J.J. McCarthy updates key Michigan football position battles

Michigan football quarterback J.J. McCarthy met with the media on Monday and offered some updates on a couple of key position battles. 

Heading into Michigan football fall camp, there were a few position battles that stood out as ones to watch and a couple of them are on the offensive side of the ball at wide receiver and center.

Truth be told, there is competition at every single position on the field. Even when it comes to Michigan football’s backup quarterback, there is a battle.

Yet, it was the Michigan football starting quarterback, J.J. McCarthy that met with the media on Monday and the former five-star signal-caller offered updates on wide receiver and center.

McCarthy labels Tyler Morris a breakout candidate

Tyler Morris is going to be a sophomore this season and if it wasn’t for an injury during his senior season of high school, there would probably be more hype surrounding him.

Morris was a former top-100 recruit and a teammate of McCarthy’s before J.J. transferred to the IMG Academy. As a freshman, Morris only caught a few passes but nabbed a key third-down pass against Rutgers and is now wearing No. 8 — the number that Ronnie Bell used to wear.

Observers have said that Morris has been so good that it’s hard to remember that Bell isn’t on the field at times, according to Chris Balas of The Wolverine. And McCarthy also offered this up about Morris which should have Michigan football fans excited:

"“Tyler Morris, he’s going to make a big name for himself this year,” McCarthy said. “I’ve had that connection built since my sophomore year in high school.  He’s also going to do great things.”"

McCarthy also talked about his special connection to Morris and you could see it a little bit last season. I certainly believe Morris is going to have a much bigger role this season and he’s also a reason why I’m not as worried about the wide receivers as some of the national pundits are.

An elite battle taking shape at center

When it comes to Greg Crippen, people forget that he and McCarthy played together at the IMG Academy and while many have overlooked Crippen in this battle, Jim Harbaugh isn’t and said he had two All-Big Ten caliber centers.

That’s good news for Michigan football. It’s bad news for whichever dude loses the starting job, but here’s what McCarthy said about Nugent, the transfer from Stanford, and the center battle as a whole a week into fall camp.

"“It’s been a really smooth transition. Obviously, he’s a savvy vet, so everything’s just like technically sound. He knows defenses; he knows the points. All that stuff is great. But just getting those reps, that’s the biggest thing right now with him. He’s going to play; both of them are going to play. It’s just going to be a matter of time to see who makes that distance away from each other.”"

It will be interesting to see who starts game one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if both Crippen and Nugent continued their battle a few weeks into the season because both are that good.