Bryce Underwood came to Michigan as the No. 1 recruit in the country, and last September he sounded like it, calling Michigan-Ohio State "the biggest rivalry in sports history." Fast forward to this week and the tune has changed completely. Asked about The Game again, Underwood shrugged it off: "It's just another game. Just, we're guys in a different color. That's how I see it." Asked to describe his first taste of the rivalry as a freshman, he was even more blunt: "A loss. That's all it is."
That loss was ugly. Underwood went 8-for-18 for just 63 yards with an interception and was held to 1 rushing yard on 6 carries in a 27-9 defeat at the Big House. So when the presumptive face of the Michigan offense starts talking like the rivalry doesn't matter, Ohio State fans hear a guy trying to talk his way past a beatdown, not a guy who's earned the right to be cool about it.
Ohio State fan account Ohio's Tate wasn't about to let it slide, filming a reaction on the beach at dusk that mocked Underwood's turnaround from rivalry believer to rivalry skeptic in under a year.
Ohio's Tate reacts on camera, needling Underwood for suddenly calling the rivalry just another game after Ohio State beat him down as a freshman.
The clip made its way to Wake Up Barstool, where Dave Portnoy weighed in on the split screen — because nothing gets Portnoy fired up faster than a rivalry-week quote he can needle someone about.
Dave Portnoy responds on Wake Up Barstool to Underwood's comments and the fan reaction video.
None of this is really about whether Underwood believes his own quote. Every young QB learns fast that saying a rivalry game is just another game is the safest cliché in the sport — it's the same thing coaches drill into players so nobody presses. But Michigan-Ohio State doesn't work like other rivalries, and a freshman who got outplayed in his only look at it is going to get chirped for pretending otherwise.
Underwood now heads into his sophomore season under new head coach Kyle Whittingham with a full offseason to back up the talk. Whether The Game stays just another game to him will get answered the only way it can — on the field, next time Michigan and Ohio State line up across from each other.