Michigan benched quarterback Bryce Underwood at halftime of its game with Penn State, and Tommy Carr started the second half. CBS Sports' Brad Crawford reported that Kyle Whittingham sat the former five-star recruit after a scoreless first half. Several Yahoo Sports pieces say the Wolverines trailed 3-0 at the break. One of them says Underwood threw two first-half interceptions, and our box score matches that. Another calls it "another poor first-half showing in a crucial Big Ten game." None of the headlines or summaries we have includes a quote from Whittingham explaining the move.
The change has worked so far. This is a live game, with 2:51 left in the fourth quarter, and Michigan leads Penn State 21-11 at Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines scored 14 in the third quarter and 7 in the fourth. The last play we have is Carr's 12-yard touchdown run, followed by Trey Butkowski's extra point. Carr is 5 of 7 for 47 yards with no interceptions and has 36 yards on four carries. Underwood finished 5 of 11 for 43 yards with the two interceptions, plus 11 rushing yards on three carries. Michigan has 200 rushing yards on 6.3 per carry against 90 passing yards, so the run game, not Carr's arm, has done most of the second-half work.
The first half was not a one-off for Underwood. Across his six games this season he has 924 passing yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions. He threw two interceptions in the 20-14 loss at Minnesota on Oct. 3, when he was 10 of 21 for 101 yards. He had two touchdowns and an interception against Iowa and two touchdowns and none against UTEP. He also has three fumbles this season, two of them lost. Carr had thrown for 70 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions this season before this game.
Michigan came in 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten, 14th in the conference, having lost two straight. Those losses were 20-19 to Iowa on Sep. 26 and 20-14 at Minnesota. It scored 52 in its last win, against UTEP on Sep. 19, and has scored 20 or fewer in both losses since. A win would be its first in league play.
3-2, 0-2 conf14th in Big TenStreak L2
The reporting does not say whether Carr will start next week, and Whittingham has not addressed it in anything we have. The Wolverines host Indiana on Saturday, Oct. 24.
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