Prominent college football talk show host Josh Pate says patience will pay for Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood and the Wolverines' future
Excitement is brimming in Ann Arbor as No. 14 Michigan prepares to host New Mexico in their 2025 season-opener this Saturday.
On the back of what is expected to be one of the top defensive units in the country, and with true freshman Bryce Underwood expected to win the starting quarterback job, the Wolverines were picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten Conference standings, and have an over-under win total of 8.5 games per BetMGM.
All eyes will be on Underwood in the opener against New Mexico, and throughout Michigan's 2025 campaign, but college football show host and podcaster Josh Pate is preaching patience for the former five-star and No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class.
"Patience will pay off for Bryce Underwood," Pate said on a recent episode of "Josh Pate's College Football Show. "Now, that may not mean that you win 10 games this year, but I do think patience will pay off in a sense that — that dude's really good now, that's why he's going to win the job up there — he will be really good for however long that he's at Michigan."
Pate expects the Wolverines to finish below the 8.5-win mark this season, due to a trio of tough road games at Oklahoma, Nebraska and USC in their first six contests, and of course the season-finale against archrival Ohio State.
"I'm going under on Michigan," he said. "As much as I believe in the future of the team, I could just see 8-4 this year. And, frankly, I could see an 8-4 that kind of goes like last year where you scale up towards the end of the year. Who knows if that includes a win over Ohio State or not, but I could just see finishing strong at Michigan State, Purdue, at Northwestern, at Maryland.
"Even if you lose close to Ohio State, you just finish strong, Bryce Underwood got better and better as the weeks went on, you finish 8-4 — okay. And everyone's excited about next year."
While that's not the kind of season Michigan fans, or anyone inside the walls of Schembechler Hall, are hoping for this fall, Pate sees the 2026 and 2027 seasons as the years that Michigan could return to Big Ten and national title contention.
"If they start to trend up middle of the season and later, think about what that does for the roster construction of the 2026 team and beyond," Pate said. "If they win in 2025, to me, it's a bonus. I may not think that way if I were a Michigan fan, but I'm just sitting down here in Nashville. I would think, dude, if we can win nine or 10 games and surprise people, that's great, but I'm thinking 2026 and beyond because I could win another national title with that guy."
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Josh Pate preaches patience for Bryce Underwood, Michigan in 2025
Category: General Sports
