ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- When Michigan football managed to secure the No. 1 overall recruit in the nation in quarterback Bryce Underwood, it was assumed that the old notion that the most popular man in Ann Arbor was the backup quarterback would be moot. After all, such was the case for J.J. McCarthy when he was at the helm.But as the starter, McCarthy lost but one game, and Underwood?

Well, he has four to his name.Enter Tommy Carr, part of Michigan royalty, as the grandson of famed head coach Lloyd Carr, who brought the team its first national championship in eons, in 1997. In the spring, much was said of Carr's emergence, even as a true freshman. And the annual spring game seemed to confirm all of the whispers about what this seemingly underrecruited legacy was capable of.

Thus, much of the postgame buzz from many of the fans was wondering aloud if the Wolverines had the right guy under center.Even so, there's a certain logic to not falling for the hype, especially given the nature of the spring game itself. It was a split squad, with Underwood more so commandeering the upperclassmen and players atop the depth chart against those who were in the same classification. Carr, who played from the second quarter to the end of game, increasingly was facing presumed weaker competition.

Whittingham made a distinction of such in the aftermath."I thought Tommy Carr showed a lot of poise and did some good things," Whittingham said. "Bryce had a limited time -- just that first quarter. And when you play a spring game, when you split up the team evenly, like we did, you're playing with -- the ones aren't together, and the twos aren't together, so you're kind of a hodgepodge.

But you still get a good idea of who's playmaker and who's not."The above isn't to say that Carr isn't a playmaker, that much is certain given what was witnessed. His statline -- 21-for-30 for 143 yards -- was much better than Underwood's 3-for-9 for 22 yards, to be sure. Carr also ran the ball more effectively, albeit over the course of three-plus quarters of play (given that he was the all-time quarterback for two quarters), building up the postgame hype.However, despite many of the issues that Underwood had a year ago resurfacing in the spring game (happy feet, throwing off his back foot, inaccuracy), that doesn't mean it's time to start looking for a change -- though it's unlikely many are actually serious about that impulse.

After all, Whittingham has truly had Underwood for 15 practices, far fewer than that of his predecessor, working to undo damage done over the course of more than a calendar year.Whittingham sees the improvement in Underwood in ways that fans weren't able to see on Saturday. And just because the mistakes weren't reversed doesn't mean he isn't on his way toward fixing them."He progressed all through spring. There's a lot of some things that may not be noticeable to just the general, his pocket presence.

He's improved in all areas," Whittingham said. "Now he still has work to do. He knows that, we know that. But I think he's ahead of where he was, certainly, prior to or from last season, and we think he's got a big upside.

There's still been a lot of confidence in him. There's no real different sentiment than what we had when we first got in here."Back in 2017, which ended up being a terrible year for Michigan quarterbacking, similar aptitudes surfaced surrounding a similarly effervescent Brandon Peters, who came in and wowed compared to incumbent starter Wilton Speight and challenger John O'Korn. Despite Jim Harbaugh's insistence that it wasn't Peters' time as a redshirt freshman, the clamor for his services grew until injuries put Speight on the sideline, and haphazard play had done the same for O'Korn.

The first outing, at home vs. Rutgers, made fans wonder if they were right -- even though the same sentiment was thought when O'Korn took over for the injured Speight against Purdue that same year. But Peters' ability was limited, and an injury vs.

Wisconsin sidelined him, too. When he returned for the bowl game against South Carolina, the result was no different than those that preceded.Much like was the case for any of that trio, what was witnessed in the spring game this year was the inability of the offensive line to pass protect. Every quarterback that took the field on Saturday was set to scramble nearly as soon as they had the ball in their hands.

Carr, with much more time on task in the game at his disposal, certainly looked to make the most of his opportunity. But still, the offensive line is the culprit at the moment. If you look at other teams, like Ohio State late last year, even with Julian Sayin looking otherworldly for much of the year, the moment his offensive line faltered (and it did vs.

Indiana and Miami), he likewise unraveled, suddenly appearing a pedestrian amid marathoners. A split squad exacerbates offensive line issues singularly. Unlike other position groups, the offensive front requires familiarity and c