Michigan Football’s Cade McNamara was Alabama’s top QB recruit

All the buzz is about Michigan football quarterback Joe Milton but Wolverines fans should be excited about backup Cade McNamara too.

It’s been pretty exciting for Michigan football fans to hear the hype about new starting quarterback Joe Milton. But head coach Jim Harbaugh was also quick to praise his backup, Cade McNamara, another quarterback fans should be excited about.

Especially when they learn what Alabama thought about McNamara when he was a high school recruit and ended up with the Wolverines.

McNamara signed with Michigan football as part of the 2019 class and back then, he was ranked as the No. 7 pro-style passer. He was also committed to Notre Dame at one time.

However, it turns out Notre Dame wasn’t the only other school that thought highly of McNamara who also chose the Wolverines over Alabama and USC.

And Alabama didn’t just have mild interest in the four-star quarterback, according to what Jim Harbaugh said, via Josh Gattis, who was on the Crimson Tide staff at the time.

"“One little side story — Josh had told me that Cade McNamara was the No. 1 quarterback on their board at Alabama. That was good to know. That was a good little tidbit there. That Cade McNamara was also Alabama’s No. 1 quarterback on their board. Like to hear that.”"

Also, as Steve Lorenz of The Michigan Insider wrote Tuesday ($), that’s not the only reason to be impressed with McNamara looking back at his high school days.

"“McNamara threw for basically 3,000 yards (2995) on less than 300 attempts with 39 touchdowns compared to six interceptions. Between his junior/senior years, that number balloons to around 6,500 yards with 83 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. This is a guy who was committed to Notre Dame and a legitimate target for USC and Alabama.”"

That’s a strong indication of what McNamara can be and so if something happens to Milton, it sounds like Michigan will be in better shape than previously thought.

Remember, when the quarterback battle was being discussed this fall, there were rumblings that McNamara was pushing for the No. 2 job, ahead even of Dylan McCaffrey. He’s also been talked about as a darkhorse in the race for months.

If you look at the roster top to bottom, backup quarterback might be one of the biggest question marks heading into the 2020 season. Yet, if Michigan and Alabama, as well as the others were right about Cade, then maybe we don’t need to worry as much as we thought.