The story of Saturday’s contest between the Michigan football team and New Mexico will be the play of freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood. Underwood was named the starting QB for the Wolverines earlier this week, and fans are eager to see him perform for the first time. The hype surrounding him is loud, and New Mexico head coach Jason Eck knows that it’s going to be a challenge.
Bryce Underwood is just a true freshman, but he was the No. 1 player in the 2025 recruiting class. Underwood is not your typical freshman. Jason Eck knows that his team needs to be ready for anything.
“It's been a cross-section of everything,” he said of the matchup against Underwood, according to an article from 247Sports. “We looked a lot at their tape last year. Their offensive coordinator, Lindsey came from North Carolina, so we watch North Carolina stuff to see their things. We looked at the spring game. He didn't run a lot in the spring game, but you watch his high school film, you see he's a really good athlete. So, we've got to be ready for him in the quarterback run game or just scrambling and make sure we have good answers for that.”
It’s always tough to prepare for the first game of the season because there are a lot of new players and coaches. In today’s era of college football, coaches are feeling the challenges even more.
“First games are always a little bit of an adventure, I'd say, my whole coaching career,” Eck continued. “Now, you add in all the transfers and things like that that can turn over rosters and there's a lot of unknowns in the first game. You really got to focus on yourself and play sound football.”
The Bryce Underwood era is about to begin, and it’s New Mexico’s job to slow him down. The Michigan football team will kick off against the Lobos at 7:30 ET on Saturday night from the Big House. The game will be airing on NBC and streaming on Peacock. The Wolverines are currently favored by 34.5 points.
