Michigan Wolverines football took down Western Michigan, 47-14, Saturday afternoon to open up the 2021 season.

Here are the best and worst from the contest:

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RELATED: Michigan Wolverines Football 47, WMU 14: Notes, Quotes & Observations

Highly-regarded Michigan freshman quarterback J.J. McCarthy has been described as 'the future' for the Wolverines, potentially the next great signal-caller, something the fan base has been longing for. He got extensive work in his debut, and performed admirably. The Chicago-area native completed 9 of his 11 pass attempts for 80 yards and one touchdown.

The scoring play came on a display of what has made McCarthy one of the most talked about young signal-callers in the country. Facing pressure, he slid up in the pocket, scrambled outside, kept his eyes down the field and found a streaking redshirt junior Daylen Baldwin, who caught it and finished off the 69-yard touchdown.

Quietly, Michigan second-year freshman safety R.J. Moten made the strongest starting debut on the team. His five tackles tied for second on the team, and he was in position way more often than not. His emergence this offseason has given the Wolverines a third reliable safety, allowing them to move sophomore Daxton Hill — who featured primarily at nickel Saturday — around the formation and keep opponents guessing.

Second-year freshman linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green takes runner-up honors here. He had a career-high four tackles and played in position, for the most part.

Michigan junior wide receiver Ronnie Bell got single coverage at the bottom of the formation ... and the rest was history. The team captain was found in stride by redshirt freshman quarterback Cade McNamara and finished off the 76-yard score — Michigan's longest reception since a 77-yard reception by Junior Hemingway in a 2011 win over Notre Dame.

Bell was off to a dazzling start to his fourth season in Ann Arbor, having caught the aforementioned 76-yard touchdown reception and returned a punt 31 yards deep into WMU territory. Immediately following the return, he went down with an apparent leg injury, and head coach Jim Harbaugh said that he was set to receive a Saturday-night MRI to see the full extent of the damages.

Not included on Bell's official stats for the game was a one-handed, highlight-reel grab along the sideline in the first quarter in which he somehow got a foot down. Harbaugh and the Michigan sideline was livid following an offensive pass interference call that erased the would-be big third-down gain.

Michigan's defense under first-year coordinator Mike Macdonald is supposed to be a bend, don't break defense. They'll give up some yardage underneath, the theory goes, so long as they don't yield big chunk plays (quite a switch from former coordinator Don Brown).

The Wolverines didn't do much bending or breaking against the Broncos, though. WMU gained just 4.6 yards per play. For context, if that was a team's mark for the entire season in 2020, it would've ranked tied for 108th in the nation.

Despite the opponent not being one of the strongest they'll face, it was an impressive opener for Macdonald and Co.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Cade McNamara was asked how involved Harbaugh has been with the quarterbacks this season. Here's what he had to say:

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