ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Perhaps fan expectations for Michigan football quarterback J.J. McCarthy took a hit after the 34-27 win over Maryland, but not within Schembechler Hall.
After being nearly flawless in his first three games, which included his first two starts for the program, McCarthy had a relatively pedestrian outing by outside standards. But for a Wolverine quarterback, it was still a good performance.
McCarthy went 18-for-26 for 220 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday, and rushed five times for five yards. He went from being the hypothetical best quarterback Michigan has ever had to merely pretty good in the span of a week — again, by fan standards — but given that it was his first full game, and his first start in Big Ten play, co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss isn’t terribly concerned with what he saw against the Terrapins.
“It’s his first real appearance, it’s the first time he’s ever played a full football game. So, I think for the first time playing a full football game, there’s a lot of positives to take away from it,” Weiss said. “I think he did a good job. Certainly looking at the stat line, it’s really good for a guy playing his first football game. At the same time, I’m sure J.J. would tell you, there’s a lot of stuff that we could clean up. And we’re focused on the process. And we just love everything about J.J. and the way he goes about it. And there’s so many things that we can fix and work on.
“And so we come away from it, even when he did make mistakes, we’re encouraged, because you can see it’s all fixable stuff. And really, it just comes down to coaching more than anything else. If he’s making mistakes, we’re not doing the right thing. And that’s on us as coaches. So we’re really encouraged by his first full game. Yeah, we were happy with it.”
[lawrence-related id=63541,63538,63535]
During the game, McCarthy uncharacteristically missed on all but one of his deep throws. It appeared as if he tried to force things, which ended in a handful of negative plays. While we don’t know as of yet if what we saw the floor on Saturday, Weiss reminds of what his ceiling is.
In short, McCarthy was a few plays away from a jaw-dropping performance.
“I mean, you could also look at it and say if we connect on a few of those deep balls, he throws for 400 yards and he has four touchdowns,” Weiss said. “But that’s not the reality that we live in. He didn’t connect on those deep balls. So just like we were looking at a throw that could have been interception, we’re looking at the throws that could have been touchdowns. So we’re coaching the process, not the outcome.”
McCarthy showed on Saturday that he does still have some to learn, and that there could be growing pains through the process.
He lost two fumbles against Maryland, which Michigan recovered, but both killed the momentum in the current drives. But McCarthy’s drive to improve became apparent once the team returned to the practice field, with one of his solutions coming at the chagrin of Weiss.
“Classic J.J., he came in and said, ‘Hey, can you tell the defense to punch at the ball when I’m running through there?’” Weiss said. “And it’s kind of like, ‘You know J.J., it’s not the best idea to have them punching at your throwing arm and your hand while you’re running through the defense, so we’re not going to do that.’ But he’s willing to do whatever it takes to fix it. And we’re gonna help him. We’re gonna help him do it. But at the same time, he’s improving every area. And we have no concern about him going forward whatsoever.”
McCarthy will have his toughest test yet this upcoming Saturday, when he faces off against Iowa at Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes boast one of the nation’s top defenses, and one that’s opportunistic, to say the least. In order to come away with a win, the sophomore signal caller will need to improve upon his first start, and he’ll need to do so in a hurry. Because points will be at a premium and mistakes will likely be amplified in a way that they weren’t this past weekend.
[listicle id=63553]
[mm-video type=video id=01ge0vgbh4g7a1dpgsdy playlist_id=01eqbzardvge799bm2 player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01ge0vgbh4g7a1dpgsdy/01ge0vgbh4g7a1dpgsdy-ced568ba57521bbf6492ae4c9c1353a5.jpg]