88-yard Bryce Underwood TD pass has 'X' in frenzy over $10.5M Michigan football investment

Zain Bando

•
88-yard Bryce Underwood TD pass has 'X' in frenzy over $10.5M Michigan football investment image

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Bryce Underwood had his first taste of live action Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor. The former five-star recruit had quite the fan reaction upon taking the field for the annual spring game for the first time. Despite some early hiccups, Underwood demonstrated why the Michigan Wolverines may have their future quarterback after all.

An 88-yard touchdown pass from Underwood to tight end Jalen Hoffman is making the rounds on 'X,' and fans appeared confused about why a flea flicker was necessary.

"It looks like high school football," Daniel Novak wrote.

"50% of his stats came from a flea flicker, that’s crazy," another fan wrote.

"Pretty embarrassing when you need a double flea flicker on the last play of the game to get him a highlight," an Ohio State Buckeyes fan account wrote.

Despite the fan outrage, Detroit Free Press reporter Tony Garcia offered a different perspective about Underwood's mixed results that afternoon as he was on-site.

📲 Follow The Sporting News on WhatsApp

"Spring game major thought: Michigan football is willing to throw the ball deep and Bryce Underwood is capable of making any throw on the field," Garcia tweeted. "That said, the year will be determined by decision-making and complementary football. He doesn’t need to be a hero. A good place to be."

As of now, coach Sherrone Moore has yet to offer any definitive answer about whether Underwood is going to become the starting quarterback. Moore told On3's J.D. PicKell the likelihood of naming a starter would be "a week before" the team's opener.

Therefore, there is still an ample amount of time for Underwood to get his feet wet in the Wolverines' system. After all, the team reportedly invested around $10.5-$12 million to get Underwood to flip from LSU last fall.

For now, it remains to be seen what the next leg of the Underwood journey is like as he begins his journey as the Wolverines' most sought-after prospect to-date.

MORE BIG TEN:

Zain Bando

Zain Bando is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Over the years, Bando has written about various beats surrounding Illinois, Northwestern, and Kansas State Athletics but sticks to the Big Ten as his primary expertise. Outside of collegiate reporting, Bando covers MMA and boxing for MMA Knockout On Sports Illustrated and hosts/co-hosts two podcasts as part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network – Bando's Breakdowns and The MMA Outsiders, which air weekly on YouTube and are distributed on all podcast platforms Tuesday nights and Wednesday afternoons. Bando is a Chicago Suburban native and a member of the FWAA and USBWA, continuing to hone his professional skills as a sports journalist and media personality. Since June 2019, Bando's byline has been seen across many mediums, including MSN, Yardbarker, Deadspin, FanSided, BJPenn.com, Bridge Media Network (Sports News Highlights), Mike Farrell Sports, Reuters, and more. When Bando is not writing, he binges on old UFC fights, spends time with family and friends, memorizes every Super Bowl, and manifests all the places he still has to travel to (even while bringing his laptop).