for Michigan, who stepped into the NIL space emphatically by making a play for the nation’s top passer. Outside of the caliber of player it thinks it is getting, Michigan is also high on the person coming into Ann Arbor.

“To talk to him, to be around him, to grow with him. The kid is an amazing human being,” Moore said. “He is extremely selfless. He’s extremely humble, and all he wants to do is work. That’s all he wants to do. So you see this number one player in the country. You have this vision of what it could be what and he is. He’s the exact opposite of a prima donna and ‘I think I got all the answers’ guy.

“I mean the guy’s the first guy in the building. He’s the last one out. You’ve got to tell him to get out of the building. He told us, ‘You’re gonna tell me when to leave,’ and the dude just does not want to leave the building.

“He’s an awesome teammate, awesome player and I’m excited to watch him.”

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