Michigan
Michigan’s first dental therapist is changing how residents get care
Dana Obey can’t do a root canal or a crown at the dental practice where she works in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, but she can do fillings, fluoride treatment and more.
Obey is Michigan’s first dental therapist, a professional similar to a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, but for dentistry. Licensed in September, she now works in Bay Mills Township in the eastern Upper Peninsula, providing a mix of dental services. Another licensed dental therapist will likely start seeing patients in Metro Detroit this year as state health officials try to address a shortage of dentists in many areas of the state.
“Just being a provider has been absolutely like a dream,” Obey said. “And it’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a really long time.”
State officials would like to see more dental therapists like Obey filling in the gaps for professional shortages in Michigan, especially in rural areas, even though a statewide dentist association opposes the idea.
The state’s second dental therapist, Jamie Toney, graduated from dental therapy school in December and is awaiting her license. When she has it, she will work at The Wellness Plan Medical Centers, which has two offices in the Detroit area ― one in Pontiac and one in Oak Park, under the supervision of dentist Karra Evans Fox.
Michigan passed a state law allowing dental therapy in 2018, said Mona Riaz, an oral health workforce consultant for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The department is in the fourth and final year of a nearly $1.5 million federal grant that is, in part, helping it implement dental therapy in Michigan, she said. The department is helping Ferris State University create the state’s first dental therapy program, seeing if other schools are interested and educating dental providers about the field.
Dental therapists are meant to increase access to dental care in Michigan, Riaz said.
“We have communities where people are really struggling to get timely dental care,” she said.
But the Michigan Dental Association, a professional group of 5,800 members that represents dentists across the state, doesn’t think dental therapy is “going to help with the access of care issue,” said Bill Sullivan, the group’s vice president of advocacy and professional affairs. Michigan should concentrate instead on “a very bad shortage” of dental hygienists and dental assistants, he said.
“We feel the focus should be on getting more hygienists and assistants in, rather than creating an entire new position,” Sullivan said, adding that registered dental hygienist and assistant programs already exist in the state.
Shortage areas
More than 1.5 million Michigan residents live in Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas, areas that the federal Health Resources and Services Administration has designated as having a shortage of dentists.
An additional 278 dentists are needed in the state, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. All counties in the Upper Peninsula, many counties in the mid and upper Lower Peninsula, and most counties along the Michigan-Ohio border are designated as these areas, according to a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services map made using HRSA data.
Fox, the chief dental officer at The Wellness Plan Medical Centers, where Toney will eventually work, supports dental therapy.
Many dentists don’t accept Medicaid, the government health care program for low-income residents, she said. But Fox is a community health dentist who does accept Medicaid. She said many of her patients “have nowhere else to go.”
Having a dental therapist ― Toney ― will “augment what we’re able to do as community health dentists,” since Toney will be involved in The Wellness Plan’s outreach programs, Fox said.
“We’re able to touch a wider number of people, and it kind of just expands what we’re able to do for that patient population,” she said.
What is dental therapy?
Dental therapists provide preventive services, said Kari Ann Kuntzelman, the executive director of the American Dental Therapy Association, a professional organization that supports dental therapists. She said dental therapists generally provide care in the communities they live in or grew up in. That’s especially true for tribal members who are dental therapists, she said.
“They’re very compassionate, caring, empathetic providers, and just wanting to do and provide dentistry in a different way than … how it’s been provided in the past, because what’s been happening hasn’t been working,” Kuntzelman said.
Today, 14 states allow dental therapy, and Florida is considering it. Dental therapists don’t require the same level of training as dentists and often only earn a fraction of what dentists are paid.
Kuntzelman said dental therapists provide the most common procedures, such as fillings and cleanings, letting dentists perform more complex procedures, including root canals and crowns.
“It allows for the dental therapist to spend a little bit more time with their patients than maybe the dentist would have been able to if they’re, you know, doing back-to-back crowns or something throughout that day,” she said.
Dental therapy originated in New Zealand in 1921, according to the American Dental Therapy Association. Kuntzelman said the field started in the U.S. in 2004-05. Alaska Native tribes in rural areas sent community members to New Zealand to receive training to become dental therapists. The Alaska Dental Therapy Educational Program enrolled its first cohort of students in 2007, and there are now five dental therapy education programs across the country.
Dental therapy emerges in Michigan
It took a while for dental therapists to start practicing in Michigan because the state lacked training programs and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Riaz, the oral health workforce consultant and a licensed dental hygienist.
Some Michiganians don’t have enough dental providers near them, and some can’t find providers who accept Medicaid or face other barriers to care, she said.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough dentists,” Riaz said of Michigan. “We actually do. It’s just that the dentists are not well distributed in our state.”
Michigan’s dental therapists must practice in one of the Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas or serve underserved populations, she said.
Dental therapists are remotely supervised by a dentist, and they can work in mobile settings and community-based settings, Riaz said.
State’s first dental therapy program
Ferris State University is creating the state’s first dental therapy program, which could begin accepting students by 2028. A federal grant received through the state health department is paying for a consultant to help develop the dental therapy curriculum, said Theresa Raglin, associate dean of operations, assessment and compliance at Ferris State’s College of Health Professions.
Dental therapy may be a new profession to Michigan, but it is “a proven profession,” she said, referencing New Zealand and Alaska.
“It’s been a successful model since 2009 in the state of Minnesota,” Raglin said, “and so our program … is built on those previous models and is going to reflect the standards and the academic and clinical training that’s been proven for dozens of years now.”
The Ferris State dental therapy curriculum needs to be approved at various levels of the university, she said, adding that she hopes it will be completed by the end of 2026. The program will then apply for specialized accreditation through the Commission on Dental Accreditation. She said 2028 would be the earliest the program could admit students.
The state health department has also used federal grant funding to survey other higher education institutions throughout Michigan for interest in creating a dental therapy program. Riaz said the state has “gotten some interest” from other schools, and the department is providing them with education and resources about the field.
The Michigan Primary Care Association provided scholarships to three students for training in dental therapy in another state and returning to Michigan to practice. Obey and Toney were among them. They graduated from the dental therapy program at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, Washington.
The third Michigan student is still in school.
Dental group’s opposition
But Sullivan of the Michigan Dental Association argued that the resources the state has dedicated to dental therapy would be “better spent” trying to recruit dental hygienists and assistants and “figuring out a way to get dentists to go into the rural areas.” Michigan has a “severe shortage” of dental hygienists and assistants, but has already established schools for training, he said.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is backing dental therapists as a way of complementing dentists, dental assistants and hygienists while trying to improve access to care, said department spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin.
“To help address dental hygienist shortages, dental hygiene programs in Michigan are already increasing the number of students they admit into their programs, and some are considering year-round classes to help students get into the workforce sooner,” Sutfin said in an email. “In addition, at least two colleges are considering adding dental hygiene programs.”
Sullivan said he has talked with younger dentists and dental students, and they “just don’t like the lifestyle” of rural areas.
“They don’t like being out in the middle of nowhere or having to drive 45 minutes go to a grocery store,” Sullivan said.
When the 2018 legislation was approved, one of the things that “concerned” his association the most was that it allowed dental therapists to do “simple extractions,” he said.
“Now, all extractions are simple until they’re not,” Sullivan said. “That’s where you have the extra training of the dentist that comes in and is important for the patient care.”
First dental therapist
Before becoming a dental therapist, Obey worked as a dental assistant for about 16 years, much of it in the West Branch area. She said that when she learned about dental therapy, it “really aligned with exactly what I wanted to do,” because it incorporates some of the dental hygienist role and some of the dentist role.
“I’ve always wanted to be one or the other, but never really one or the other only,” said Obey, 41. “I was like, ‘Gosh, I wish there was a combination of the two,’ because I really just like the variety of dentistry, and the dental therapy role is exactly that.”
Dental therapists also do community-based activities, which she likes. As a dental assistant, she said she was always the first to volunteer to go to events in the community with a dentist or hygienist.
While attending the dental therapy program at Skagit Valley College, Obey had to do a preceptorship, which is similar to an internship. She was supervised by a dentist at the Sault Tribe Dental Department in Sault Ste. Marie, where she is a member of the Sault Tribe.
Today, she mostly sees tribal members or patients who are on Medicaid or Medicare, the government health care program for seniors.
“There’s such a need for that, you know, and private insurance patients can go to a private dentist,” Obey said.
Her clinic, Bay Mills, is a federally qualified health center and a tribal health facility.
Obey said she primarily performs fillings, simple extractions, minimally invasive dentistry, emergency exams and hygiene exams.
“I think because of the flexibility with our scope of practice, it makes us a pretty valuable asset to these places, because we can work on our own,” she said.
Metro Detroit’s first dental therapist
Toney, the soon-to-be dental therapist, was the office manager for The Wellness Plan Medical Centers before going to dental therapy school in Washington state. She started her career as a dental assistant before working in billing and administration.
Working for The Wellness Plan Medical Centers and previous employers taught her about access to care, Toney said. Many patients at The Wellness Plan needed to come in for restorative treatments ― such as fillings or crowns ― but its schedule was “pretty booked,” she said. There weren’t enough providers to handle the “load of patients,” she said.
“I decided to become a dental therapist because my experiences in dentistry revealed both the transformative power of oral health care and the persistent gaps that prevent many individuals from receiving it,” she said in an email. “Over time, I came to understand that oral health is not just clinical, but it is deeply tied to overall health, self-confidence, economic stability and quality of life.”
Fox, the dentist who is supervising Toney, said The Wellness Plan collaborates with schools, health departments and other organizations to address oral health disparities. As part of that work, Toney will be providing care to youth in juvenile detention centers.
Toney said she is “super excited” about entering the field.
“And I’m just so grateful to just everyone that played a role in me getting to this point here,” she said.
asnabes@detroitnews.com
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield makes an endorsement for governor
Sheffield endorsed longtime colleague Jocelyn Benson at an event in Detroit.
Lansing — Two surveys from a longtime Michigan pollster set off a battle last week among campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate, with some factions claiming the results should be deemed misleading and untrustworthy.
The dispute centered on polls conducted by Mitchell Research & Communications, which attempted to examine voters’ feelings about the GOP primary race for governor and the Democratic primary race for the U.S. Senate.
However, some prominent political figures noted that Mitchell Research contacted participants through text messages that directed them to an online SurveyMonkey poll and the links could have been shared broadly with a particular candidate’s supporters.
In an interview, Steve Mitchell of Mitchell Research acknowledged the links were shareable but said some of the allegations against his polling methods were “bulls—.” He also defended his record as a pollster.
“Who was ranked 13th most accurate in U.S. in 2024 by ActiVote, a third party firm Higher than WAPO, ABC, CNN, NY Times, SurveyUSA?” Mitchell asked, referring to himself, on X amid a barrage of criticism Wednesday night.
In response, political consultant Adrian Hemond wrote, “Address the methodology flaw in your polls bro. You sent out shareable links. Casting bones or divination would be more legitimate.”
Mitchell released the gubernatorial poll on Monday. It showed U.S. Rep. John James of Shelby Township, former Attorney General Mike Cox of Livonia and businessman Perry Johnson of Bloomfield Hills in a close race.
Johnson’s adviser, John Yob, slammed the Mitchell poll as an “easily corrupted trash methodology.”
Despite the methodology questions, the results were covered by a number of news outlets in Michigan. Yob called on them to issue retractions.
The Capitol newsletter Michigan Information & Research Service (MIRS) News, which works with Mitchell on polling, reported that in the survey, the fourth GOP candidate, state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt of Van Buren County, was getting 0% in west Michigan, close to his home territory that he represented for 14 years in the Legislature.
MIRS News covered the governor poll but declined to report on the U.S. Senate poll the following day, despite the fact that Mitchell initially said MIRS News had “sponsored” the polls.
In the interview, Mitchell told The Detroit News that he actually paid for the polls and simply provided them to MIRS News.
“I am curious,” Mitchell said. “I run a polling company. So I paid for the poll.”
His Senate poll showed Abdul El-Sayed of Ann Arbor with a lead over U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak in a distant third place at 6%. Most polls have had McMorrow much closer to Stevens and El-Sayed.
Kyle Melinn, the editor of MIRS News, acknowledged to Politico that he decided not to publish the poll, in part, because of pressure from McMorrow’s campaign.
“I told Steve (Mitchell) that the (McMorrow) campaign did raise issues with the poll, and that they were pressuring me to not run the poll,” Melinn told Politico.
Despite the basement-level showing for McMorrow, one of Stevens’ advisers even questioned the poll results.
“This methodology does seem pretty bad!” Stevens adviser Caitlin Legacki wrote on X.
Mitchell’s memo on the Senate primary credited left-wing commentator Hasan Piker as “probably a primary reason for El-Sayed’s movement upward.” A May Mitchell poll had El-Sayed at 28%, while the June poll had him at 42%.
However, Piker visited Michigan in April, before both polls.
The new poll also found El-Sayed getting 67% of the support in Detroit, much higher than people would expect. When he ran for governor in 2018 in another three-way primary race, he got 26% of the vote in Detroit.
House blocks Pride Month resolution; Hall says it’s ‘divisive’
House Democrats read a resolution Wednesday recognizing June 2026 as Pride Month from the front steps of the state Capitol after Republican House Speaker Matt Hall, for the second year running, would not hold a vote on the resolution.
“We would be thrilled if they would like to pass this resolution before the end of June,” said state Rep. Jason Morgan, D-Ann Arbor, a member of the LGBTQ+ Caucus. “That is still also an option we would welcome. But, so far, we’ve been met with silence as to whether this will be taken up or not.”
Hall told reporters Wednesday that he wasn’t taking the resolution up because he didn’t want to vote on divisive topics. He argued he also was not taking up a competing resolution for state Rep. Josh Shriver, R-Oxford, that recognized June as Nuclear Family Month.
“There’s divisive resolutions on the left and divisive resolutions on the right,” Hall said. “We’re not doing any of them. … What I’m trying to focus on is health care affordability, property tax cuts and getting the budget done.”
7th District Dems get ‘heavy’ Israel-Gaza question
Two of the three Democratic candidates seeking the 7th Congressional District seat did not directly answer a question Monday at a Latino community forum on whether Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide.
Former Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink of Lansing said she looks at the situation in terms of what is in the U.S.’s best interest, which is peace and security in the Middle East. To attain that, she said, a secure and democratic Israel must live side by side with a democratic Palestinian state free from terrorist influence.
“We should be very clear with our friends, we should be very clear with our partners in the region, that this is our goal and we’re going to work to ensure that we do that, for the stability of the region, for the people of Israel, for the Palestinian people, but also for the people of the United States,” Brink said.
Brink’s campaign did not respond this week when asked for a more direct answer to the question.
Former U.S. Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam of Ann Arbor Township noted it was a “heavy question” and argued the U.S. makes “tremendous” effort to avoid humanitarian crises or the loss of civilian life.
“When we work with another country, I expect our partners to do the same and hold themselves to the same standards that we hold ourselves,” Maasdam said, before describing the state of Israel as a partner that has a right to exist and right to defend itself.
Later in the week, Maasdam clarified in a statement that he did not believe Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had met those standards, but also did not think genocide was the right word “to describe the grave humanitarian disaster in Gaza.” Too much of politics had come become an “endless debate over labels instead of a serious effort to solve problems,” he said. He indicated he supported a two-state solution.
Community activist Will Lawrence of Lansing observed during the forum Monday that his competitors had failed to directly answer the question on whether Israel’s actions constituted genocide; the answer, he said, is “obviously yes.”
“When you have a state that has refused every other form of accountability and we continue to arm them, I don’t know how we can call ourselves a just nation if we continue to participate in this atrocity,” Lawrence said. He added he supports a lasting peace for all Palestinians and Israelis.
Heated moment at MI-10 GOP debate
Four candidates vying for a suburban Detroit U.S. House seat took the stage Tuesday at the Shelby Banquet Center for a Republican primary debate.
The event featured attorney Robert Lulgjuraj of Sterling Heights, Army veteran Michael Bouchard of Rochester Hills, attorney Justin Kirk of Clinton Township and Army veteran Steffan Demetropoulos of Macomb. They are running to replace outgoing Republican U.S. Rep. John James in Michigan’s only competitive GOP primary contest this year.
One of the more heated moments of the night came in a back-and-forth between Lulgjuraj and Bouchard, the contest’s two leading fundraisers.
Lulgjuraj called out Bouchard for his family’s political connections and cast himself — as he often does on the campaign trail — as the more “grassroots” option.
“If you want the son of a career 40-year politician who never endorsed Trump but endorsed Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, your candidate’s there — or whose sister works at CNN, then this is your candidate,” Lulgjuraj said of Bouchard, referencing his father, longtime Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, and his sister, Mikayla Bouchard, who works for CNN as a senior director of editorial product strategy.
“But if you want to elect me, I knocked doors in this county for President Trump. I’m from this county,” Lulgjuraj added. “I’m gonna be a MAGA, grassroots warrior when I go to Congress. And I’m never gonna let you down.”
Bouchard took issue with those comments and fired back with allegations that Lulgjuraj lied about his residence on official campaign filings and committed tax fraud by accepting a property tax discount on a home he wasn’t living in.
“He attacked my sister. I’m gonna defend my family. If someone’s gonna go after my family, I’m gonna defend them. If someone goes after this country, I’m gonna defend you. He keeps getting up here and lying,” Bouchard said.
“He lied about where he lives. He committed tax fraud — there’s allegations he committed tax fraud. He admitted to it in The Detroit News,” the candidate added, referencing an interview Lulgjuraj gave regarding his residency and tax status. A challenge by Lulgjuraj’s opponents to get him off the ballot was ultimately unsuccessful.
The crowd booed Bouchard’s comments.
Cook bumps Huizenga seat in Dems’ favor
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Thursday shifted its rating for Michigan’s 4th District from “likely” to “lean” Republican in a nod to the poor environment that Republicans are facing in the fall midterm elections.
The seat is held by long-time U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, who ran ahead of President Donald Trump by more than 6 percentage points in 2024 when he won election to an eighth term.
Cook notes that Huizenga’s west Michigan district along the lakeshore has been inching to the left, with Ottawa County representing one of the few Michigan counties where Kamala Harris improved on Joe Biden’s margin.
The likely Democratic nominee, state Sen. Sean McCann of Kalamazoo, outraised Huizenga in the first quarter, and “… Republicans admit that they’re preparing for a close race.”
“But Huizenga, a senior member on the Financial Services Committee, should be able to turn on the fundraising spigot,” Cook’s Erin Covey wrote in her analysis. “He’s also a close ally of the cryptocurrency industry, which could have an incentive to spend for him this fall.”
McCann is on the ballot in the Democratic primary with Diop Harris, a Battle Creek native and former Capitol Hill staffer for former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Covey said McCann’s major vulnerability could be his voting record in the Democratic-controlled state Senate, and Republicans have dubbed him ‘tax man McCann’ for voting for a new gas tax system and against property tax relief.
Democrats are expected to hit Huizenga for his votes on health care, including against extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits and cutting Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Covey added.
Slotkin bill would keep troops from polls
U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, introduced legislation Thursday that aims to keep the U.S. military or federal law enforcement from intervening in elections, she said.
The legislation requires a president to come to Congress to get approval before deploying uniformed military to the polls, cuts off funding for the military or federal law enforcement to seize ballots or voting machines and, thirdly, protects members of the military from “illegal orders” to do so, Slotkin said.
“We’re here doing this as swing states because we think the most important thing we need to do as senators is protect our polls, protect our democracy in this election year,” Slotkin said at a news conference at the Capitol.
Her co-sponsors on the bill are “purple” state senators, including Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Raphael Warnock of Georgia.
Slotkin pointed to remarks by President Donald Trump, who in the last six months has claimed over 100 times that the 2020 elections were rigged, mused to a journalist that he wished he had sent the military to collect ballots in 2020, and regretted that he didn’t sign a draft executive order in 2020 sending the National Guard to seize ballots and voting machines.
“I, personally, have asked five different cabinet officials whether they would rule this out, whether it was OK to deploy the uniformed military or federal law enforcement to our polls, from Secretary Hegseth to Secretary Mullin,” Slotkin said. “None of them would unilaterally rule it out.”
Pro-Rogers group goes on air
A group called the Great Lakes Conservative Fund has launched a $1 million, comic-book-themed ad campaign in support of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers of White Lake Township.
“Mike Rogers is a military veteran and Michigan auto-factory worker,” said Andy Surabian, president of the fund. “He understands what Michigan families are dealing with after decades of Democrats gutting manufacturing jobs and killing the economy with their left-wing policy agenda.”
Tlaib bill seeks ICE detainee locator
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, last week dropped legislation that would require the Department of Homeland Security to maintain an accurate online detainee locator system for those individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection.
The bill directs the creation of a system that shows “timely” information on arrests, detention locations, and transfers that are not available in the current ICE locator system, which is often not up to date.
Tlaib noted that lawyers and families are often unable to find their clients in the system, leaving them unclear if the individual is even still in the country.
“ICE and CBP are abducting our neighbors in the middle of the night, locking them in cages, and concealing their location from their families and legal counsel,” Tlaib said in a statement.
“We must equip our communities with every tool we can to help free our immigrant neighbors from this cruel and immoral system of detention.”
A summary of the bill said it also creates compliance mechanisms and penalties for non-compliant facilities and contractors, and requires ICE and CBP to inform family members and legal counsel when a detained individual is transferred for urgent medical care.
Tweet of the Week
The Insider report’s “Tweet of the Week,” recognizing a social media post that was worthy of attention or, possibly from the previous week goes to Republican political consultant John Yob.
Yob dove into the debate over polling done by Mitchell Research on Thursday, calling for widespread retractions by the media.
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Michigan QB Bryce Underwood talks about his goals for Year 2
Michigan Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood speaks about his goals heading into Year 2 on June 20, 2026.
The expectations for Michigan football quarterback Bryce Underwood were through the roof in 2025.
Much of that came from his ranking, coming into Ann Arbor as the No. 1 high school product in the nation. Some of it came from his own doing — like going on Big Ten Network last August and proclaiming “nobody has seen a freshman like me.”
The talented signal-caller did not live up to the hype in Year 1. Not only as a team — Michigan went 9-4 and missed the College Football Playoff for the second straight season — but individually, where Underwood completed just 60.3% of his passes for 2,428 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Now with a year under his belt, Underwood kept it simple when asked what he expects going into year two.
“Better than Year 1,” he told reporters at Saline High School on Saturday, June 20, where he hosted a youth football camp. “That’s really all I can say.”
Underwood has been taking the steps behind the scenes to make it happen. He didn’t explain exactly how he got connected, but he made sure to get in contact with Jordan Palmer, a California-based QB guru, where he’s gone for multiple training sessions.
The Belleville native called Palmer one of the “best trainers around the country” and said it’s been a “blessing” to get to work with him. He says his focus this summer has been simple − training, spending time with family and jelling with teammates − but he’s already learning new lessons, much of which isn’t as much focused on the physical side, but mental.
“How to simplify the game for myself, how easy I can make the game,” he said. “[Focusing on] the consistency in everything I have going on, so that was really my main focus this offseason.”
Underwood also acknowledged Year 1 wasn’t what he expected it would be. He went 50-4 at Belleville, led the Tigers to their first undefeated season in school history (2023), was Gatorade National Player of the Year that season and MaxPreps National Freshman (2021) and Sophomore (2022) of the Year the two years prior.
There had been very few learning lessons or moments of failure, but the Big Ten proved to be a different animal. While his physical tools are widely considered enough to be a solid player − or even elite − Underwood said there were more cerebral requirements than what he expected.
“How much the mental aspect of the game really matters,” Underwood said of what he learned. “How mentally stable you [have] to be, how mentally strengthened.”
Recently, new head coach Kyle Whittingham told the Free Press he felt like Underwood had a “pretty tough situation” in his first season. Much of that was due to not having a dedicated position coach on staff, which is a major reason Whittingham hired Koy Detmer Jr. to lead the quarterbacks room in Ann Arbor.
Underwood says the relationship is already off to a good start.
“That’s my guy,” he said of Detmer. “We talk every single day, how we can be better as a player and coach and how we’re going to produce on the field.”
While Underwood’s offseason has been focused on improvement, it hasn’t been without headlines. Recently, former NFL All-Pro safety Eric Weddle made waves when he said he didn’t think Underwood “could throw or play quarterback” and told people to “mark [his] words” that one of U-M’s backups may see the field “early.”
Underwood didn’t want to put any stock into the comments, but instead looked forward to the season opener.
“I mean, Game 1 is September 5,” he said. “I’ll let that speak. … I’m not putting no energy toward one person.”
For the most part, Underwood seemed to be a bit more intentional with his remarks than this time a year ago. Prior to playing in college, he talked about winning national championships, a Heisman Trophy and while walking around Cedar Point amusement park said “I can run all of Ohio” in a now-viral video.
This time he said a realistic expectation for this season as a team is”winning,” and his individual goals are “whatever my team needs to win.” After the response, he was asked if he needed to tone down his rhetoric.
“I mean, no matter what, I stand by what I said then,” he said. “It’s over now, time to move forward with that.”
As a household name in the state for a handful of years, the still-18-year-old knows he has room to grow. He says this year is about working “smarter” and raved about the new staff.
He says he thinks the transition has been “for the better” and added he feels like the team is “more prepared” while also adding the team is player-led and “player-driven”. It’s a big year for the Wolverines, who will always be a national brand but want to get back to the top of the national landscape.
It’s also a big year for Underwood, who wants the same for himself.
“I want to prove to myself that I am what I think,” he said. “I feel like I’m the best player to ever come out of Michigan … because I worked for it.”
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
“Defenseman C. Reid will spend next year at college in Michigan” is a sentence that has been said before. The first time, it was about incoming Michigan State star defenseman Chase Reid, a presumptive top-five pick in the upcoming NHL draft. Now, Michigan has secured a defenseman C. Reid of their own — Cam Reid of the Kitchener Rangers.
This is likely to confuse many people, so here are four quick ways to tell them apart. First, they are probably wearing different colors. Second, if one of them says “eh,” that’s Cam, as he’s from Aylmer, Ontario while Chase is from Chesterfield, Michigan. Third, Chase is two inches taller at six-foot-two. Fourth, they don’t look very similar. We will likely gain a fifth way after the draft as Chase is unlikely to fall to the Nashville Predators at tenth, which is who drafted Cam, but we can’t say for sure yet, so we’ll stick with four for now.
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Bits aside, Reid committing to Michigan is a big get for the Wolverines — albeit, not an unexpected one. This move was rumored for months, and Scott Wheeler of The Athletic reported that Reid had been planning the move since December. Still, to actually land the commitment is significant for the Wolverines as it bolsters an already-strong blue line for Michigan.
As previously mentioned, Reid is from Aylmer and grew up playing for the Aylmer Flames. He’s six feet tall and 194 pounds and shoots left, much to the chagrin of anyone who wanted another right shot for Michigan (that d-core is almost entirely lefties). Reid is a two-way defenseman who ran the Kitchener Rangers power play and he’s known for his explosive skating. With him and defenseman Henry Mews on the back end, Michigan’s power play would have two stars manning the point.
As captain this season, Reid led the Rangers to the Memorial Cup, where they defeated Landon DuPont and the Everett Silvertips. And there is a very realistic chance that the two of them will be teammates together next year as Michigan is currently leading the pack in recruiting DuPont. He was reportedly on campus this week and will be touring Michigan State as well.
Even if DuPont doesn’t come, the Wolverines’ defensive core is absolutely stacked with Reid and Mews. Reid will be another key chip as Michigan tries again to get over the hump of the Frozen Four.
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Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoKids, teens can enjoy free lunch at over 90 parks across Los Angeles
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Denver, CO3 hours agoProposed September 2026 Service Changes
