LOOK: JJ McCarthy responds to quote making it inside Ohio State practice facility
Normally, “bulletin-board material” is a figure of speech. Ohio State took it literally with a quote from Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy — and he responded on his Instagram story.
McCarthy, during an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Wolverine Digest, dropped an interesting line about the rival Buckeyes. It made its way to the practice facility, based on social media posts.
“All we know is beating Ohio State right now,” McCarthy said. “So we’re going to keep that going.”
Ohio State linebacker Teradja Mitchell posted a picture of a TV screen with McCarthy’s quote, cited to “TUN quarterback JJ McCarthy.” McCarthy saw it, and had two words to describe his reaction to it.
“Rent free,” he wrote.
Michigan is coming off its first win over Ohio State in 10 years, defeating the Buckeyes 42-27 in November. The Wolverines eventually made it to the Orange Bowl after winning the Big Ten Championship for their first College Football Playoff appearance.
JJ McCarthy: ‘All we know is beating Ohio State right now’
Last season was a special one for the Michigan Wolverines on the gridiron. The Wolverines went 12-1 in the regular season, 8-1 against Big Ten opponents, and made the College Football Playoff as the No. 2 seed. But arguably more importantly, Michigan finally beat Ohio State. That victory is something that meant a lot to the program, and Michigan backup quarterback JJ McCarthy said beating Ohio State is “all we know” right now.
The victory over Ohio State was a giant one. At that point in the season, Michigan and Ohio State were both 10-1. Entering the matchup, everybody knew that the winner of that Big Ten contest would likely be sitting in a fantastic position to make the CFP. Well, the Wolverines won and made the CFP. But for McCarthy, Michigan simply winning that game means more than any other traditional game.
“For us, the whole 10-year stretch of us not winning – that’s all we know is beating Ohio State right now,” McCarthy said, via Wolverine Digest of Sports Illustrated. “So we’re going to keep that going.
“For me, that rivalry is very personal…and I won’t dive too deep into that. That was just one of those games where you definitely want to win it a lot more than the other ones. Of course, you want to win every game the way that you want to win every game – but that one was super, super nice to win.”