Win LSU another Heisman or return hometown Michigan to glory? USATSI

BELLEVILLE, Mich. - Bryce Underwood is ahead of schedule. No, you don't understand. The No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2025 is way ahead of schedule.

At age eight, he already stood close to 5-foot-3. By age 10, he was playing with 17-year-olds. The now 6-foot-4, 235-pound quarterback, who ranks as the No. 1 recruit by 247Sports in the class of 2025 with a comparison to Vince Young, was playing varsity high school football games just weeks after his 15th birthday. He threw for over 3,000 yards and 39 touchdowns that season, winning MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year honors in 2021.

Underwood committed to LSU at age 16, turning 17 just days before his current senior season at Belleville High School in Michigan. Whoever gets him -- and that's still a discussion at this point -- will get a prodigy fresh, smart and ready.

"That's the way my parents raised me," Underwood told CBS Sports. "I grew at a young age mentally and physically ... It was insane, honestly. Where did this come from?"

That was basically the overriding question during an interview with CBS Sports earlier this season. Kids usually don't have the physical abilities to compete against young adults. Players this young usually don't step right into the Power Four spotlight.

But don't doubt him. The 2024 season has been the year of the teenager: Alabama freshman receiver Ryan Williams is excelling three months shy of his 18th birthday. Fellow freshman Jeremiah Smith of Ohio State turns 19 in three weeks.

Underwood's sense of everything is heightened at his age. During the interview, Underwood paused in the middle of an answer.

"That's my dad," he said. "I heard the car."

But how? The coaches' office where he sat is quiet, at least 100 yards from the nearest (closed) door to the outside, behind layers of cement and cinder block.

"Watch this," Underwood said, dialing his phone.

"You just drove by?" he asked his dad.

"Yeah," Jaquan Underwood replied.

"My hearing," Bryce concluded like a magician at the end of a reveal, "is insane."

There's that word again. The young folks use it to describe everything from the taste of ice cream to NIL dollars. Jaquan Underwood has heard it before. Bryce's dad helps coach the Tigers, who have won two state championships with his son at quarterback.

Bryce's first offer came from Kentucky in 2021. That was at the delicate age of 14, as an eighth grader. Everything about him screams "too soon." But Underwood was always playing "up," competing against older players in pick-up games and leagues because he could.

Ask Underwood's throwing coach, Donovan Dooley, who has seen the prodigy develop since Bryce was eight-years-old.

"Bryce used to have to pull out his birth certificate all the time," Dooley said. "His dad was like, 'I want my kid to play against older guys. These younger kids, this isn't going to do it.' When Bryce started doing that, he was better than them."

With one foot in the state playoffs and one in Baton Rouge -- or somewhere else -- Underwood has already left his mark.

"If I had a child I wish I could freaking clone Bryce," Belleville trainer Ashley Snyder said. "I've told his parents, 'Can I have partial custody?' He's a special kid."

Underwood's Belleville coach, Calvin Norman, has been around the profession for 35 years. He still works the graveyard shift at Detroit Diesel, getting off at 7 a.m. and retreating home for a few hours of sleep before heading to Belleville, a pleasant town 17 miles from Ann Arbor and 29 miles from Detroit.

A disclaimer: This is a story of hyperbole. They all are when five stars are involved. But this one -- this kid -- has depth. Dooley says he was telling college coaches Underwood would be a No. 1 prospect as a seventh grader.

"I actually started telling college coaches that," Norman said. "'Coach, this kid will be the No. 1 player in the world.' Now they're like, 'Dude, I don't know how you do that.'"

Norman and the staff thought they'd surprise the players armed with water balloons one day over the summer. The players, led by Underwood, quickly took over and led a counterattack against the coaches.

"I'm serious about everything," Underwood said. "I don't care what it is, I'm competitive. I don't like losing. It doesn't matter what it is. If it's a sport I've never played I swear I will not leave until I get the gist of everything."

"It doesn't matter what it is, he's going to try to outdo you," Norman said.

The coach offered a comparison to LeBron James, which at first sounds outlandish. But then it sort of settles in when you consider the demeanor and competitiveness of Underwood.

"My dream is to be in the hall of fame," he said.

Yeah, but as long as we're going there with this kid, it's fair to ask: Which one? All of them? Stay tuned.

All of this is before Underwood has taken a college snap. His inspiration has come from all angles. His dad, a promising high school prospect, was going to Texas A&M until he didn't.

"That's a conversation over a glass of whiskey and a cigar," Jaquan said.

There's inspiration in his locker room. Teammate Adrian Walker, headed for Miami (Ohio), has gone viral with an incredible interception. Belleville safety/receiver Elijah Dotson is headed to play at Pittsburgh.

Other inspiration is scattered across the country. Dequan Finn (Baylor) and Dante Moore (Oregon) -- two current Power Five quarterbacks from the area -- are on their own college journeys.

Underwood grew up playing youth football with Moore, the No. 4 player in the Class of 2023, who is already on his second team, having transferred from UCLA to Oregon. Finn, from nearby Martin Luther King High, played five years at Toledo, becoming a MAC player of the year before moving on to Baylor.

"We've had some good quarterbacks come out of Michigan in the last decade but Bryce tops the list coming out of high school," said 247Sports recruiting reporter Allen Trieu, who lives in Michigan and has covered prospects in the Midwest for over 20 years. "His four-year career will include at least three state title appearances and huge numbers."

Underwood may have seen it all. Now he's about to live it all. Oh, and the kid definitely has the receipts.

"When I started people just threw me under the bus, almost," Underwood said. "They treated me like I literally was a nobody. All right, cool. Don't worry about it. Just know where I'm about to get to."

Underwood was recalling his mindset at the age of eight.

At 17, he has a rocket arm and a tapered torso that make him stand out, oftentimes as the biggest player on the field -- as a quarterback. Dooley has a more detailed description.

"You may think I'm blowing smoke," he said. "Bryce is pretty much incomparable. Bryce is Randall Cunningham mixed with Pat Mahomes mixed with Lamar Jackson.

"He has the discipline of like a damn police German shepherd. Once he lays his eyes on a target he's going to get it. His will to win, you can feel the energy when he's on the field."

Underwood and his family have taken several unofficial visits to LSU. They fully admit it was to see the staff and the program when Underwood wasn't expected.

"His dad had pretty much put a pit bull mentality into him," Dooley said. "Always gritty, always wanting more. You damn near had to pull him off the field. When I was working with him I realized he was different. He was a unicorn."

How different is rooted in his relationship with Dooley. The 40-year-old started Quarterback University in 2010 as a grassroots QB training venture. As a player he bounced from Division II Wayne State to West Los Angeles College to Michigan Tech to Division III Albion College.

As a quarterback coach Dooley diligently worked the circuit, making contacts and friends. It's a crowded market. There are loads of throwing coaches. Dooley now takes a cache of quarterback prospects to Phoenix each year to train with Super Bowl champion QB Kurt Warner. Longtime NFL assistant Pep Hamilton is a mentor.

"I built Quarterback University off the purpose of inner-city kids not having access to the cerebral part of the game," Dooley said. "My whole mindset was, 'I can't wait to get back to the hood, I got something for the guys.'"

Dooley, 40, had surgery twice for cancer of the salivary glands. His face is partially paralyzed. Before the second surgery in May, Dooley gave a pep talk of sorts to his doctors.

"Don't mess it up," he recounted. "I did tell them that, seriously. Everybody started laughing. I said, 'I'm dead serious. Let's move the chains. We've got to score when we get in the red zone.' ... I was like, 'Last rule, do not turn the ball over.' They caught on to what I was telling them."

The cancer is gone, but four times a day, Dooley needs eye drops as a result of the affliction. If they are on the field for a session, Underwood will purposefully pause to assist his throwing coach.

"He's my personal eye dropper," Dooley said.

Michigan is a short 20-minute drive from Belleville. Underwood knows he would be a hometown hero if he flipped his commitment to the Wolverines, who desperately need quarterback help.

"They [Michigan] were like going more down South to find more players instead of having what they have in their backyard," Underwood surmised. He may have been referencing former Michigan QB commit Carter Smith, out of Florida. Smith decommitted earlier in November when Michigan's pursuit of Underwood became public.

Underwood was reminded he is the No. 1 player in the country.

"Yeah, that's what I was confused about," he said.

The Wolverines had always been near the top of Underwood's list.

There is reason to believe Michigan is back in the picture. In fact, a bidding war for the quarterback's services would not be surprising. Underwood has been committed to LSU since January, but CBS Sports' Richard Johnson recently got wind of a possible $10 million multi-year offer Michigan is putting together for Underwood.

That would be the largest known NIL deal for any player since the name, image and likeness benefits were allowed in July 2021.

"The reason Michigan is coming at him as hard as they are is because he could be a program changing recruit for them," Trieu said. "An era defining flip for Sherrone Moore, really."

Moreso than the money, as Trieu also points out, is what the offensive staffs at LSU and Michigan look like for next season. Whether LSU OC Joe Sloan is a real candidate for the East Carolina job, his alma mater, is a factor. As are whatever Michigan coach Sherrone Moore's plans are to retool an offense that ranks No. 125 nationally in yards per play -- personnel, scheme and staff, you name it.

"The Wolverines are throwing everything they have at this," Trieu said. "Whether that is successful remains to be seen. LSU has countered very effectively recently with Sloan coming to his game then getting him back to Baton Rouge for the game against Alaama. The result of that game is not likely to affect the recruitment. Getting him back on campus was a major victory for the Tigers."

And we'd be remiss to mention that infamous Michigan Man Conor Stalions popped up at Belleville this week as the newest member of its coaching staff to help during the playoff run.

We have had some good quarterbacks come out of Michigan in the last decade but Bryce tops the list coming out of high school. His four-year career will include at least three state title game appearances and huge numbers.

"The fact that he has kept his game at a top level with all this distraction around him currently is further evidence of his ability," Trieu said.

Sean Magee is Michigan's general manager. The title is becoming increasingly important in college football and basketball as programs attempt to assemble what amounts to a salary scale with revenue sharing debuting next year.

In this case, GM essentially means a college player personnel director. Magee is one of the most experienced in this new space. From 2017-22, the former Navy offensive lineman was an associate athletic director for Jim Harbaugh's football program. He joined the Chicago Bears as chief of staff in May 2022.

Back at Michigan since March, Magee was asked during the first week of the season about the transactional world of NIL. As soon as prospects get in the door these days, they tend to ask, "How much can I get?"

"If a guy says that then we're not recruiting him," Magee said. "The most important thing we have to do here is maintain the integrity of this culture."

Underwood was not mentioned or referenced during the interview with Magee. In fact, schools are prohibited by the NCAA from speaking publicly about recruits.

"We might connect with a recruit [who says] 'Hey, we don't even want to talk about NIL. We're not interested in that. That's not a deciding factor.' Then three months later it is," Magee added. "For us that's not the primary sell. We have way more to offer than that."

Underwood to Michigan might be something. It might be nothing, with signing day looming Dec. 4. The push and pull for his services surely is part of his transition -- from boy to man, from high school to college.

"I realized I had something the day he was born," Jaquan Underwood said. "The world maybe realized how special he was three or four years ago."

At last check, the Underwoods were moving to Baton Rouge to be witnesses to what comes next.