ANN ARBOR, Mich. — After Michigan’s 51-7 win over Colorado State, Cade McNamara said he didn’t expect to be in a quarterback battle with sophomore JJ McCarthy to start this season.
Jim Harbaugh announced before the first game that the two would battle for the starting spot with McNamara starting the first game of the season and McCarthy starting the second. McNamara was a starter last season, helping Michigan to a 12-2 record, its first Big Ten title under Harbaugh and a berth in the College Football Playoff.
“I would definitely say it’s pretty unusual,” McNamara said. “It was something I didn’t expect at the end of the field. I thought I had my best field. I thought I put myself in a good position and that was the decision coach made.”
McNamara finished the first game completing nine of 18 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown with 61 of those yards coming on a touchdown pass to Roman Wilson. Harbaugh acknowledged there were some dropped passes, but when asked about his assessment of McNamara’s performance, he was complimentary.
“I thought he was really good,” Harbaugh said. “He had a couple of balls that were dropped. Really good execution, like I said, no issues. You’ve got to give credit to the quarterbacks when that happens on offense, too. Move the football, score points and I thought had a good game.”
McNamara said Harbaugh doesn’t want to rotate both quarterbacks throughout the season, as we saw some of last season. The quarterbacks expect the starter to take the majority of the snaps, but as the battle progresses, McCarthy and McNamara will continue to split the duties.
“I was confident in the way I performed on the field,” McNamara said. “I definitely felt that way. It’s not my decision though. So whatever it is, whatever my role is, I’m honored to be recognized by my teammates for the role I’m in right now and that’s it “.
McCarthy got time in the second half against Colorado State, completing four of four passes for 30 yards and rushing for 50 yards and a touchdown. Harbaugh said that was part of the plan to get McCarthy snaps and thought it was a good time to put him in the game since the Wolverines had a comfortable lead to give him more opportunities to evaluate the quarterbacks.
“(McCarthy) was electric when he came in, there’s no doubt about it,” Harbaugh said. “Thought he had a great time with his readings too and it was great to see him playing really cool and collected. I don’t think it was for nothing but he’s doing a great job too and he’s improved a lot. much like you ‘you would expect to go from first year to second year.’
Now McCarthy will have a chance to start the game against Hawaii at home and make his case for the starting spot. McNamara will also likely get snaps if the outcome is similar to the first game, but the final decision will be out of his hands.
“It’s been good. That’s something I’ve been dealing with any part of my career,” McNamara said. “Whether it was before I played with Joe (Milton), if he finally came in, if it was last season and now it’s this season. I think at this point, I have a callousness about how to deal with these things.”