Michigan Football: 3 takeaways from Big Ten Media Days
An update on Michigan football’s QB battle
The one thing every Michigan football fan wanted to hear about was the upcoming quarterback competition and Harbaugh, in his true fashion, offered nothing but coachspeak.
Jim Harbaugh: "Cade McNamara's going to be really tough to beat out for the starting job. J.J. McCarthy's going to be really tough to beat out for the starting job."
— Zach Shaw (@_ZachShaw) July 26, 2022
Both quarterbacks played well last season and each has a reason to be considered for the job. McNamara is the steady hand, that as Harbaugh pointed out, led Michigan football’s offense to points on more than 50 percent of its drives.
Harbaugh said he didn’t know the number for McCarthy but that it seemed high too.
Yet, unless McNamara’s number starts dropping and it got better as the season went on last year, especially in terms of converting those scoring drives into touchdowns, it’s hard to see McCarthy starting, although he should get more playing time.
McCarthy offers at least one thing that McNamara doesn’t (the ability to run), but Cade also offered this up about the competition:
#Michigan's @Cademac_12 on the QB competition: "I'm getting better faster than I would if I was sitting in the quarterback room comfortably" #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/D5gbSkEWMp
— Sam Webb (@SamWebb77) July 26, 2022
The two co-existed last season and neither has caused problems when the other has played before. Both quarterbacks want to win and both will be needed for this team to win a Big Ten championship.
It’s true that McCarthy has the NFL talent and upside. He can do the spectacular. But you need consistency too and McNamara has that plus talent too. It’s a good problem to have especially when you have two guys with the maturity to handle it and Michigan does.
At some point, things will become clear but if Cade stays healthy, I wouldn’t be shocked if he started every game in 2022 with the caveat that McCarthy plays a lot more than in 2021.