ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Bryce Underwood spent the second half of Saturday’s game on the Michigan sideline helping the freshman who had replaced him, and the Wolverines beat Penn State 21-18 with that freshman at quarterback.
The change came at halftime. Michigan trailed 3-0 after gaining 80 yards, and Underwood, the starter, had completed five of 11 passes for 43 yards with two interceptions. As the second quarter ended, coach Kyle Whittingham told CBS sideline reporter Jenny Dell the offense had “absolutely nothing going.”
Tommy Carr, a true freshman, took the snaps from there. He completed five of seven passes for 47 yards and ran for 36 more, Sports Illustrated reported, including a 12-yard touchdown on third-and-9 that made it 21-11 with 2:58 left. Penn State answered with 1:11 remaining, and Michigan recovered the onside kick. It was Michigan’s first Big Ten win this season, lifting it to 4-2, while Penn State fell to 3-4 and 0-4 in conference play.
Michigan’s own postgame report says the defense forced three turnovers after halftime and the ground game turned them into all three Michigan touchdowns. Rod Moore Jr. intercepted Penn State early in the third quarter, and two plays later Bryson Kuzdzal ran 43 yards for Michigan’s first lead. Chris Bracy added an interception and the first sack of his Michigan career, a strip that Enow Etta recovered before Carr scored. The Wolverines ran for 211 yards, 174 of them after halftime.
Whittingham said afterward that coordinator Jason Beck handled the conversation with Underwood, who “couldn’t have handled it any better,” Sports Illustrated reported. He said Underwood was out there helping Carr between series.
Michigan’s next game is at home against No. 5 Indiana, which lost 19-15 to Ohio State on Saturday. Whittingham would not name a starter. He was “not prepared to say right now at this desk or this table what we’re going to do going forward,” he said, adding that Michigan did not want to “tip our hand to Indiana necessarily” and that the plan would be clear Monday. Carr had received half of the first-team repetitions at the start of the week, Whittingham said, according to Sports Illustrated.
Whittingham also said there “really wasn’t a lot of scheme change” between the halves. The same plan produced no points before halftime and 21 after it, and he said he would look to the tape for the reason why.
