re: Bryce Underwood vs LSU portal activity

If you asked the 18 year old weather they'd spend $1,000 on a bet or on eight shares of Nvidia. Kind of the same mentality. Ten years later, how many times would that bet have doubled vs. the outcome on a well analyzed investment.

Twenty years later the $1,000 investment is worth over $800,000.

Sure this is an extreme outcome, but doesn't drift that far from how we (majority) of Americans address such issues. It's not surprising that the sparkle of immediate dollars cause young folks from making the best decisions for their long term success.

You have to be 8 years old tops ..

I think the numbers would have been similar but less, however the quality would have been much less.

Make no mistake, no matter how much Underwood would have made here at LSU, if Nussmeier came back, he would have been the starter.

Now the staff would have put in some packages to get Underwood on the field, but we would have have the most expensive backup in college football history.

When it is all said and done, what has occurred was best for LSU in both the short and long term. Especially if we got another championship out of it in 2025.

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LSU has never had issues finding good QB talent

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Up until fairly recently LSU never really was a high-octane passing offense. We built a line of road graters and had power football running the rock down their throats. Then had brick wall defense. Its was much more conservative than it has been in the last few years. During a lot of Miles and O we had a pretty balanced offense. When Joe Brady came in 2019 that flipped to pass-heavy (from avg 200+ to 400/yards game passing).

So it’s more of a “LSU hasn’t really been a pass-heavy offense before” vs “LSU can’t find good QB talent.” Even with Mett or Russell, those guys only averaged 250/game

Les mostly recruited duel threat QB’s and put them under center in an I formation pro style passing offense when all they had ever done in highschool was play in spread shotgun offense.

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In his case, he made the right decision regardless what LSU fans think. 

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So in terms of development, going play for a HC who is big unknown over an established HC coach who recently produced a Heisman winner & OROTY favorite in the NFL is the right decision? You really think that?

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He's getting 1st round pick money to play there he'd be a fool not to take that money.

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Sorry but the $3-4 million he's getting yearly at Michigan is nowhere near 1st round draft pick money. For an example, Jayden Daniels signed for 4 years, $37.75 million. Broken down Daniels entire contract is fully guaranteed which included a $24.3 million signing bonus. Daniels base salary per looks like this:

2024: $6.86 million
2025: $8.57 million
2026: $10.29 million
2027: $12.01 million

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Michigan will do everything they can to build around him moving forward once he develops more. They're not going to stay as terrible as they were this year.

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Prior to Underwood flipping & signing, Michigan's 2025 was ranked 11-16 depending on the recruiting sites. The Wolverines got a bump to 9th by securing Underwood. Outside of Underwood, Michigan failed to bring in much at the skill positions. Currently they ranked 37th (247) with their portal class so far while LSU is ranked 2nd. LSU has specifically gone out & hit the portal hard at WR unlike Michigan. So where are they building around Underwood?

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Worst case for him, he takes them to the cleaners and then either gets more or the same in the portal.

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In it's current state, the Michigan program is not set up to have elite talent around Underwood. It's set up for him not only to carry their entire offense, it's set up for him to carry that entire program. Pressure burst pipes & using logic, it's set up to backfire for Michigan. It's also not a situation build for Bryce to maximize his potential at the collegiate level so the percentages of him eventually hitting the portal are high.

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I don't see how you can look at that as the wrong decision for someone with life changing money getting paid what an NFL 1st rounder pick gets.

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Once again, what Bryce is getting at Michigan is nowhere 1st round pick money so stop pretending it is. Secondly, a player with the talent Underwood has, his ultimate goal in college is develop & preparation for the NFL. He was going to get paid nicely whatever he went to even at LSU. I'm sorry but Michigan in past nor recent history isn't a place for such development of QBs. I could understand had his decision been somewhere else like Bama, OSU, Oregon or even wanting to play under Lincoln Riley at USC. Those would have been better fits for him to develop. Like I said in my original post, Underwood saw the short term, big bag over the long term, mega bag in the future.

Sometimes I wonder if it was lack of QB talent....or just Les himself.

The guy spent most of his time here forcing dual-threat QBs under center...

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never had issues finding good QB talent

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Did you just start watching LSU football in 2018?!?