The Billionaire, His Mystery Wife and College Football’s Wildest Recruiting Saga
Why did Larry Ellison—a man with no known ties to Michigan—help the Wolverines land the nation’s No. 1 quarterback? The answer lies with a 33-year-old woman named Keren Zhu.
When the University of Michigan football team’s boosters announced on Nov. 21 that they had flipped the No. 1 high school quarterback in the country from Louisiana State to Ann Arbor, it sent shock waves through the sport.
The on-field implications were only a part of the surprise. Just as stunning was how the Wolverines had pulled it off: with the help of a surprise donation from the world’s fourth-richest man, tech billionaire Larry Ellison. The strangest part was that Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, had no known connection to the school.
But in recent days, it has emerged that Ellison does have a close, previously unknown link to Michigan after all. Out of nowhere, a statement from a Michigan booster group known as the Champions Circle singled out Ellison and Jolin, whom the group identified as his wife, as key players in the school’s pursuit of Bryce Underwood, the top-rated high-school quarterback in the country.
That statement appeared to reveal that Ellison, who divorced his fourth wife more than a decade ago, had remarried. Jolin, meanwhile, had almost no online presence.
Now, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found that Jolin is a 33-year-old also known as Keren Zhu, according to two people familiar with the couple and several public records. And most importantly, she happens to be a Michigan alum.
Keren Zhu, also known as Jolin Zhu, was awarded a bachelor of arts degree in International Studies from Michigan on April 26, 2012, the school confirmed.
Three years earlier, a Keren Zhu with the same birth date graduated with a two-year liberal arts degree from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, a tiny school in Great Barrington, Mass.
A Keren Zhu with that birth date also appears in a property record at an address owned by Octopus Holdings, a company owned by Ellison.
Larry Ellison and Jolin didn’t answer requests for comment and representatives at Oracle didn’t comment.
The mystery surrounding Jolin’s identity was the biggest twist in a recruiting saga that ranks among the wildest in recent memory, even by the already absurd standards of college football. It also drew in NFL legend Tom Brady and the disgraced former team staffer at the center of the sign-stealing controversy that overshadowed Michigan’s 2023 national championship. And all of it happened to burst into the open just as unranked Michigan was preparing for the biggest game of its season—Saturday’s stunning upset of No. 2 Ohio State.
“I want to personally thank Larry and his wife Jolin who were instrumental in making this happen,” Nate Forbes, chairman of the Champions Circle booster collective, said in the statement.
A coup of this scale was a rare cause for celebration in what had been a frustrating season for the defending national champions. Underwood, a five-star, 6-foot-4 quarterback from nearby Belleville High School, had been committed to LSU since January after Tigers boosters had promised him a sizable payout under new rules that allow college players to be paid for their name, image, and likeness.
Michigan, a bastion of college tradition, had been slow to embrace the sport’s new highest-bidder era. (Archrival Ohio State had no such trepidation, confirming that its 2024 football roster was getting $20 million.)
That changed when it emerged that Michigan had a deep-pocketed booster that fans hadn’t been aware of. Larry Ellison and Jolin began supporting Michigan’s collective “long before” the recruitment of Underwood heated up in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter.
With Ellison on board, Michigan decided to re-up its interest in the player who seemed born to quarterback the Wolverines. In early September, following a loss to Texas, people close to the Michigan program began a full-court press to land Underwood.
First, he heard from coaches. Then, Michigan football’s general manager, Sean Magee, invited Bryce and his father, Jay, to join a videoconference. Also on the line were Ellison and Jolin.
In the Zoom call, the billionaire recounted his upbringing on the South Side of Chicago. He told Underwood that his birthplace didn’t determine his station in life, so long as he worked hard and made sacrifices. Jolin spoke about her time as a Michigan student and her desire to put the Wolverines back on top.
“It wasn’t really a pitch,” Jay Underwood said.
The Underwoods were a little surprised to discover that Ellison—who attended Illinois and the University of Chicago, but didn’t graduate—was now pulling for Michigan.
“I guess happy wife, happy life,” Jay Underwood said.
But soon the Underwood family found themselves talking to a much more famous Wolverine. A few days afterward, Bryce was in the car with his parents when his phone rang with a FaceTime call.
“Dad, it’s Tom,” he told his father.
‘Tom who?’ Jay Underwood replied.
“Tom Brady.”
“Well, s—t, answer the phone, son!”
The former Michigan quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl champion talked up his alma mater and offered words of encouragement to the teen.
The calls with Brady escalated to three or four times per week, often before school. “That was another incentive—to be able to have the opportunity to talk to one of the greatest of all time on the daily, whenever you feel like giving him a call,” Jay Underwood said.
Meanwhile, Michigan fans started showing up at Belleville High School football games on Friday nights with signs urging Underwood to “Go Blue.”
“I think, personally, it had a big impact with Bryce,” Belleville head coach Calvin Norman says.
As if Underwood’s recruitment wasn’t already weird enough, the most notorious character of the 2023 college football season then entered the picture. In late October, Connor Stalions—the former Michigan analyst who is under investigation by the NCAA for sign-stealing—joined the Belleville High football staff as a volunteer to help the offense.
Although Norman and Jay Underwood said that Stalions didn’t give his quarterback the hard sell on Michigan, the two of them posed for a photo that made waves on social media.
Still, it was all beginning to add up. And by November, Champions Circle broached the topic that is reshaping college football. The collective started discussing dollar amounts with the Underwoods. Jay Underwood said that the money offered by LSU and Michigan was “pretty much even.”
LSU’s offer was widely reported to be $1.5 million per season, though in reality neither school’s collective offered as much as that, according to a person familiar with Underwood’s recruitment.
When Underwood took a late visit to Baton Rouge in November, it appeared that LSU was back in the driver’s seat.
But it wasn’t until Belleville’s season ended with a loss in the playoffs that the Underwoods finally had a chance to reflect and discuss their son’s future. In a heart-to-heart with Bryce, his parents encouraged him to reconsider Michigan.
“It’s about the community,” Jay said, “being able to play at home.”
The money didn’t hurt, either. In addition to the amount he receives directly from the Michigan collective, Underwood will also be able to cash in with individual endorsement deals. Altogether, Jay Underwood said he expected his son’s earnings to exceed $15 million during his Michigan career.
The program’s stumbles this season didn’t deter the Underwoods. Bryce is expected to sign a letter of intent to go to Michigan on Wednesday and join the team for practices later this month.
“We see that Michigan is under construction,” Jay said. “And we don’t mind jumping into that.”
—Ryan Felton, Jim Oberman and Elisa Cho contributed to this article.
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