Why Michigan football isn't rushing to name a starting QB
Michigan football offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey knows naming a starting quarterback is important. He's just not ready yet.
“I think you always want to know when, as soon as you can — I mean, that's the goal," Lindsey said Saturday Aug. 2, speaking inside Schembechler Hall just a few hours before the Wolverines’ first padded practice of fall camp. “I do think that we have a good plan on competition and getting guys reps.
"They're all competitive, they're all smart, they're all doing a great job when they get their reps. But you know when the heat's on and you're in those tight moments ... who can run the team and who can make the decisions is key.”
It's a similar message to the one delivered by coach Sherrone Moore at Big Ten media days in late July from Las Vegas.
This season, Lindsey enters his first season on Michigan's staff with a retooled quarterback room, headlined by freshman five-star recruit Bryce Underwood. The other competitors include graduate transfer Mikey Keene, junior transfer Jake Garcia and sophomore Jadyn Davis. Each has his own strengths and reason he could be considered a candidate for the job.
Lindsey has experience dealing with turbulent quarterback rooms.
In 2016, his only year as offensive coordinator at Arizona State, three different quarterbacks started games and five other players took snaps and threw passes for a team that lost its final six games after a 5-1 start.
And in 2024, North Carolina, with Lindsey as OC, named Max Johnson its starting quarterback a few weeks prior to the regular season, only for him to break his leg and be ruled out for the rest of the year in Week 1.
The Tar Heel coaches had to regroup and reopen the competition. There was a surprising result.
“As the season went, we end up playing to two more guys and finally settled on the guy who, out of camp was our third guy," Lindsey said. "So I do think you have to be prepared."
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These are just a few examples why the U-M staff will not rush to name a starting quarterback for the 2025 season, despite the quarterback carousel it endured last year in Ann Arbor in Moore's first year as coach.
The upside is clear with Underwood. The No. 1 high school prospect in the nation is the highest-rated quarterback to ever come to the Wolverines. He stands 6 feet 4 and 228 pounds, with a massive arm, explosive speed and is thought to be one of the most intriguing players on any team in the nation. He turns 18 in August.
Keene has played more than 2,000 collegiate snaps at quarterback, the most on the team, and has experience in Lindsey's system when both were at Central Florida in 2022.
U-M brought in Garcia because Keene was lost for all of spring with an injury and by mid-summer, Michigan wasn't positive he'd be able to factor into the race. It seems Keene will. Garcia started some games at Miami (Fla.) in 2022, then went to Missouri and last year won the starting job at East Carolina.
Even Davis, while likely No. 4 in the room, was a highly regarded recruit and at one point the heir-apparent to J.J. McCarthy.
The Wolverines had just two healthy bodies in spring and eventually had to limit reps to preserve both the arms of Underwood and Davis, but now there are four weeks until someone will take the opening snaps against New Mexico on Aug. 30 (7:30 p.m., NBC) at Michigan Stadium.
"I think more than just getting reps, put them in different situations like and it takes time to do that," Lindsey said on what happens next. "We're trying to rotate those guys and put them all in those different situations and see how they respond. Because I think really the key playing good quarterback is playing is understanding situational football and making great decisions."
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
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