Cade McNamara helped Michigan get to an 11-1 record — while beating Ohio State for the first time in a decade — defeating Iowa in the Big Ten championship game, and making its first College Football Playoff during the 2021 football season.
But the Wolverines are finding themselves in a full-out quarterback battle heading into the 2022 football season.
A former five-star recruit, and sophomore, JJ McCarthy is trying to show why he deserves to be the starting quarterback in Ann Arbor this season, but the competition was slowed down this spring due to McCarthy nursing an injury that plagued him most of spring camp.
It depends on who you speak to, especially fan-wise, on who they believe should be starting for Michigan. Is it the smart, composed, and notoriously safe McNamara? Or do they rather see the five-star, savvy, gun-slinger McCarthy?
David Hale with ESPN ranked all 131 quarterback situations in a tier-based form. The tiers went from tier one — which was called Heisman or bust which featured CJ Stroud, Caleb Williams, and Bryce Young — all the way down to tier 24.
Hale put the Michigan situation in tier seven which was called: you might not have noticed, but they’re pretty good.
What to make of the Michigan QB situation? McNamara led the Wolverines to the College Football Playoff last season and became the first Michigan QB to beat Ohio State since Denard Robinson, a decade earlier. That he struggled against Georgia’s defense in the Orange Bowl simply puts McNamara in a long line of QBs who met their match against the Bulldogs. Yet, it’s impossible to look at McCarthy’s talent and not have visions of an even brighter future with a more dynamic QB — one who might ultimately be good enough to test even the toughest of defenses. Still, Michigan went the better part of a decade trying to find just one decent option at QB, so perhaps Wolverines fans shouldn’t be so quick to assume they have two capable starters now.
Summer camp is going to speak volumes on who fans see take the first snap against Colorado State, but it really won’t matter who takes the first snap — both quarterbacks will see snaps under Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh has shown that he likes both signal-callers and he will almost certainly give both a chance this season early on to win the job during pressure situations.
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