మిచిగాన్ క్యూబి బ్రైస్ అండర్వుడ్ సెంటర్ స్టేజ్ తీసుకుంటుంది: విస్కాన్సిన్ స్పాయిలర్ ప్లే చేయగలరా?

As Michigan gets set to face Wisconsin in this weekend’s “Big Noon Saturday” showdown, all eyes will be on Bryce Underwood — the electrifying freshman QB who’s capturing the college football world’s attention.

Underwood has quickly become the centerpiece of the Wolverines’ offense, dazzling fans and opponents alike with his poise and athleticism. Though still early in his freshman campaign, his ability to make plays both in the pocket and on the run has forced the Wolverines’ coaching staff to lean into his unique skill set.

On the other side, Wisconsin enters this Big Ten tilt under mounting pressure, grappling with uncertainty at quarterback and growing frustration among its fan base. Could this be the game that finally turns the tide for the Badgers?

FOX Sports college football writers RJ Young and Michael Cohen weigh in on how Underwood’s blend of size, speed, and athleticism might be the key to Michigan’s College Football Playoff hopes, and whether public frustration from Wisconsin’s fan base will affect the Badgers’ chances of pulling off an upset.

1. What are your initial impressions of Michigan QB Bryce Underwood, and how much does his ability to run the ball — and the coaching staff’s willingness to design plays around his rushing — impact Michigan’s ceiling this season?

RJ Young: Before Michigan’s game against Central Michigan, head coach Sherrone Moore was hesitant to have Bryce Underwood play a physical style against opponents. But from leading the way as an impromptu blocker to tucking the ball and making the most out of seemingly broken plays with his elite athleticism, it’s become clear that Underwood’s presence in the rushing attack isn’t just a boost for the Wolverines — it has become a winning formula.

Early this week on his radio show, Moore seemingly admitted that Underwood running the ball might be Michigan’s best shot at a championship season.

“I think the biggest thing that we look at as a staff is you want to win, so we have to do everything that we can in each game plan to win,” Moore said on “Inside Michigan Football.” “And if sometimes it’s running him, we’ll run him. If it’s a dropback pass and doing this and a play-action pass. It’s whatever that recipe is for that game, we know we’ve got to go do to go win the game.”

At 6-foot-4 and nearly 230 pounds, Underwood has shown the speed and power to be a dynamic runner, one who can make the difference between winning and losing, as he did against Nebraska when he took a QB draw 37 yards for a score. He has rushed for 175 yards on his last 17 carries, including sack yards. At this point in the season, Moore will need to emphasize protecting his quarterback, as risking injury to the Wolverines’ starter is simply not an option.

Michael Cohen: The answer to that question might be best explored by reexamining Michigan’s road loss to then-No. 18 Oklahoma in Week 2, the first true test for Underwood against a quality opponent. That night, Sooners quarterback John Mateer was far and away the best player on the field for either team, seamlessly blending runs, passes and off-schedule scrambles that extended drives and helped Oklahoma finish with a five-minute advantage in time of possession. 

Mateer completed 21 of 34 passes for 270 yards, one touchdown and one interception while also carrying the ball 19 times for 74 yards and two additional scores — all of which led the Sooners. He was responsible for moving the chains 18 times by himself with 12 first downs through the air and six on the ground. He forced as many missed tackles (two) as Oklahoma running backs Tory Blaylock (1), Jovantae Barnes (1) and Jaydn Ott (0) combined. Had Mateer not gone on to suffer a broken bone in his hand — an injury that required him to undergo surgery last week and will sideline him for the better part of a month — he might well be considered the Heisman Trophy front-runner. That’s how dynamic the Washington State transfer proved to be through Oklahoma’s first four games, all victories. 

Underwood, meanwhile, only carried the ball three times for minus-1 yards in Michigan’s loss to the Sooners, a product of both the conservative offensive game plan drawn up by head coach Sherrone Moore and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, and the quarterback’s apparent willingness to remain in the pocket — even as he completed just 37.5% of his passes for 142 yards and no touchdowns. Having recognized an error in judgment, Moore and the Wolverines’ coaching staff quickly unleashed Underwood’s rushing ability in the next two games.

Underwood carried nine times for a career-high 114 yards and two touchdowns in a 60-point shredding of Central Michigan, against whom he mixed designed runs with timely scrambles, and then carried eight times for 61 yards and a touchdown in a 30-27 road win over Nebraska that wasn’t as close as the final score suggested. His 37-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter gave Michigan a double-digit lead on an afternoon when the Wolverines never trailed.

All told, Underwood has now rushed 22 times for 169 yards (7.7 yards per carry) and three scores across four games to give Michigan three different players with at least 150 rushing yards and three touchdowns this season. It’s Underwood’s running ability that can, and perhaps will, make the Wolverines legitimate contenders to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff. 

2. Wisconsin has struggled this season with ongoing questions about head coach Luke Fickell’s future. How much do you think the team’s performance and public frustration from the fan base will impact the Badgers’ ability to pull off an upset against Michigan?

Michael Cohen: To give readers an idea of just how far Wisconsin has slipped under third-year head coach Luke Fickell, whose lofty buyout of more than $25 million is now a popular topic of conversation among disgruntled fans, consider the point spread for Saturday’s game: Michigan, playing at home, is favored by 16.5 points. According to the website KillerSports, which houses historical betting lines, it’s the third-largest spread between these two teams since data was initially recorded in 1989. The only larger projected margins came on Oct. 7, 1989, when Michigan was favored by 35 points at home and trounced the Badgers, 24-0, and on Oct. 6, 1990, when the Wolverines were favored by 27 points on the road and wound up winning 41-3. Nine of the last 10 games in this rivalry featured spreads of 10 points or fewer. In other words, Saturday’s game has the chance to be a historic blowout if oddsmakers are on the right track.

While it’s true that the crescendoing dissatisfaction from fans and ever-intensifying pressure on Fickell certainly won’t make it easy for Wisconsin to score an upset on Saturday, the larger issue is lingering uncertainty at the quarterback position — something that has plagued the Badgers both in 2025 and throughout Fickell’s tenure overall. The presumptive starter, Billy Edwards Jr., a dual-threat transfer from Maryland, sprained his knee in the second quarter of the Badgers’ season opener. He returned for a handful of plays at the start of Wisconsin’s humbling home loss to Maryland on Sept. 20, but clearly wasn’t healthy enough to complete the game and quickly dropped out of the lineup. When Fickell spoke to reporters on Monday, he was uncertain if Edwards would be available to face Michigan. 

If Edwards is unavailable, the Badgers would once again turn to backup Danny O’Neil, a one-time Colorado commit who began his career at San Diego State. O’Neil played reasonably well in non-conference matchups against Miami (Ohio) and Middle Tennessee State — he completed 35 of 46 passes for 403 yards, five total touchdowns and two interceptions during those games — but then appeared significantly overmatched when facing then-No. 19 Alabama and Maryland in his last two outings, throwing three times as many interceptions (three) as touchdowns (one). This is now the third consecutive season in which injuries to quarterbacks, and uneven play from those who are healthy, have hamstrung Wisconsin. 

RJ Young: While the return of Billy Edwards to the starting lineup would be good news for the Badgers, it doesn’t significantly change the outlook — this still looks like a game they’re likely to lose unless they find a spark that hasn’t been seen all season. Still, Edwards is looking forward to the opportunity to face a top-20 opponent. “Games like this change lives forever,” Edwards said.

Edwards has completed 7 of 16 passes for 113 yards in limited action this season, but the bigger issue with this Wisconsin team has been its run-game, which has been dreadful. No Wisconsin player has rushed for more than 73 yards in a game, and the team hasn’t enjoyed a 100-yard rushing performance against a Power 4 opponent. A productive rushing attack has been the most important statistic to watch for the Badgers over the past decade, regardless of who the head coach has been.

Since 2023, Wisconsin is 12-0 when it rushes for more than 150 yards and 14-2 when it rushes the ball 35 times or more.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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సుధీర్ రాజు (Sudhir Raju) Send an email 3 గంటలు ago

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