ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In the 90 seconds of chaos as nobody knew just who had won the Michigan vs. Western Michigan season opener, Michigan quarterback coach Koy Detmer only had one message for Bryce Underwood. "The biggest thing that I'm telling him there was, 'Give us a chance,'" Detmer told CBS Sports.
"One, you're in shock of what happened, and you're kind of back to like, all right, here we go. A little more air on it, so that way our guys have a chance to make a play. And so that was kind of the biggest thing talking to him.
And he did, and he threw a hell of a ball." Underwood threw the first Hail Mary attempt out of bounds; ironically, it was so far out of the back of the end zone that no Michigan receiver could get his hands on it. The referees infamously ruled Western Michigan's Micah Davis had stepped out of bounds before touching the ball, ruling the play dead with one second left. It encapsulated the night's performance and his lack of evolution as a passer.
For Underwood, as it is with many quarterbacks, inaccuracy starts with footwork. A key play happened in that Western Michigan game. On an early third down in the second quarter, Underwood missed a wide-open running back in the flat for what would have been an easy first down.
It's the little things that Michigan is trying to get him to refine as a passer. Much has been made of Underwood not having a true quarterback coach in Year 1 under Sherrone Moore. When Detmer first got Underwood, they leaned into his strengths throwing outside the pocket on the move.
During spring and summer, the focus shifted to developing his game inside the pocket. "Whenever there is any inaccuracy, I think it always starts from the ground up, and I think sometimes whether it be alignment, feet, shoulders, whatever that case may be, is where he can sometimes maybe be a little bit off, and we always try to, in practice, try to make everything as stressful as possible, specifically with the pocket and everything that we're doing individual-wise," Detmer said. "Because sometimes you can kind of feel that rush or feel that pocket collapsing on your feet, where now maybe you're not able to get into your throw.
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