Rich Weighs In on Michigan’s Big QB Question & OSU WR Jeremiah Smith’s Heisman Chances

Michigan has a quarterback problem. Or at least, it looks like one. Rich, a Michigan alum, spent a chunk of The Rich Eisen Show sorting out how much of the latest loss actually belongs to Bryce Underwood.

Start with the loss at Minnesota. Michigan was up 14-7 and stopped the Gophers on their first possession of the second half. Then the Wolverines' all-world wide receiver muffed a punt, the first of three turnovers Rich walked through one by one.

The muff was not on the quarterback. The next turnover was "an air-mailed throw by Bryce Underwood," and Rich put that one on him. The third came when protection broke down and Underwood was hit as he threw, popping the ball in the air for a Minnesota defender. Rich noted the same bad luck from the week before against Iowa, when tipped balls landed in Hawkeye arms instead of with the Michigan defenders buzzing around.

Offensive inefficiency kept putting the defense back on the field. And at the end, a fourth down throw sailed "into the second row" while a wide open receiver was still running on the back end. "He just didn't see," Rich said. "He's not seeing the field still."

So what does Kyle Whittingham do? Rich framed it as a gut call that only the head coach can make. "The one thing that you can always do to grab everyone's lapel is make that change," he said, "certainly if you feel like the rest of the world thinks you're not going to make that change because of the price tag involved."

Michigan has a bye week to figure it out. Tommy Carr, CJ's brother and Lloyd's grandson, is sitting there, and Rich admitted it is tempting to wonder if the offense could look more efficient with him. But Whittingham has to take the pulse of the staff, the captains and the locker room. "That's why he's getting the big bucks," Rich said. He is a legend in Utah, but "in Michigan, he doesn't have that much cred amongst the Wolverine fan base at this point."

There is a complication Rich raised himself. The show opened by talking about Bryce Young getting benched in Carolina and how that benefited him in the long run. But Young was under contract. "There was no transfer portal out of Carolina," the set pointed out. And if Carr comes in and runs the offense more efficiently, Rich said, "I don't know how you go back."

Whittingham called it the biggest struggle of his 40 years. Penn State is next, coming off losses including one at Northwestern, Rich's other alma mater, which the set called a beat down. When the set pointed to the 12 and a half million reasons in play, Rich said sorting it out is not his job. It is Whittingham's to look around the building and weigh the ramifications. "Is it worth the squeeze? Cuz right now it looks it is."

Then there is Ohio State, which "just keeps reloading and reloading and reloading." That means Jeremiah Smith, the receiver Larry Fitzgerald called a mutant. Smith struck the Heisman pose while torching an opponent in its own building, which drew a "you can engrave that trophy now" from the set. He sits at minus 110 to win the Heisman, with Miami quarterback Darian Mensah and Alabama's Keelon Russell next closest at 7 to 1.

Smith did not hide his ambition. "First, yeah, I was surprised I had 200 yards. I didn't know I had that much," he said. "Just got to keep the voters or whoever it is know that I'm the best player in the country."

Rich also praised Ryan Day and the Ohio State staff for sending a letter to kids at the children's hospital, telling them that even if they were not rooting for the Buckeyes, the Buckeyes were rooting for them. "It was just a high class way of going about their business," Rich said. Then the Buckeyes walk into a stadium, respect the home team's ritual, and "just destroy their day."

"I think they're the best team in the country," Rich said, admitting he might be Big Ten biased. He does not care that they lost to Texas, because the era of undefeated-or-bust is over with the College Football Playoff. Ohio State, he noted, was not undefeated when it won it.

And he had one more thing. "Northwestern beats teams and that's a sign that the Big Ten is weak. And SEC teams beat other SEC teams and that's a sign that the conference is strong. Can we cut the crap please?" His solution: "Let's just get an SEC team in the national championship game" with a chance to actually win it.

That left the set's resident SEC household defending Georgia and Alabama this weekend. Rich was left clinging. Happily.