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Jake Trotter
Multiple Authors
On the afternoon of Saline High School’s homecoming game against rival Dexter last year — to be played less than 7 miles south of Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor — coach Kyle Short pulled quarterback Tommy Carr out of class.
Short’s wife was going into labor. He had to go to the hospital and wouldn’t be able to coach that night.
“Coach, can’t she just hold it for a little bit?” Carr asked.
“I don’t think it works that way,” Short told him.
While waiting for the baby to arrive, Short watched the game from the delivery room. An assistant coach FaceTimed him from the press box, and Short connected his laptop to the TV.
Saline trailed 27-19 at halftime.
“My wife could see I was getting anxious,” Short said. “At halftime, she was like, ‘You need to make some calls.'”
After going over adjustments with the defensive staff, Short got Carr on the phone.
“And he just said, ‘All right, sounds good. I got it,'” Short recalled. “He definitely calmed me down.”
Carr finished with a school-record eight touchdown passes — and Saline roared back 61-34.
“His poise and composure is second to none,” Short said. “That’s just something he’s always had.”
Carr displayed those qualities during Michigan’s comeback victory Saturday over Penn State — a second-half performance off the bench that could make Carr the Wolverines’ new starting quarterback.
“I was really impressed with just how composed he was when he got in there,” Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck said during the “Inside Michigan Football” radio show this week. “That’s the big question mark. You don’t know, when somebody’s stepping into real meaningful minutes for the very first time in a Big Ten game, what’s that going to look like? And man, he just looked like [he does in] practice.”
Carr replaced Bryce Underwood after the Wolverines trailed 3-0 at halftime. Carr directed three touchdown drives, culminating in his 12-yard scoring run on third-and-9 that all but put the Nittany Lions away.
This week, Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham declined to announce who will start Saturday’s game against No. 6 Indiana, the defending national champions.
Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 SC Next 300, had started every game for the Wolverines since arriving on campus. But he has struggled this season, completing just 58% of his passes. He also has more turnovers (eight) than total touchdowns (seven).
“We know exactly what we’re doing and the plan going forward,” Whittingham said. “We’re not going to tip our hand to the opponent. But we have a good plan in place.”
Carr — who comes from Michigan royalty — could get his first career start at the school he grew up idolizing.
His paternal grandfather, Lloyd Carr, coached the Wolverines to the 1997 national championship. On Saturday, the College Football Hall of Famer watched from the stands at the Big House, sitting alongside former Michigan quarterback Brian Griese as his grandson led the comeback against Penn State.
Carr’s maternal grandfather, Tom Curtis, was an All-American safety at Michigan in the 1960s and is also in the College Football Hall of Fame.
His father, Jason, played quarterback for the Wolverines in the 1990s. His mother, Tammi, is a Michigan graduate, too.
Though he inherited a famous football surname, Tommy Carr wasn’t automatically a coveted recruit. He spent his sophomore season at Saline backing up his older brother CJ, a blue-chip prospect who’s now Notre Dame‘s star quarterback.
“If he didn’t have his brother in front of him, he would’ve been a three-year starter at basically every high school in the Midwest besides maybe a couple,” Short said. “But he had to wait his turn because his brother is obviously a hell of a quarterback. And so, his recruitment didn’t blow up like I think a lot of kids would.”
Carr initially committed to Miami (Ohio). But former Michigan general manager Sean Magee continued tracking his development, eventually becoming convinced the Wolverines needed to offer him a scholarship.
“I was literally secretly watching him every week his senior year,” Magee said. “Then got to the point of saying, ‘We need to do it.’
“He’s just a winner. He’s got the ‘it factor’ about him.”
Short has a unique perspective on Michigan’s quarterback situation.
Before coaching Carr at Saline, he was the offensive coordinator at Belleville High School during Underwood’s first two seasons there.
“This is really, really tough as a coach who loves both quarterbacks,” Short said. “You just hate the negative banter and the talk about Bryce. … A phenomenal quarterback, phenomenal young man, and he’s going to do great things with whatever he does.”
While he feels for Underwood, Short is also excited about Carr’s opportunity.
Back in the delivery room, Short’s son, Kasen, finally arrived the following morning, a few hours after Saline’s victory over Dexter.
Short and his wife later gave Carr a special role in Kasen’s life: his “God-athlete parent,” someone who could mentor their son in sports as he grew older.
“Just a phenomenal player and I think even a better person,” Short said. “A great young man.”
