"That was one big one": Brian Kelly makes honest confession about his Bryce Underwood fumble during LSU recruitment 

Bryce Underwood was the top-ranked recruit in the Class of 2025 and a player whom many top schools wanted.

In the end, the quarterback committed to the Michigan Wolverines, where he has already been announced as their starting quarterback for the upcoming season.

One team that missed out on Underwood was LSU.

On Wednesday, the program's coach, Brian Kelly, spoke about how it felt to lose Underwood to Michigan:

“In this new model, you have to be able to adapt to current circumstances. Certainly, that was one big one that we had to address and adapt to.”

The "new model" that Kelly refers to corresponds to the passing of the House settlement in July that essentially allows for players to be paid to play for their college, in another NIL development.

This has led to football teams having to think of additional ways to create income (mostly through sponsorship deals) to raise funds. These funds are used on players' NIL deals in an attempt to bring them to their team.

This was the case for LSU in their attempts to bring Underwood in.

According to reports, Underwood's NIL deal with the Wolverines is between $10 million and $12 million. This was enough to bring him to Ann Arbor and deliver LSU a massive blow in their hunt for a future replacement for Garrett Nussmeier.

One could also think (with hindsight) that money was not the only reason that Underwood committed to Michigan.

There, he would automatically be in the running for the starting quarterback role, which he eventually got.

The same would not be said if he had committed to LSU. Underwood would have spent a season on the sidelines as Garrett Nussmeier's backup quarterback at best, with the Tigers spending millions of dollars on essentially a bench player to begin with.

What to expect from Bryce Underwood vs. New Mexico?

Bryce Underwood is set to make his Michigan debut this weekend against the New Mexico Lobos. On Wednesday, college football analyst Joel Klatt asked a key question about Underwood's performance in this game:

"That's what we know. Okay, he's 6'4'', he's 228 (lbs). We know he's going to be elusive. He's going to be able to run the football. So the question then becomes, 'Alright, how quickly is he going to develop in terms of the acumen of the sport?' Because the big jump that takes place from high school to college is this."

This will be the fans' first chance to see Bryce Underwood play. There are many unknowns surrounding him, mostly concerning how he will fare in college football.

Luckily, this should be an easy game for the Wolverines, no matter who the quarterback is. This will give us a chance to see how Underwood plays in a potentially risk-free environment.