Bryce Underwood: ‘It’s over for Ohio State’

Bryce Underwood has grown close with Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden because they share some of the same representation so when the five-star quarterback was in town recently – and the Clippers were playing the Lakers – Underwood told Harden he needed to meet LeBron James.

The meeting went well enough, Underwood admitted he was a little star-struck and nervous which is rare for him, and the two exchanged pleasantries.

And then the Michigan signee delivered his cutting message to one of the NBA’s best-ever players and famous Ohio native.

“I just dapped him up and stuff and we started talking and I said, ‘I just have to let you know, I go to Michigan,’ ” Underwood said Wednesday on The Rich Eisen Show. It’s over for Ohio State.’ ”

James laughed off the comment but in the cutthroat world of college football, it’s no joke.

There is a new swagger to Michigan football with Underwood flipping late from LSU for numerous reasons. He played for the Motor City Wolverines growing up, staying closer to home got more important as signing day neared and he landed a $12 million NIL deal from Oracle billionaire founder Larry Ellison.

This past season was a gut punch for Wolverines’ fans especially on offense as the quarterback play was so pitiful that millionaire alum Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports took to his podcast to raise money for a top quarterback. Apparently, Underwood’s NIL deal will involve Barstool media in some ways.

After a disastrous start last season, blamed mostly on poor QB play, Michigan finished 8-5 and had some real momentum late in the season by blowing out Northwestern, shocking Ohio State for the fourth-straight season and then beating Alabama in the bowl game.

It’s Underwood time in Ann Arbor now and even though he dodged questions about getting the starting job on Eisen’s show, everyone seems to know what’s going on here. This is Underwood’s team and he has lofty expectations.

Asked what his legacy at Michigan will be, Underwood said: “A couple Heismans and at least one natty.”

Of course, to get more hardware, Michigan will have to go through Ohio State and a Penn State team that should be loaded next season, among others in a loaded Big Ten.

But the Buckeyes are Public Enemy No. 1.

And it should be more interesting than ever. Underwood, the 6-foot-4, 228-pound stud quarterback from Belleville, Mich., versus Ohio State’s expected starter Julian Sayin, a five-star from Carlsbad, Calif., who masks an unrelenting competitiveness behind surfer-dude looks and who grew up a stone’s throw from some of the nicest beaches in Southern California.

Eisen asked Underwood about backing off his pledge to the Tigers.

“Both are great programs,” Underwood said. “I have a lot of love for both of them. With me being a Michigan fan growing up that was one of the biggest factors, biggest things that dawned on me playing for the Motor City Wolverines.

“Me and my family had a lot of sit-downs to really think about the things that matter, which are education and how far am I really willing to go? That was really one of the main things.”

Asked about his big NIL payday, Underwood dodged that topic.

“That was really the last thing on the bucket list,” Underwood said of the millions.

There’s no guarantee that coach Sherrone Moore will name Underwood the starter. But the quarterback play was so bad last season that there’s this feeling the local five-star is the savior coming to Ann Arbor.

He knows the spotlight will be on him – and Underwood seems to want it.

“It’s time for stuff to change now,” Underwood said. “There’s about to be a big change going into all of this.

“My mom calls it blessed stress. All the work I put in, it’s just a blessing to go through what I’m going through at this moment so I have nothing else to do other than what I’ve been doing for the last eight, nine, 10 years, which is hard work, dedicating myself to whatever my goals will be.

“I just know I just have to be myself. That’s my main thing. I’m going to work for everything.”

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