BELLEVILLE, Mich. — Before flipping his commitment from LSU to Michigan, prized quarterback recruit Bryce Underwood had a question for Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore: How late could he stay in the football facility?

Moore told him 24/7 — then he had to take it back.

This spring, Moore got word that Underwood was still throwing passes at 2 a.m. on the indoor practice field. He had to toss him out.

“You gotta sleep,” Moore told him.

Underwood turned 18 only two weeks ago. Yet even as a teenager, he’s already giving the No. 15 Wolverines hope they can return to the College Football Playoff after a one-year hiatus.

This Saturday, Underwood leads Michigan into a top-20 clash at Oklahoma (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Sooners coach Brent Venables compared Underwood to former Clemson star Trevor Lawrence, who in 2018 became the first true freshman quarterback to win a national championship since Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway in 1985.

In 2021, Lawrence also became the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.

“Quick, decisive, accurate, poised, tough, consistent — there’s a reason [Underwood] was the No. 1 [recruit] in America,” said Venables, Clemson’s defensive coordinator when Lawrence played there. “And he’s got a maturity and a work ethic and leadership ability to go along with that.”

During a scintillating debut — a 34-17 win over New Mexico — Underwood threw for 251 yards, more than any Michigan quarterback tallied in a game last season.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound true freshman, who added 15 pounds of muscle over the summer, even threw a key block for running back Justice Haynes on a 5-yard touchdown run.

Still, Underwood gave his performance a mere C+, noting he had “a lot of things” to work on.

“He’s always been a grinder,” said Donovan Dooley, who has coached Underwood since he was 8 years old. “He chases perfection.”

Even into the night.

Former Belleville High School football coach Jermain Crowell said Underwood used to stop by his house at night to borrow the stadium keys to throw. Underwood eventually got his own keys, and the school athletic director would turn the lights on until he was finished.

“If you drove by the school late and the lights were on, you’d be like, that’s probably Bryce,” said Mychal Darty, a security guard and assistant basketball coach at Belleville.

Underwood has had that same work ethic for as long as anyone can remember.

His dad, Jay, who played youth football for Dooley’s parents, introduced his son to the passing coach a decade ago. Dooley, founder of Quarterback University, asked Underwood what he planned to do if football didn’t pan out.

“What’s plan B?” Dooley quizzed him. “And he said, ‘Plan A.'”

By then, Underwood was already dominating little league football. Donald Tabron II, a blue-chip quarterback recruit for the class of 2028 from Detroit, recalled watching Underwood hurdling smaller defenders at 10 years old.

“He was a monster even back then,” Tabron said. “He was a man child.”

Tabron and Trae Taylor III, a 2027 ESPN 300 quarterback recruit committed to Nebraska, trained under Dooley with Underwood in recent years. Late-night workouts with Underwood weren’t uncommon.

“We’ve gone out and gotten work in at midnight until early in the morning,” Taylor said. “Bryce has always been like that.”

At Belleville, Underwood went 50-4 with two state championships, while winning 38 straight games.

After practices, Underwood regularly kept a rotation of receivers and running backs with him to continue running routes.

“He’s the hardest working kid I’ve ever seen,” said Calvin Norman, who took over for Crowell as Belleville’s head coach for Underwood’s junior season. “We’d have a three-hour practice, and he’d be out there running another practice. That’s part of the reason why the other players were getting so good.”

Underwood pushed his teammates as hard as he pushed himself. Over his four years, he never lost a single conditioning sprint. Belleville wide receiver Charles Britton III made it his mission last year to finally dethrone him.

“I tried to beat him every single day,” said Britton, now a junior. “And I failed every day.”

During last year’s playoffs, the Belleville coaches tried to end a practice early after a sluggish effort. But Underwood made everyone stay on the field for another 15 minutes so they could finish on a better note.

In the offseason, when the football team wasn’t working out, Underwood would ask Darty if he could lift weights with the basketball team. And when nobody was lifting weights that day, he would just ask if he could get into the weight room on his own.

“He definitely took his craft seriously,” Darty said.

Because of how much time he spent at the school, Underwood grew close with Darty, who was also the sideline get-back coach for the football team. Before leaving for Michigan, Underwood coordinated with a local dealership to surprise Darty with a new Chevy Equinox.

“Just knowing that I meant something like that to someone who’s going to affect more people than I ever could was very humbling,” Darty said. “I never expected anything like that.”

But Darty recalls a moment that touched him even more.

Underwood remained committed to LSU through his final season. But as speculation grew that he might flip to Michigan, Belleville’s playoff games became a spectacle, with Ann Arbor only a 20-minute drive down the road.

When Belleville was eliminated from the regional final before a crowd of almost 8,000, the school arranged for Underwood to have an escort to a police car. As police ushered him off the field, a boy with a homemade Underwood jersey missed his opportunity to get an autograph.

But while waiting in the police car, Underwood hailed one of the officers to go grab the shirt so he could sign it. Then he had the officer grab the phone of the boy’s mother so he could take a selfie for him.

“Just think, that is your toughest high school moment, your high school career is done,” Darty said. “But you take that time to show this kid some attention. The people who witnessed that were like, ‘I’m rooting for you forever.'”

Nobody around Belleville, including Darty, knew for sure if Underwood would actually flip his commitment and sign with the hometown Wolverines.

A few days later, after school, Darty saw Underwood in the hallway flash a sly smile to Belleville safety Elijah Dotson, who had just flipped from Pitt to the Wolverines. Darty turned to another security guard and said, “I think it’s happening.”

Not long after, Underwood switched his commitment to the Wolverines, giving them their coveted quarterback of the future. It was also one of the most seismic recruiting flips of college football’s NIL era.

Moore told Underwood he wouldn’t be given the starting job. He’d have to earn it. Underwood responded he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Michigan’s players realized Underwood was different long before his first snap. Linebacker Ernest Hausmann and defensive end Derrick Moore took notice of how Underwood would be the first on the field during spring ball, just going over the plays by himself.

“He’s not no average freshman,” Moore said. “He does everything like a pro.”

That won over the team long before he was named the starter.

“Bryce is as good as advertised,” Hausmann said. “Mature beyond his years. And he’s fit right in.”