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TAMPA, Fla. — It’s that time of year where college teams are turning over their rosters. Michigan football is no exception, and there’s an even greater youth movement in Ann Arbor this offseason than in year’s past.
The Wolverines signed 22 players in the class of 2025 during the early signing period in early December and have brought an impressive 13 early enrollees with them to Tampa to practice ahead of their ReliaQuest Bowl game with Alabama on Tuesday (noon, ESPN), program spokesman Dave Ablauf confirmed to the Free Press on Thursday.
For perspective, last year’s class featured 26 players out of high school, with just eight of them joining the Wolverines in practices ahead of January’s Rose Bowl and College Football Playoff championship games.
THE NEW KID: Watch Bryce Underwood throw passes for first time in Michigan jersey in bowl workouts
That should give the incoming freshman a headstart on the 2025 season.
“(It’s) awesome, I think just getting boots on the ground,” senior quarterback Davis Warren said. “Being able to just understand, even from afar, how things operate up here, how we want to do things, the Michigan standard that we have and just starting to see that full speed from a group that’s a well-oiled machine, been practicing 4-5 months at this point.
“I think for all those guys it’s going to give a huge jump. Really, you’ll see it come spring ball because they’ve already you know, know where their helmets are, how to put the pads on and kind of how this thing operates.”
At this time a year ago, quarterback Jadyn Davis was drawing buzz as the new quarterback in the room. However, that pales in comparison to the buzz QB Bryce Underwood, the nation’s No. 1 recruit, has gotten since he officially became a Wolverine earlier this month.
That was certainly the case on Friday, when he was the main attraction as the media got its first look at Underwood in a maize and blue jersey. Even though it was only for 15 minutes during individual drills, Underwood looked the part already, already standing a full 6 feet 4 and 210 pounds.
The belief is that he’s ready to compete for a starting job now despite still being just 17 — he turns 18 a couple weeks before the 2025 opener — and everything he showed Friday, from how he moved and interacted with teammates to his general stature and massive arm, only back that up.
He’ll battle not only with Warren, who has implied he wants to stick around, but also Davis and incoming transfer Mikey Keene. Keene appears most ready for the QB1 job, with more than 8,200 career passing yards, 65 touchdowns and 28 picks over four seasons with UCF and, most recently, Fresno State.
Other early enrollees who stood out physically during the viewing portion of practice were wide receiver Jamar Browder, who appeared to be the tallest person in the unit, and five-star tackle Andrew Babalola.
The Wolverines have the No. 9 class in the nation per 247 Sports’ composite rankings.
Arriving early
The 13 members of the Wolverines’ class of 2025 that have enrolled early:
∎ OL Andrew Babalola
∎ WR Jamar Browder
∎ DB Shamari Earls
∎ OL Avery Gach
∎ DL Julius Holly
∎ DL Bobby Kanka
∎ WR Andrew Marsh
∎ DL Travis Moten
∎ TE Eli Owens
∎ LB Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng
∎ OL Kaden Strayhorn
∎ LB Chase Taylor
∎ QB Bryce Underwood
Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bryce Underwood among 13 U-M football early enrollees at bowl practice