You live and you learn. Michigan football certainly did both last season.
The Wolverines saw former quarterback Joe Milton suffer a right thumb injury early on in the 2020 campaign, before he played with a wrap on his hand for the subsequent four weeks. Redshirt freshman Cade McNamara, the team's starter this season, took over the starting job for the final game of the year against Penn State, but he went down with a shoulder injury that held him out of the conclusion of the contest.
Milton entered the game against the Nittany Lions and finished things out, but the only truly healthy signal-caller at the end of the season was freshman Dan Villari, a former three-star recruit who, at the time, had only been on campus for a matter of months.
This year, the Michigan coaching staff is making it a focus to build more depth in the quarterback room, and got to work on that task right away, starting with the team's 47-14 season-opening win against Western Michigan.
McNamara's day was done after two and a half quarters in which he completed 9 of 11 pass attempts for 136 yards and two touchdowns. In came highly-touted freshman J.J. McCarthy, the backup, midway through the third stanza.
Heading into the opener, McNamara was the only quarterback on the roster who had played in a game at Michigan, and even he only had 132 career snaps under his belt. That's why it was so important for McCarthy to see live action.
"Obviously, getting J.J. in there in the end, it was about just getting him game reps," offensive coordinator Josh Gattis said Wednesday afternoon. "That was a key piece for us.
"We knew going into the game that we were going to end up playing both, not because one guy got pulled or one guy didn’t play well, but because we wanted to get J.J. game reps and see what he could do.
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"I wish Cade could’ve played the whole game or gotten more game reps, but that was our plan.
"It’s so critical for us to develop a second quarterback. Going through our situation that we went through last year, losing three quarterbacks, really at one point. We’re very conscious at this point at making sure we have great depth at that position and developing those guys."
McCarthy trotted onto the field to a standing ovation from the 109,000-plus fans in attendance, and he delivered with a big play in his debut when he scrambled out of the pocket and threw across his body to redshirt junior wide receiver Daylen Baldwin for a 69-yard score.
While the play certainly isn't one the coaching staff drew up, they know McCarthy is capable of making it.
"You just try not to over-coach him," Gattis said. "You try not to take his special ability [away]. You try to make sure he understands in those situations, first and foremost, ball security when you’re escaping and moving up in the pocket is most important.
"You try to build on those little things, without taking away his greatest gifts. If you’re going to step up in the pocket, if you’re going to scramble, make sure you have two hands on the football. But then you don’t try to over-coach the other things, because he’s a very talented young man. There are plays like that he’ll get away with, there are plays like that where we’ll all probably go, ‘Oh, no,’ and regret.
"But he’s got that special ability, and the guys around him know he has that special ability and believe in him. And I think once you put that on film, it puts the fear in a lot of defensive coordinators because they don’t want to rush you, they want to sit back and play coverage because they know he’s got the ability to make plays, in and out of the pocket."
While it wasn't the most notable development surrounding the quarterback room in 2021, the first move toward creating more depth was bringing in redshirt sophomore Alan Bowman, a Texas Tech transfer who accumulated 5,060 passing yards and 33 touchdowns as a Red Raider.
While he didn't make an appearance against the Broncos, Gattis and Co. have confidence in his abilities.
"Alan’s had a great camp, too," Gattis said. "We feel good about our quarterback position. Alan, Dan — those two guys are really battling right now for that third spot, and I wouldn’t say it’s far off from the two-three position, as well. We feel good about our depth."
Villari got some run late in the game, as well, which is valuable according to Gattis.
"It’s just something you can’t take for granted. You can’t take for granted depth," Gattis continued. "At any point, any of those guys could get in the game.
"We got Dan in there at the end of the game, trying to get him some game reps. Hopefully, we’ll get Alan the opportunity further down the line here and get him some game reps to see him. The thing with him is we know he’s played in games before, so we feel very confident in his ability and he’s displayed that in practice, to go out there and manage the offense, move the ball and be successful quarterbacking for us."
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