9/11/2022 football Edit

Column: Breathe, Michigan has its quarterback in J.J. McCarthy

Brandon Justice • Maize&BlueReview

Senior Editor

Senior Editor covering Michigan athletics at-large for The Maize & Blue Review on the Rivals network. Follow my betting coverage on The Wolverine Den. Trying to be more like Ted Lasso. 25.

Michigan's quarterback battle is over.

With a completion percentage over 90 percent on 16 attempts, J.J. McCarthy dominated the entirety of Jim Harbaugh's two-game tryout for the starting quarterback job.

Like Vince Carter in the 2000 NBA Dunk contest, McCarthy, figuratively, put his hands out and waved his right hand to the left and his left to the right, putting an emphatic end to Michigan's quarterback competition.

It's over.

On a stormy, delayed night in Ann Arbor, the sophomore from Chicago shined like the stars lighting up a damp Michigan Stadium and delivered a knockout blow to Cade McNamara's chances of keeping a job he thought he wouldn't lose this quickly.

A few weeks ago, McNamara said he had his best camp and confidently doubled down on playing the best football of his life. After his below-average showing against Colorado State last week, he said Harbaugh's decision surprised him.

It's hard not to feel bad for the kid.

There's no coach speak or bad intel on McNamara's offseason ascension. He was playing the best football he's ever played.

Then along came J.J.

"He's really raised it the last week of training camp. He hit an inflection point last scrimmage we had in the Big House," Harbaugh said. "From there, it's been straight up for him. Two-and-a-half weeks, every single day, about as good as you can be."

Up until that point, McCarthy was having issues with turnovers, throwing an interception in the first several practices while still showing flashes, before turning a corner at the midway point and like a racehorse on the backtrack, the flashy gunslinger passed McNamara at the finish line without any need for a review.

Through two weeks, this couldn't have gone any easier for anybody -- coaches, players, media, fans, or the team.

Harbaugh drew up a remarkably uncommon strategy to decide the quarterback, and given his history of that, it sure felt like this would go on for weeks.

But here we are with no questions about who should be under center for the Wolverines after two weeks, as promised.

Through two games, here's a look at Michigan's two quarterbacks.

Player A: 15-16, 259 yards, 3 TD (93.7%); 4 car, 66 yards, 1 TD (6.3 points per drive)

Player B: 13-24, 162 yards, 1 TD (54.1%); -25 rush (2.09 points per drive)

Does anyone want to play guess who?

McNamara had a chance to extend the competition as long as he could. He's a team captain who's almost always been in Harbaugh's good graces. But his inability through two weeks made Harbaugh's decision as easy as, "would you like to add bacon?"

Duh.

Maybe it was the nerves or the pressure of proving himself for the third season in a row despite countless victories. Maybe Cade was staring at the reality that even he knew the inevitable when watching McCarthy.

Whatever it was, McNamara wasn't who he was last season at any point, from the first week to the College Football Playoff.

He was Michigan's only quarterback, against the SP+'s worst defense in the FBS, to not lead a touchdown drive against Hawaii.

Not only that, he threw an interception, the only turnover of the game, and his other three drives ended in three-and-outs.

You couldn't see it, but the white towel laid flat on the Block M at midfield somewhere between McCarthy's first or third touchdown. All of them looked like throws McNamara could never make. Maybe that was by design.

We could break down the numbers or roll the tape, but it's obvious who Michigan's QB1 is from here on out.

No matter how much McNamara hurt his chances, this was always going to happen. Both quarterbacks' contrasting performances just made the process quicker.

McCarthy isn't only better than McNamara. There's a chance he's better than more than all but a few quarterbacks in college football.

His story was already written when he arrived as a true freshman to back up McNamara. McCarthy's talent put an expiration date on Michigan's incumbent starter's tenure.

Against arguably the worst defense in college football, the fiery new QB1 in Ann Arbor looked like Michigan's Golden Ticket to the College Football Playoff, not the general admission guest pass they had in 2021.

Is McCarthy the missing piece in Michigan's contention for a national title?