Michigan Wolverines football quarterback Cade McNamara has been solid most of the year, leading the offense on scoring drives on more possessions than not. Though he hasn’t been asked to throw much, relying on a run-heavy attack that was dominant through three games before Rutgers slowed it Saturday, McNamara is still the guy the coaches are going to ask to run the offense.
McNamara, now in his third year in the program but still considered a redshirt freshman, had a rough second half at Rutgers, and some fans in the stands started yelling for J.J. McCarthy. While the true freshman has been good in practice, quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss said the fans should be patient.
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“We’re blessed to have two really talented players who can play at a high level,” Weiss said. “A lot of places, J.J. would probably be the starting quarterback, but we have the luxury where we can not throw him into the fire right away. We are trying to play him whenever we get the opportunity so he can develop. That’s really to his benefit and to our benefit.
“Obviously, we want our backup quarterback to be ready to play whenever he’s called upon to do so. The best way to do that is to play him when we can. I think he actually leads the country in true freshman quarterback snaps from the guys who were highly recruited, so we’re going to keep developing him, keep bringing him along.”
McCarthy has completed 8 of 12 passes for 122 yards and a score in backup duty and looked solid. At this point, Weiss said, McNamara is the clear No. 1. Though there have been reports about McCarthy’s big arm and his practice exploits — and it’s clear he’s improved dramatically since arriving in the spring — he still has work to do.
In addition, throwing a kid in before he’s ready can hurt his confidence or even stagnate his growth, Weiss noted. There have been multiple instances of this over the years, and they don’t want to play their frosh too soon unless they really need him.
“Sometimes, the thing that will happen is you put the guy in the fire and they come out on the other side, but a lot of times they don’t,” Weiss said. “The other part of that, too, is sometimes guys have success and you limit the scope of the offense because it’s an inexperienced player. Then you have success, you leave the offense like that and you never fully develop.
“I know I’ve seen guys like that before with guys getting to the NFL, to the next level, where they played all four years in college and you can’t believe how limited the offense was and it’s because they started as a true freshman and said, ‘Hey, we’re winning. This is great,’ and they just kept doing it.
"This allows him to develop more fully with the luxury of being able to play Cade.”
But they’re confident he could get the job done if called upon, Weiss added. McCarthy has the swagger of a five-star quarterback and a maturity beyond his years. He put in countless hours this summer to make sure he knew the offense and ‘put himself in position to be in position,’ as head coach Jim Harbaugh always says.
He’s still got a bit of cowboy in him, and that’s led to some practice turnovers, something Michigan absolutely can’t have in games. Even the best of the best Michigan quarterbacks have struggled in their first years as starters or early in their careers (think Lloyd Carr wouldn’t like the second half of the 1999 Michigan State game back, when he benched Tom Brady for Drew Henson?) — it’s a process, but one that’s preparing McCarthy for his time.
“J.J. could run the whole offense [now], no doubt about it,” Weiss said. “The big thing with him too … I think there’s also this narrative that he’s somehow this phenomenal talent — and he’s talented. But if you look at the list of five-star quarterbacks, go through that list from years past, there are a lot of names you never heard of. They were all talented.
“I think the difference for him and what he has, why we’re so excited about him, is the make-up, the character, his approach to everything. All that stuff is there, so we’re excited about him.”
Nobody likes to wait, fans or kids alike. Former offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton once said it’s hard to ask kids to ‘be patient’ these days, because they all want to play now.
But McCarthy will get his shot at some point, maybe sooner than later (you never know). When he does, he’s prepared well enough that he should be ready for whatever awaits.
That doesn’t guarantee success, of course, but it’s a good start.
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