While Michigan football’s Week 2 opponent, Hawaii, is somewhat uninspiring, given how bad the Rainbow Warriors currently are, fans will be beyond eager for the rare night game at The Big House on Saturday. And that’s because the Wolverine quarterback battle rages on in unconventional fashion, this week with J.J. McCarthy getting his first career start as the coaching staff continues to evaluate him and incumbent starter, Cade McNamara.
In the season opener, McNamara had a relatively pedestrian outing, though McCarthy showed a bit of a spark, even though he wasn’t asked to do much. In evaluating the Week 1 performances of the quarterbacks, head coach Jim Harbaugh told Brad Galli that Michigan is blessed with two-starting caliber signal callers.
“Again, they’re both, as we’ve said, we feel they’re both starting quarterbacks,” Harbaugh said. “I thought Cade had a good game. I thought J.J. looked really good when he got in there. I think I referred to him as electric after the game — I still feel that way. We love them both.
“Cade’s a perfectionist. There were two throws he would have liked to have back. Two incompletions that just narrowly missed. But that’s the kind of competitor, perfectionist he is. But keep playing their game — really, that’s what I want to see. I want to see each guy play their game in their style and it’s up to our coaches to put them in the best position to do it.”
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Now that McCarthy will get his turn under center, what does he need to do to prove he’s worthy to start in Week 3? After all, that’s the intended plan by Harbaugh, to evaluate what he’s seen in the first two games and name an official starter for the game against Connecticut.
For McCarthy, he just needs a continuation of what he’s already shown. And while that might sound easy, it will be different now that he’s getting the bulk of the snaps rather than coming in sporadically to relieve McNamara.
“Just exactly the way he was last week — it couldn’t be better,” Harbaugh said. “I really felt like last week, my interactions with him on the sideline, he was calm, cool, collected. It just really looked like things were slowing down in the game, slowing down. You hear a lot of great players talk about how it slows down. You could see it. You really could, you could feel that. Just keep it up, keep doing you. Cade, do the same thing. Keep doing Cade. We love both guys.”
As Galli points out, McCarthy always seems happy, always with a smile on his face. But, in practice, of course, everything doesn’t go as planned. That said, does the smile ever disappear? Does his disposition ever change?
“I haven’t seen it. He’s like a kid in a candy store,” Harbaugh said. “That’s how I’d describe him. He’s like a kid in a candy store.”
Watch the whole exchange below.
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