Michigan
Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore shares when he plans to make starting QB decision
How did Bryce Underwood look in Michigan football spring game?
Takeaways from freshman five-star QB recruit Bryce Underwood’s performance in Wolverines spring game. Listen to the full episode of the “Hail Yes!” podcast and subscribe.
The Michigan football quarterback competition this past spring did not play out as expected.
The Wolverines brought in the nation’s No. 1 recruit, five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood from up the road in Belleville. The outside expectation was for him to take over the room and run away with the job. But he is 17 years old and this is not only the Big Ten, but an important season for Sherrone Moore and company to get back to the top tier of the sport.
The end of last year was a thrill. Mopping Northwestern by 44 points created the belief that turned into a 13-10 victory over Ohio State in Columbus the following week as underdogs by more than three touchdowns. Once that happened, nobody could limit the Wolverines, who played without all seven of their now NFL draft picks, yet still defeated Alabama 19-13 in the Reliaquest Bowl.
It was a sky-high finish to the year, but frankly, an 8-5 record is not what cuts it in Ann Arbor. They knew they could perhaps need a Plan B.
That’s why U-M not only brought in new offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, but a veteran quarterback he was familiar with from their time at University Central Florida. Mikey Keene, who has more than 2,200 collegiate snaps under his belt and was a solid starter both at UCF and more recently Fresno State, was expected to push Underwood for the starting role.
Instead, those in the Michigan football program confirmed that he did not take a single snap in practice this spring as he continued to rehab from an undisclosed injury. With Davis Warren, last year’s starter, also on the mend from a torn ACL, that left just two healthy quarterbacks in Underwood and Jadyn Davis to take all of the snaps this spring.
“(We) handled it and he’s doing well now,” Moore said of Keene after the spring game April 19. “He’s throwing, he’s in a good place, and (we) felt like pushing it to end the spring that way. … we feel like he’s in a good place.”
“We’ll have Mikey, evaluate and see where Davis (Warren) is. But we’ll see what that situation looks like (if we want to add another quarterback into the room).”
Coaches and players are saying all the predictable lines about how the competition has progressed. Whenever somebody is asked about how Underwood has looked, more often than not, they reference the room as a whole, like when Derrick Moore told Big Ten Network after the spring game, “I got confidence in both them boys.”
But the public got to see more than enough April 19, when Underwood quarterbacked the Blue team and Davis the Maize team, and Underwood didn’t exactly thrive. In his first live snaps at Michigan Stadium in front of a crowd, Underwood completed 12 of 26 passes for 187 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. The score and nearly half the yards (88) came on a trick play on the final snap of the game.
Davis, meanwhile, didn’t have the same type of play to pad his stats. His final line was rough, completing six of 17 passes for 75 yards and two interceptions. Of those, one-third of them came on a free play jumpball to Donaven McCulley after the defense jumped offsides. That means he was 5-for-16 for 50 yards on plays where something negative could happen.
These are the reasons Keene was brought in, to be genuine competition for Underwood, not forced competition. Instead, it hasn’t played out that way, and it’s hard to not think the 17-year-old QB has the inside track to be the starter in the season opener against New Mexico.
But when will Moore make the decision?
“It usually carries into fall camp,” Moore told On3’s JD Pickell. “All the real good battles I’ve been a part of, you can say something in spring, but it changes, so we’re gonna take our time with the process of who that person is.
“It’s probably going to go into fall camp and then probably a week before the game, the first game, make a decision and make the announcement then.”
Keene is now throwing and is expected to be “full go” in June, so don’t count him out just yet.
While the expectation remains for the job to be Underwood’s, Moore recently told team color commentator Jon Jansen on an episode of Inside The Trenches there’s a lot more to playing quarterback than just making throws. He discussed their ability to dissect defenses pre-snap and make smart, sound decisions post-snap.
He talked about making sure the work ethic remains consistent, never wavering just because they’ve arrived at a place like Michigan. But perhaps most importantly, sometimes the biggest part of being the guy, is being the guy.
“They’ve made the throws, the reads. … but they got to become the leader of the team,” Moore said to Jansen about what he’s looking for. “We talk about the offensive line running the team, well somebody’s got to lead it.
“You’ll know at some point who that person is.”
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Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
Michigan
Urban Meyer reacts to Sherrone Moore scandal after coach’s shock Michigan firing
One of the best college football coaches of all time, Urban Meyer, lent some sympathy to Sherrone Moore — or at least his family — in the wake of the former Michigan head coach’s shocking firing last week.
“Last night, I said a prayer for that family,’’ Meyer said on “The Triple Option Podcast,” speaking of Moore’s wife and daughters.
“I mean, you’ve got three little girls,’’ said Meyer, who won a national title at Ohio State a little over a decade ago. “You’ve got a guy that was on top of the road a week ago.”
That changed in stunning fashion, as Moore, a married father of three, went from leading the Wolverines to out of a job, fired in Ann Arbor for cause after the university confirmed he had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
The situation only worsened when Moore was later arrested after he allegedly broke into the home of the staff member, and during an argument, grabbed butter knives and threatened to kill himself.
On Friday, he was charged with third-degree home invasion, a felony, as well as a pair of misdemeanors — stalking and breaking and entering.
Here’s the latest on former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore
Even Meyer, who created some controversy of his own during a brief, ill-fated tenure as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars — when he was seen on video in 2021 that showed him dancing suggestively with a woman who was not his wife and was later fired before finishing his lone season in Jacksonville — was stunned by Moore’s downfall.
“They’re up 6-0 on the Buckeyes at home,” Meyer said of Michigan’s early lead against rival Ohio State on Nov. 29. “And then, also, you wake up, and they’re in this situation. Rivalries aside, this is all human element. Now, this is something that, from what you read, that’s some serious stuff that went on. And just, all of a sudden, you start seeing the impact. Forget football. Who cares about football?’’
Michigan
Yaxel Lendeborg scores 29 points and No. 2 Michigan stays unbeaten with 101-83 win over Maryland
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Yaxel Lendeborg had 29 points, a career-best nine assists and eight rebounds, and No. 2 Michigan rallied from a nine-point deficit Saturday night to defeat Maryland 101-83.
Aday Mara scored 18 points for the Wolverines (10-0, 2-0 Big Ten), who overcame a halftime deficit for the second time this season and the first since they beat TCU on Nov. 14.
Michigan scored 100 points for the fourth time in five games.
Diggy Coit made eight 3-pointers and scored 31 points for the Terrapins (6-5, 0-2), who lost center Pharrel Payne to a right leg injury late in the first half and forward Solomon Washington to ejection after he picked up his second technical foul early in the second half.
Coit scored nine of Maryland’s first 10 points and 22 before the break, helping to prevent Michigan from opening a lead larger than six in the first half.
The Terps lost Payne, their leading scorer at 18.7 points a game, with 4:36 remaining before halftime. Yet Maryland stretched its lead from one to 50-45 at the midpoint, then expanded it to 56-47 on Elijah Saunders’ 3.
Washington, who had a first-half technical for celebrating a 3 in front of the Michigan bench, was called for a delay-of-game technical just after Saunders’ basket. His departure left the Terps without their two most experienced and imposing interior players.
Lendeborg took advantage, scoring the next eight points. Mara’s dunk with 14 minutes left made it 64-63 and gave the Wolverines the lead for good.
Elliot Cadeau’s layup with 21.2 seconds remaining got the Wolverines to 100 points for the fifth time this season.
Up next
Michigan hosts La Salle on Dec. 21.
Maryland visits No. 24 Virginia on Dec. 20.
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Michigan
Aquinas College expands automatic acceptance to 2 more West Michigan high schools
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – After beginning a direct admittance program at one West Michigan high school in November, Aquinas College has now expanded the program to cover more classrooms.
The guaranteed admission program, first implemented for graduates of West Catholic High School with a 2.0 GPA or above, has now been expanded to Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids and Muskegon Catholic Central High School.
The partnership will apply to students from all three schools entering college in the fall of 2026.
The direct admission program was described by Aquinas College leaders as offering high school students a “clear path to college success” while also continuing to develop partnerships.
Aquinas College, a private Catholic liberal arts institution located at 1700 Fulton St. E, was founded by the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids in 1886.
The college has enrolled 1,262 students during the 2025-26 academic year, and its new student numbers are up, with 419 new students on campus this fall, up from 311 in 2024-25.
The college’s overall enrollment total is just slightly under the approximately 1,300 students Aquinas recorded across its campus in 2023-24, according to a press release sent out in January 2025.
This year’s partnership announcements do not mark Aquinas’ first direct admittance deal.
The college also has a direct admit bachelor’s in nursing partnership with the University of Detroit Mercy, which allows students to take core curriculum courses at Aquinas and nursing classes from Detroit Mercy faculty.
On Nov. 14, Aquinas announced its direct admittance deal with West Catholic High School.
The school, located at 1801 Bristol Ave. NW, enrolled just over 500 students as of the 2024-25 school year, according to an online school profile.
West Catholic President and CEO Jill Wierzbicki said the initiative simplifies the college application process and offers students a straightforward path to higher education.
On Nov. 20, Aquinas then announced it had also partnered with Grand Rapids’ Catholic Central High School, 319 Sheldon Blvd SE, which enrolls 567 students and is the oldest co-educational diocesan Catholic high school in the nation.
Brian Matzke, vice president for enrollment management, said there’s “no doubt that Aquinas here has had more graduates from Catholic Central than any other school in our history.”
On Dec. 10, the college announced another partnership deal with Muskegon Catholic Central High School, 1145 W Laketon Ave., which enrolled just under 300 students in 2023-24, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Jerry McDowell, Muskegon Catholic Central president, said both the high school and Aquinas share a “deep commitment to developing the whole student — academically, spiritually, and individually.
“This direct-admit program provides our graduates with an exceptional opportunity to transition confidently into higher education while maintaining the Catholic values that guide their formation,” McDowell said.
Aquinas’ listed price for traditional undergraduate tuition is $41,192, according to senior director of strategic communications Dave DeJonge.
Students are eligible for annual merit scholarships between $15,000-$25,000, depending on their GPA and housing status. Additional scholarships may be available. This applies to all students who are admitted to Aquinas.
Matzke highlighted the direct admittance program’s easy transition from one West Michigan school to another, with those accepted to Aquinas able to live on campus or commute from home depending on what best fits their needs.
He also said a growing Grand Rapids job market, combined with support from the college’s career center, contributes to a 97% placement rate for graduates.
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