Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh on QB competition, ‘Iron sharpens Iron’
Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh addressed the Wolverines’ QB competition on the “In the Trenches” podcast.
Jim Harbaugh was a guest this week on the “In the Trenches” podcast with Jon Jansen and offered some interesting tidbits about the Michigan football team.
Harbaugh is usually tight-lipped with the media but he tends to open up more with Jansen and offered some actual nuggets on the QB competition.
While Michigan football fans have obsessed over the QB competition, Harbaugh sounds excited about it, especially since J.J. McCarthy is 100 percent and standing out in camp so far.
“It’s like two irons, two swords that are sharpening as iron sharpens iron — biblical. It’s exactly what it looks like to me,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh also made it seem like far from a sure thing that Cade McNamara was going to start the season opener, although, Jim is a fan of coachspeak.
"“Both have been in the program for over a year. That’s usually what it takes to train a quarterback at this type of level in the Big Ten. They’re both going to get the same amount of reps … they’re going to have the same number of reps with the first string as the other guy is going to have with the first string and the second string. It’s cut right down the middle, and they’re both really good. I might give the analogy that whatever it is, a 10,000-meter or 1,500-meter race, guys are racing. You see one, he’d be in practice … ‘okay. He’s pulling ahead.’ As soon as I sense that, I see the other guy surge by him. And then the other guy pulls right up next to his shoulder and then the other guy goes ahead. But it’s like they’re getting faster and they’re getting better. There’s nobody that’s passing behind.”"
Michigan football is blessed either way
Most fans have assumed that McNamara would start the opening game after leading Michigan to a Big Ten championship in 2021, but McCarthy is special and the best man for the job should start.
Regardless, Michigan football will need both quarterbacks to win and either way, it’s great to be able to say that the Wolverines have two of the top signal callers in the Big Ten.
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McNamara is one helluva competitor and he was clutch last season. But if McCarthy can raise the ceiling of this program from playoff contender to potential national title contender, then that’s a move Harbaugh and the Wolverines must seriously consider.