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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — If you’re a Michigan fan who was watching the Wolverines Week 1 matchup against Western Michigan and you saw J.J. McCarthy eluding pressure, your first thought was probably, ‘Uh oh.’ And then he reared back, setting his feet, throwing across his body and across the field — a usual recipe for disaster.
This time: ‘UH OH!’
But the ball was perfectly placed, lobbed beyond the reach of the Western defensive back and into the arms of a waiting Daylen Baldwin, who was able to reel it in in stride before jetting down the field for a 69-yard touchdown.
What was Baldwin thinking when he saw the play that ultimately wowed fans of the maize and blue once it worked out to perfection? Well, he wasn’t exactly surprised.
“OK, so I seen J.J. roll out. Think about this – J.J. takes risks,” Baldwin said. “I’d seen him kinda look at me and I’m like, ‘He probably gonna throw this ball!’ So, I start leaning over to go across the field, I’d seen the ball pop on this side, and I said, ‘Oh, this is perfect!’ So I just nodded off of him, caught it and took off.”
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“Yes, it’s the same thing J.J. does in practice! So I was ready for it,” Baldwin later said, adding to the mystique of the former five-star quarterback. So if he’s like this in practice all the time, what does that say about McCarthy? How exactly would the former Morgan State and Jackson State wide receiver describe one of his new signal-callers?
“Playmaker – without a question,” Baldwin said. “Playmaker, energetic. He’s got all of the energy you can have, definitely. Big playmaker. Just using his legs to extend plays, things like that.”
Of course, there’s a fine line between making a play and pure recklessness.
While McCarthy can and does take risks, as Baldwin said, he isn’t taking unnecessary chances, per se. McCarthy does a good job of reining it in when there’s a chance the play could negatively hurt the team.
“He manages well,” Baldwin said. “He just sees himself like, ‘OK, I know what I can get away with, I know what I can’t get away with at the college level.’ He’s doing well in my mind.”
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