Michigan Football: 5 bold predictions for Wolverines in 2021

Heading into the 2021 Michigan football season here are five bold predictions for the Wolverines.

Michigan football begins fall camp on August 6th. We are also a little over a month from the Big House being filled for the first time in two years on September 4th vs. Western Michigan.

While the preseason is usually the time for optimism, why don’t we get a little bold as well? These are my bold predictions for Michigan football this season.

J.J. McCarthy will be the starting QB against Ohio State

J.J. McCarthy is the highest-rated quarterback on Michigan’s roster and the only five-star quarterback recruit that Michigan has landed in Jim Harbaugh’s tenure.

McCarthy enrolled early, which will help the transition that most true freshman quarterbacks go through. However, Cade McNamara is not going to hand him the starting job without a fight. McNamara had a strong spring and entering fall camp, he is likely to be Michigan’s QB1 vs. Western Michigan.

I think McNamara is good enough for Michigan to win games with, however with his traits and skill set I see him as a game manager. To beat a more talented team like Ohio State, I don’t think that merely a good quarterback will be good enough.

Michigan football will need its quarterback to be elite to take down the Buckeyes and the other elite teams on its face. When LSU finally took down Alabama, it was because Joe Burrow emerged into the elite quarterback that it needed. That is where McCarthy comes in.

Like McNamara, McCarthy is accurate and showed unflappable poise at the high school level. However, in my opinion, McCarthy’s arm talent sets him apart from McNamara. McNamara has the advantage of being in Michigan’s system longer, but younger quarterbacks are playing as freshmen more and more across the country, even if some need more time than others.

Trevor Lawrence enjoyed one of the best freshman seasons in college football history, but he did not start until Clemson’s fifth game his freshman year.

Sure you can say Lawrence was seen as a generational prospect, so he might not be the best example. However, Jake Fromm, Sam Howell, and Jayden Daniels are among a few of the recent college quarterbacks to start essentially from game one (game 2 for Fromm). That worked out well for Georgia, UNC, and Arizona State, respectively.

In spring practice McCarthy showed some flashes of his five-star talent, but they were flashes. By midseason, I think those flashes start to become more consistent and he supplants McNamara as the starter. If that timeline hits, that will give McCarthy time to get a few starts under his belt before the Buckeyes come to Ann Arbor.

I am not predicting a victory over Ohio State this year, but if Michigan does pull it off, McCarthy will become a Michigan legend as a true freshman. Regardless of whether it is some combination of C.J. Stroud, Jack Miller, Kyle McCord, Cade McNamara, and J.J. McCarthy, it is very likely that Michigan and Ohio State will be starting freshman quarterbacks in “The Game”.