J.J. McCarthy ready for his first Michigan football start
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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It’s been something that Michigan football fans have been waiting for since he committed in May 2019, and on Saturday, for the first time, they’ll get their wish.
Though he was an integral part of the offense a year ago in a reserve role, J.J. McCarthy, the quarterback who was rated a five-star prospect as a recruit, will get his first start for the Wolverines, as the quarterback competition rages on. Taking on the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, McCarthy is ready for the challenge, his next in a winged helmet. But, when it comes to preparation, it’s really no different than what he’s experienced before.
If anything, he says he feels relief, knowing that he’ll be out on the field from the very start.
“Nothing really differs,” McCarthy said. “When I stepped in the door here, I was always prepared to be the guy — snap one, game one, whatever it was. And now, it’s just having that reassurance that I’m going to be in there snap one. So it kind of clears all the just worry and indecisiveness going into it, and it just builds more confidence honestly.”
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In order to get to this point, McCarthy had to learn a lot, as any quarterback does. Some freshmen get thrown to the wolves, but he had the opportunity to develop, to grow.
There were times last year when McCarthy looked the part of a freshman. His first touchdown, though a spectacular feat, was made dazzling due to the fact that he was running around in the backfield, likely a product of him not being able to read what the defense was doing pre-snap, so he wasn’t able to shift the protection. His playmaking ability negated those issues then, but now he has a much better understanding of what he’s looking at across the line of scrimmage.
When it’s come to his biggest improvements, time on task has played a big factor, as has coming to understand what the defense is presenting.
“I really took that experience factor seriously, when I actually lived it,” McCarthy said. “Like being here for a whole year just does monumental amounts to my game. But I also feel like just different reading defensive coverage has become instinctual now, and just understanding different keys on the defense that I could just look at to simplify the thought processes going into each snap. And another one was just the running game, like being able to run the ball, avoid those hits, and add a couple of different tools to my bag to get away from defenders.”
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On Saturday, when he came in as a reserve, McCarthy shined, even in a diminutive role. He was 4-for-4 for 30 yards and rushed three times for 50 yards, which included a 20-yard touchdown run.
Should McCarthy win the quarterback job officially after a commanding performance against Hawaii, he says it won’t change his relationship with the incumbent starter, Cade McNamara. In fact, he credits McNamara for helping him get to where he is, noting that much of the so-called hostility between the two is a media-driven narrative.
“It’s been awesome. I mean, what better way to have a guy that that intelligent, that motivated, that driven, and just be able to observe him every single day and be able to kind of just replicate some parts of his game that I can improve on my game,” McCarthy said. “And it’s just been an honest blessing for both of us to be in this position that we’ve been in and just grow from each other. I mean, there’s so many outside voices that try to make us dislike each other in a way and we’ve kind of taken that to heart and there were a couple of practices where like, ‘The media really doesn’t want us to like each other!’ And we just kind of laugh at it, we take on that challenge and embrace it. And it’s made us so much better as players and as human beings.”
Regardless of what happens, McCarthy believes in himself and his ability. Though he did have moments of doubt this offseason when he was dealing with a labrum injury — which precluded him entirely from spring practice — now that he’s fully healthy (‘110%,’ he says), he’s ready to go out and showcase what he’s capable of.
“Extremely. Being around guys, like we have here, and being around coaches like we have here, they just fill you with overconfidence,” McCarthy said. “I’ve always been a guy to have extreme confidence in myself, and just being around guys like that and be around coaches like that just amplifies it even more.”
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