HOUSTON — Despite Washington being picked against and picked against and picked against (much like Michigan), now that the Huskies are facing the Wolverines in the national championship game on Monday, the media punditry appears to believe UW quarterback Michael Penix Jr. is unstoppable.
Which is fair. Washington is undefeated. But the Wolverines’ own star quarterback has been significantly overshadowed in the process.
J.J. McCarthy is 26-1 as a starter, nearly the best record of any quarterback ever in college football. His own position coach, Kirk Campbell, has noticed the national media coverage of the championship game has had a certain slant. And it’s one that those in Ann Arbor don’t agree with.
“We appreciate the opinion of the media and those guys have warranted a lot of praise,” Campbell told Wolverines Wire. “We know we got in our guy in J.J. and we’re confident that he’s the best in the country. And we just let that speak on Saturdays — this one will be on Monday. So we’re not too worried about the outside opinion, we’re just gonna take process day by day, and he’ll put his best product on the field and we know that will speak for itself.”
McCarthy was dominating through the first two-thirds of the 2023 season, but he was injured in the Penn State game in Week 11. After that, McCarthy’s Heisman Trophy odds dropped significantly as his production waned.
It was in Week 12 at Maryland that there were suddenly major concerns, but what many in the national media don’t know is that McCarthy was battling a major injury, one that should have precluded him from that game, Campbell says.
As Campbell sees it, McCarthy is the player who was garnering significant praise in the midseason. He was the one thought to be leading for the top individual prize in college football. That’s the real McCarthy, not the seeming also-ran that some paint him to be heading into this game.
“To hit on the narrative, first off, yeah, he was extremely injured in the Maryland game,” Campbell said. “There was concerns in the building that he wasn’t going to play that game, let alone go out for the second half. You know, I hit on this last week — if you hurt your front and your left knee that you can’t rotate through to throw, you’re not gonna have the velocity, you can’t scramble, you’re not gonna trust it. And J.J. moving out of the pocket, even if it’s a supplement — a huge part of his game. So not only was it cautious by our part how we called the game, but like, yeah, it’s gonna affect his game.
“So is that narrative erroneous? Absolutely. I saw a stat the other day about just his deep-ball percentage and everything but speaking to the team, it shows he’s a warrior, is a stalwart, is gonna put the team on the back and nothing’s gonna stop him going out there.”
So who will outduel the other? Will it be Penix and his cadre of elite receivers? Or McCarthy with his pinpoint precision and ability to extend plays with his legs, supplementing the Michigan run game?
We’ll find out on Monday evening at 7:30 p.m. EST.