This feels like Cade McNamara’s Michigan Football team

Cade McNamara was among five team captains announced for Michigan football and it really seems as though he’s locked in to start the first game. 

This shouldn’t be a revelation to any Michigan football fan but it really seems like Cade McNamara is going to start the season-opening game against Colorado State.

There hasn’t been an announcement and it wouldn’t shock me if there wasn’t. Jim Harbaugh has never liked to tell very much — remember the depth chart snafu. My favorite part of that whole fiasco was when Colorado put out fake depth charts to troll Michigan — good stuff. The Wolverines still don’t put out a depth chart, people just gave up.

Back in 2015, Harbaugh didn’t name Jake Rudock as the starter before trotting him out against Utah. Everyone pretty much knew it, but that’s Jim.

So nothing would surprise me. But Cade McNamara was voted as a team captain, which doesn’t necessarily mean anything, other than Jim had said that the coaches and the team would recognize when the job was won.

We don’t know that that has happened, yet it’s easy to recognize that McNamara has taken the leadership role that Aidan Hutchinson had last season. This is his team as he said.

McNamara also told reporters that he’s playing the best football of his life on Thursday.

"“I think I’m by far playing my best football that I ever have in my life right now.  I think I’m pushing the ball downfield, I’m throwing the ball with accuracy. My mechanics seem very clean right now, I’m not missing very often. My recognition of the defense right now seems to be very clean. And I think the more time we’ve spent with the receivers over camp, I’ve been able to gain even more chemistry with them, and just finding zones, whether it’s man coverage, zone coverage on how we’re dealing with those and our concepts and everything. This team is really ready. I think we’ve done a lot of situational preparation, a lot of work together. And not just myself, but I feel that this offense and this team is extremely prepared for the season.”"

Those are exciting things. People have always acted like McNamara wasn’t talented when Matt Weiss has said before that he thinks Cade can play in the NFL.

I’m guessing more will think that after this season. Holding off J.J. McCarthy won’t be easy, even after the season starts. Cade is going to have to take advantage of every opportunity. So will McCarthy and hopefully, that brings out the best in both of them.

It has a similar feel to Brady-Henson and that didn’t work out as well as it could have, although that team still went to the Orange Bowl and won it. It also beat Ohio State, but that was after Lloyd Carr turned things over completely to Brady.

No doubt, it would be a bummer to see McCarthy start for just one season, but even if he doesn’t start in 2022, he’s going to play. He can do things that Cade can’t and the coaching staff, as well as the team, know it.

So Michigan football is going to have to figure out how to play with two quarterbacks. For now, though, McNamara is going to be the starter. Whether that’s true in November — remains to be seen — but Harbaugh is sort of right, these things have a way of sorting themselves out.

For now, Michigan has the luxury of a really talented quarterback room being led by one of its team captains. The others are Erick All, Mike Sainristil, Ronnie Bell, and Mazi Smith.

It’s a pretty strong group and each of them, McNamara included, should play at a really high level for the Wolverines in the 2022 season.