2022 has already seen a shift in Ann Arbor with J.J. McCarthy winning the starting quarterback job for Michigan football, stealing away incumbent starter Cade McNamara’s role from a year ago.
McNamara was ahead through most of fall camp, one person with knowledge of the situation told WolverinesWire, but McCarthy’s dynamism and playmaking ability was too grand to ignore. It created a situation where head coach Jim Harbaugh made his QB competition public, with each of the quarterbacks getting one game to start. McNamara ended up underwhelming while McCarthy completed 15-of-16 pass attempts and looking every bit the five-star he was rated as a recruit.
Fox Sports’ premier college football analyst, Joel Klatt, has weighed on on his new podcast about what McCarthy brings. While he waxed poetic about his potential, he also warned Michigan fans who booed Cade McNamara in Week 2 to cut it out immediately, stressing his importance to the team, as well.
Here is everything that Klatt said about the subject matter.
“J.J. has brought excitement to the Michigan football program. And he will be starting this week again,” Klatt said. “Now listen, folks, what an advantageous time to do this, to bring J.J. in as a starter against Hawaii when they were what? 51-and-a-half-point favorites. Now this week, a similar game where they’re well over 40-point favorites.
“J.J. McCarthy is a dynamic player. There’s no doubt about that. And in some cases, you have to understand, really uniquely, what you are as an offense before you can make a quality and informed decision about who’s going to be the quarterback for that offense. And not every season is the same. So yes, it’s the Michigan offense.
“I would make the argument that this year’s version of Michigan football needs a very different style of of offensive player at the quarterback position than they needed a year ago. Last year’s team was built a little bit like Ford F-150. And they were rugged. They were run-first. They needed to protect the football, manage the game and allow the defense to go out there and seal the victory with a great pass rush. OK, so that was largely the blueprint. They had Hassan Haskins, a big back, they had a great offensive line. They lost their No. 1 wide receiver in the first game of the season, Ronnie Bell, so all of a sudden, Cade McNamara went out there and he became a game manager. That’s not a knock. So people think like, ‘Oh man, that’s such a knock. You can’t say that.’ I was a game manager. Everybody’s a game manager to some degree. The best game manager in the history of football is Tom Brady. OK, so everybody, to a certain extent at that position, has to manage the game. Now it’s what you do above and beyond the management that makes you an above the X’s and O’s player or a guy that’s just running the system.
“You can make the argument that Cade McNamara was running the system a year ago, but that’s exactly what they needed. OK, so they had this tank of a football team that was very physical, was going to win games a very specific way. And he was kind of tailor-made and built for that style of team and offense, for a particular tight end-oriented in the passing game, running back-oriented. He was that guy. They would sprinkle in J.J. McCarthy as a change-up. They would allow him to come in in order to neutralize the linebackers with the quarterback run, some of the RPOs. But what was clear, when he was coming in and kind of getting sprinkled across the game plan last year was the fact that he was very dynamic.
“And I was speculating last year, as were many, that there may come a time, late in the year, that he was going to need to be the quarterback in order to beat Ohio State. The thought was J.J. McCarthy was going to need to be the quarterback. Why? Because he was the one that could go above the X’s and O’s. If they needed someone to go and score 35, 40 to 48. against Ohio State, they would need a more dynamic playmaker in that position. That was the train of thought. But what happened was is that the defense got even more dominant. The run game got even more dominant during the course of the year and they fit with that model to the tune that when Ohio State rolled in their late in the season, they only had to throw four passes in the second half.
”Okay, so Cade was perfect for that system. This year, I think might be a bit of a different model. Not an F-150 this year. They’re much more of a sports car. I don’t know how fast they are, OK. I don’t know if we’re working with a Ferrari — I don’t know what are they this year but I do know this: that offense is not just a game manager’s offense this year. And by the way, they probably need someone to take that offense to the next level because I think that the offense is better than the defense. Last year was a defensive-led team and a run-oriented offense. I think this year’s version of Michigan is probably going to be an offensive-led team with some dynamic of run-pass and both those — not just running, not just throwing the football — and they’re going to have to help along an inexperienced defense and experienced defensive playcaller.
“That being said, J.J. McCarthy is probably the better option. I know that you’re excited. OK, so now J.J. McCarthy is going to start for the second straight week. He has played better than Cade McNamara during the course of this quarterback battle this year. If you were just going by this year, and neither of these guys had started before, then you’d say yes, easily, J.J. McCarthy is your starting quarterback. The problem is that Cade McNamara just beat Ohio State for the first time in a decade. OK, so Michigan fans: stop booing. Alright, that was pathetic. And you know it, so don’t do that. And I know it wasn’t everybody. So I’m not going to call out all of the Michigan fans. Michigan fans, in a general sense, are awesome. I love going to The Big House. I can’t wait to go to The Big House in a couple of weeks. By the way, we’ve got Maryland – Michigan in a couple of weeks on Big Noon Saturday. Can’t wait to get there. No reason to boo Cade McNamara, OK?
“Listen – can you imagine what it must feel like to be Cade right now? This job is being won out from under him right before his eyes and there’s nothing he can do about it. That’s got to be an incredibly defeating feeling. And this guy is a captain. He’s done everything right. He beat Ohio State. He won the Big Ten Championship. He saved Jim Harbaugh’s job. He went to the playoff. All right. It wasn’t just Aidan Hutchinson. Cade McNamara was a big piece of that. Andrew Vastardis, yes. Hassan Haskins, yes — all those guys. Yes, Cade was a huge part of that. So Michigan fans, pay him his due. No more of the booing. No more of the booing. I understand that you want J.J. and it’s a flashy new object, and you’re gonna get it because that’s the type of team that you’re probably orienting towards this season. As an offense, defense, holistically for Jim Harbaugh.
”So there you go. Michigan offensive-led, not defensive-led. J.J., I think that they’re going to be pretty good, by the way with J.J. I think that they’re as good as anybody and we’re heading for another showdown with Ohio State. That offense is tremendous, folks. It really is. And he takes them to another level.”
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