ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It wasn’t just the outgoing Michigan football players who showcased their skills in front of NFL scouts and coaches at pro day on Friday. Sure, they were the ones on display, but given there were several pass catchers in need of a quarterback, current Wolverines starter J.J. McCarthy earned the call.
As McCarthy enters the offseason as the incumbent for the first time, he’s growing more comfortable in his role. Generally, at pro day, a former player, such as Shea Patterson, will come in and be the passer to help the receivers and tight ends show off what they’ve got. But outgoing wide receiver Ronnie Bell marveled at just how far McCarthy has come as he caught passes from him in the annual showcase.
“He’s a lot of fun to play with!” Bell said. “He was zipping that thing today. And really, really fun. Especially throughout this whole process being going, I’ve been going at it with him for so long, you kind of almost take for granted how good he was. Then you come back, get the throw with him. It’s like, oh my gosh, he’s really, really good.
McCarthy told reporters on Thursday that he’s up from 193 to 205-207-pounds, and while that didn’t manifest itself at pro day in terms of his running capability — of course, he wasn’t asked to show himself off like that — Bell noted when asked about McCarthy’s physical growth that the ball is popping out of his hand in a different kind of way on Friday.
“Yeah, that ball was coming for sure,” Bell said. “He always threw it pretty good. Now he’s got just even more touch and zip on it. So definitely a lot of fun. And just pretty good to catch.”
As far as how Bell has seen McCarthy grow in his first two seasons up until now, he says the maturation process isn’t necessarily year over year or even game to game. He sees a player who learns and gets better every single play, which he believes will pay dividends this upcoming season.
Bell noted some unknown offensive changes — sure to happen with a junior quarterback — that may be coming. Of course, the Wolverines also return both top running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, which means there will likely still be an onus on running the ball. But it will not be as necessary as it maybe was last year with a first-time starting quarterback, given how much McCarthy continues to improve.
“Just again, he was one that I felt like — one I talked about, he just got better every play,” Bell said. “Like throughout every game, as the game went on, he was growing and getting better. Again, watching him and like watching him practice, like he just feels so comfortable and just so dialed in on everything.
“And talking to him, too, about the new — kind of how the offense is kind of being oriented now, he really likes it and is comfortable with it. And everybody’s really fallen in love with it. And you can tell. Comfortability is the biggest thing and like really knowing more about it. And that just comes with experience, too, you know, because for the most part, it’s all the same language, all the same stuff. Just maybe just a couple of tweaks. So definitely guys just being more comfortable and more experienced with it. And just having fun, making plays.”
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