5 takeaways from Michigan Football’s Spring Game
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Michigan’s spring game transpired on Saturday afternoon, a 7-6 win for the Maize team over the Blue team. Here are the key takeaways from the game.
Bryce Underwood underwhelms
The former five-star prospect didn’t have a five-star showing in the spring game. Playing just the first quarter, Underwood was inaccurate and showed the same rawness he had last season. In all, Underwood was 3-of-9 for 22 yards. Underwood’s footwork was poor, and his throwing mechanics were clunky. Underwood had the same habit he showed against Ohio State, where he’d either hold onto the ball too long or get fidgety in the pocket and decide to scramble and turn the play into a fire drill.
Underwood’s still just 18, and this was a very small sample size, but it wasn’t an encouraging performance. At this point, there should be warranted skepticism that he can help Michigan’s pursuit of a Big Ten title and playoff push. At some point, Underwood’s on-field performance must become more consistent; it’s a repetitive conversation about his athleticism, potential, and ceiling. To whom much is given, much is tested, and Underwood has to clean up a lot before the season begins.
Tommy Carr impresses
True freshman quarterback Tommy Carr was the biggest bright spot in the spring game and if you didn’t know who was QB1 (Underwood), one would assume Carr is the most talented quarterback on Michigan’s roster. Carr was 21-of-30 for 143 yards with 67 rushing yards. An absolutely outstanding showing for the young playmaker.
Granted, this was a spring game, a glorified scrimmage in which Davis Warren once excelled. However, Carr has plenty of athleticism and has serious scrambling abilities. Carr delivered many accurate balls and had a nice touch when warranted.
Carr seemed to be poised and in control of the offense, all the more impressive considering he’s been with the program just a couple of months. Brother of Notre Dame QB CJ Carr, grandson of former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr, Tommy has a family tree that leads me to surmise he might have a higher ceiling than many outside observers expected. This isn’t to say he’s going to push Underwood for starting duties, but it’s clear Carr has potential, and when head coach Kyle Whittingham says he has the ‘it factor’, he means it. It would not be a surprise to see Carr start games for Michigan at some point in the future, even if it is a year or two down the line.
Michigan’s backfield might be electric
Michigan running back Jordan Marshall had a stellar 2025 campaign and could wind up being one of the best backs in college football this season, and there’s a talented five-star freshman right behind him in Savion Hiter who could have a breakout campaign and earn a good share of carries. Marshall played during the non-tackling portion of the spring game and would have had a lot more yards otherwise, but still had five carries for 21 yards. Hiter had 10 carries for 44 yards and looked like a bruising runner.
Other standouts
- True freshman receiver Salesi Moa might be a difference-maker right away. He had some fantastic snags in those, one with four snags for 26 yards, 21 of which were yards after the catch.
- Plenty of young defenders made their presence felt, including Nate Marshall (one sack), Lugard Edokpayi.
- Markel Dabney and Bobby Kanka had a dominating goal-line stop.
- Sophomore Travis Moten led both teams with two sacks
- Kainoa Winston had the most tackles with six.
Final thoughts
What does the spring game mean? Not much, but not nothing either. Head coach Kyle Whittingham admitted the offense isn’t where it needs to be, as evidenced by the first and only touchdown being scored in the final seconds of the game. However, the defenses battled, and it wasn’t an embarrassing showing from an effort standpoint by any means. This is the first year under Whittingham, there’s a new scheme on offense and defense, and it’s clear that the offense is still trying to figure things out. Further, the plays were very much vanilla in nature offensively and defensively during this scrimmage because they don’t want to give away too much of what they aim to do this fall.
Perhaps the best way to look at the spring game is that it was a small sample size of a month-long stretch of practices for the 2026 Michigan Wolverines team, and by the time the season rolls around, they’ll look a lot different. For better or worse.
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