J.J. McCarthy dishes on Michigan OC Kirk Campbell as a playcaller: 'One of the most knowledgeable guys in the country'
ANN ARBOR – Michigan Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy is busy preparing himself for the next chapter in his career, but still has an eye on what come in Ann Arbor in 2024 and beyond. His position coach, Kirk Campbell, is now coordinating the offense in addition to coaching up the signal-callers.
In that, the likely top-10 NFL Draft pick thinks that head coach Sherrone Moore is giving the keys to one of the brightest offensive minds in the game.
“I would say [Campbell’s offensive philosophy] is very similar to the recent years just because it’s been working,” McCarthy said. “So why would you change something that isn’t broken? I would say there will be more nuances in the passing game with Coach Campbell being able to call plays. That’s one of the most knowledgeable, if not the most knowledgeable, guys in the country from an offensive standpoint.
“Letting him get more leash and have reins over the play calling is gonna be huge, and he’s gonna mix up a lot of different things, and give the defense a lot of different looks. And then, whoever starts at quarterback, they’re gonna just attack in the run game, attack him in the pass game. And it’s gonna be very interesting to watch.”
Campbell has playcalling experience from his days at Alderson Broaddus and Old Dominion, in addition to last year’s season opener against East Carolina. McCarthy sees that as an asset for the Michigan quarterback room.
“It’s just so different when your position coach is also calling the plays because you guys think the same way,” McCarthy said. “You go over film every single day together, you watch practice every single day together, and just being on the same page and understanding what he was trying to accomplish as well as what I was trying to accomplish, that collaborative effort, just made it so much easier to operate out there and get into a flow.”
Campbell worked directly with McCarthy last season and helped take his game to a national championship-winning level. The now-former Michigan star dished on a wrinkle to his game that he feels Campbell was directly responsible for.
“Go back to the East Carolina game. He taught me a little tool called the twist, where it’s like a low-high smash concept, where you’re trying to get the corner to the bite on the low-out route or hitch, and then you throw over the top to the corner route or seven route,” McCarthy said. “And that’s something that I threw to Roman in the back of the end zone, I think third quarter, something like that. That tool is very beneficial, and I’ll still be using that.”
More than anything else, McCarthy says that he may have benefitted from facing a Michigan defense every day in practice that had NFL concepts, and wound up being coordinated by a future NFL staffer in Jesse Minter. It added another layer to his preparation each day.
“Our defense, it’s been a blessing to go against them every single day just because of the terminology of it and the details that they play with,” McCarthy said. “If we got a nickel blitz to the field, the safety isn’t gonna come down and show me that the nickel is coming. He’s gonna stay put until my hands clap together and then he’s gonna do it. And then we’ll have certain man/zone indicators as an offense. We’ll put a running back out there at boundary one and they’ll put a normal corner out there like Will, but they’ll be playing man.
“If it was man, you would have a linebacker run out with the running back, but they’ll have a corner out there and they’ll still play man. That’s all stuff they do at the next level to get rid of those pre-snap indicators. It prepares you so much to rely on the post-snap confirmation and stuff like that.”
