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Urban Meyer heaps praise on Michigan but still needs to see one thing from Wolverines

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•10/19/22

No. 4 Michigan smoked No. 16 Penn State over the weekend, winning 41-17 to move to 7-0 on the season. Former Ohio State coach and current FOX analyst Urban Meyer heaped on the Michigan praise but noted he’s still waiting to see one thing from the Wolverines.

Can sophomore quarterback JJ McCarthy win a game when forced to?

“JJ McCarthy still has not been asked to go win a game yet,” Meyer said Wednesday on Urban’s Take with Tim May on the On3 Network. “They didn’t throw the ball downfield, I didn’t see one time on Saturday. He’s got it all. He’s got a great arm, he’s very athletic. He has command. But at some point we know it’s coming down the road, the Buckeyes versus the Wolverines. History of that game is going to be the quarterback’s going to have to win that game. So that remains to be seen if he can go do that. He’s very talented.”

Michigan will have time to prepare for that one still, though.

The Wolverines are on a bye this weekend and then will return to action at home against Michigan State on Oct. 29. The road trip to Ohio State won’t come until the regular-season finale, on Nov. 26.

Michigan praise continues as Wolverines keep rolling

While Meyer obviously maintains a keen interest in the goings-on at Ohio State after spending seven seasons as coach there and winning a national title, he’s had more exposure to Michigan this year courtesy of his FOX gig.

And the turnaround once-rival coach Jim Harbaugh has engineered over the last two years has been remarkable. From Nov. 30, 2019 to Nov. 30, 2020, Michigan went just 2-6. Since then the Wolverines are 19-2.

“I got to see that team four weeks in a row and they’re really good, Tim,” Meyer said following last week’s Penn State romp. “That score was not indicative of what actually happened. It was worse than that. It was a beating from the beginning of the game until the end.

“Penn State somehow jumped ahead 14-13 in that second quarter on two plays. But other than that the Wolverines are down in the red zone three times right out of the gate. If they score touchdowns there, that’s one of those 60, maybe 65 points. But the offensive and defensive line completely dominated the game. That’s a well-coached team. Really good players. They’ve got two good running backs, the offensive line, their center is really good.”

If McCarthy is able to come through in the clutch when needed, Michigan should remain a favorite for a repeat appearance in the College Football Playoff.