Michigan Football: QB is the big question mark for Wolverines

Michigan football offensive coordinator Josh Gattis talked about his quarterbacks on Wednesday and it’s clear it’s still the biggest question on offense. 

In terms of Michigan football‘s quarterback battle, we really don’t know much at this point, partially, because one of the competitors isn’t even there yet.

That’s incoming transfer Alan Bowman, who announced he would be joining the Michigan football program after leaving Texas Tech. He has three years of eligibility and will duke it out with five-star freshman J.J. McCarthy and Cade McNamara, who started one game for U-M in 2020.

While it’s hard to learn much from what offensive coordinator Josh Gattis told the media on Wednesday, he did have good things to say about the QB position and McNamara in particular:

"“They’ve done a really good job as a group pushing each other. Cade, specifically, with his experience coming back and having game reps. I think that’s provided some confidence in his play and confidence in his demeanor as a leader on the team. We’re very, very pleased. We’re only a handful of practices in and it’s too much time, too long to tell but we’re pleased with the direction that those guys have shown in their leadership and their performance on the field.”"

There have been reports that McCarthy has done well but obviously needs work, but not much from the practice field has leaked out and that’s how Michigan works. We’ll hopefully get to see McCarthy whenever Michigan holds its “spring game’ which is more of open practice.

Michigan football will have a new starting QB in 2021

As much as everyone wants McCarthy to come in ready to go, it sometimes takes time and rushing him onto the field before he’s ready isn’t the right thing to do.

McNamara is no slouch either. He was a four-star prospect out of high school who was committed to Notre Dame at one time and according to Jim Harbaugh, was the top QB on Alabama’s board that year too.

But McNamara has only seen action in two games and in his only start against Penn State, he was knocked out of the game due to injury. So really, we have a very limited idea of what kind of player he can be.

Truly, the only quarterback with any sort of meaningful college experience is Bowman and that’s why it was smart to bring him on board. The QB room was way too green.

Whoever wins the job, Michigan football will have a new starting quarterback again in 2021 after rolling with Shea Patterson in 2018 and 2019. Joe Milton was the starter a year ago but transferred just a few weeks ago.

Obviously, there are other areas where guys need to show improvement. But the running back room should be one of the best in the Big Ten and the offensive line should be improved.

Wide receiver remains a question mark as young guys will be counted on to make an impact early in 2021, but at the end of the day, none of it matters unless you have consistency at quarterback.