Kyle Whittingham still hasn’t said the name out loud. He doesn’t need to.

Michigan is expected to start freshman Tommy Carr on Saturday against No. 6 Indiana, with Bryce Underwood moving to the bench, per CBS Sports. On3’s Pete Nakos reported the benching too. Kickoff is noon ET at Michigan Stadium, so Carr’s first career start comes against a defense that’s still one of the best in the country, at an hour when half of Ann Arbor is still waiting on its eggs.

The numbers made this decision for everybody. Underwood has completed 58.1% of his passes for 924 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions in six starts. Those six picks lead the Big Ten, which is a leaderboard nobody frames. Take away the UTEP game (76%, 223 yards, two touchdowns) and his completion rate drops to 53.5%.

The offense around him hasn’t exactly been carrying the load either. Michigan ranks 105th nationally in scoring offense at 22.7 points per game and 119th in pass plays of 20-plus yards, with 13. Thirteen. Some teams hit that in a month.

Five completions and a whole new season

Carr’s audition came Saturday against Penn State. Underwood had two first-half turnovers, and Michigan managed 80 total yards with him in the first half. Carr took over, went 5-of-7 for 47 yards, ran four times for 36 yards and scored the game-winning 12-yard touchdown in a 21-18 win. That snapped a two-game losing streak and moved Michigan to 4-2 in Whittingham’s first year.

Five completions. That’s the resume. In Ann Arbor this week it reads like a Heisman pamphlet.

Whittingham played coy after the game, then played less coy on Monday. “Well, we saw good stuff out of what Tommy did in that second half, and we know exactly what we’re doing,” he said Saturday, adding, “We’re not going to tip our hand to the opponent, but we have a good plan in place.”

Asked Monday whether turnovers drove the thinking, he answered: “Big impact.” Then he got specific. “You’ve got to take care of the football, and you’ve got to take it away on defense,” Whittingham said.

He also shot down the idea of a rotation, falling back on the oldest line in the coaching manual: “if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one.” And if Underwood gets called back in? “I don’t think he would flinch. I think he’d go right back in and start competing.”

The family business

If the last name rings a bell, it should. Carr is a four-star 2026 recruit from Saline, Michigan, the grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and the brother of Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr. CJ had a rough night in Notre Dame’s loss at BYU, so the Carr family group chat had a mixed weekend.

Now the kid gets Indiana, the defending national champion, a team that let a late lead slip against Ohio State and lost 19-15. The Hoosiers will be in a mood. Michigan’s plan, apparently, is to hand the ball to a freshman whose college resume fits on a cocktail napkin and see what he’s got.

For what it’s worth, Underwood handled Saturday about as well as anyone could. He supported Carr the whole way and was the first player out there to celebrate with him. That’s a good teammate. It’s also a guy who now holds a clipboard in Ann Arbor.

Noon kickoff. Freshman quarterback. Top-10 opponent. Michigan fans wanted a change, and they got one.

<p><em>Originally published at <a href="https://ballsandbanter.com/college-football/michigan-benches-bryce-underwood-hands-freshman-tommy-carr-the-keys-for-no-6-indiana/">Balls &amp; Banter</a>.</em></p>

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