'The ultimate Michigan man': J.J. McCarthy calls for Jim Harbaugh statue
Michigan Wolverines football standout J.J. McCarthy is likely to become the Wolverines’ first quarterback to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft since Jim Harbaugh was taken No. 26 overall in 1987. Harbaugh, Michigan’s head coach from 2015-23 and now the head man for the Los Angeles Chargers, has said McCarthy is the No. 1 quarterback prospect in the draft and best signal-caller in program history.
Harbaugh and the Chargers possess the No. 5 overall pick, and it’s been widely speculated that the organization may trade it to a quarterback-hungry team — perhaps one that would choose McCarthy. ESPN reporter Adam Schefter on his podcast asked McCarthy if Harbaugh could be the one hand-selecting where the quarterback begins his NFL career.
“In a perfect world, yeah, that would be nice,” McCarthy said with a laugh. “That would be very nice. But he’s got a collaboration of people that make that decision, and obviously that would be great, but that’s out of both of our hands.”
McCarthy, who led the Wolverines to their 12th-ever national championship in 2023, has appreciated his Michigan coach’s praise through the years and the draft process — and he reciprocates it when speaking on Harbaugh.
“If anyone’s a little biased, it would be him,” McCarthy noted. “But he knows what he’s talking about, and he’s been around so many great quarterbacks, so it means a lot coming from him — especially the ultimate Michigan man. If you think of ‘Michigan man,’ it’s Jim Harbaugh. As a player, as a coach, he’s done it all.”
McCarthy then said he believes Harbaugh should have a statue on the University of Michigan campus.
“I hope one day that statue of him is gonna be in front of Schembechler Hall or outside of the stadium,” McCarthy said.
Harbaugh played quarterback for Michigan from 1982-86, earning second-team All-America and first-team All-Big Ten honors in his fifth-year senior season. He finished third in Heisman Trophy voting the same year.
The 60-year-old, whose father, Jack, was an assistant coach for the Wolverines from 1973-79, then returned to his alma mater as head coach over the last nine seasons, winning 89 games and becoming the first-ever coach to come away with three-consecutive Big Ten titles.
“I just can’t thank him enough for everything, because I didn’t get where i was over these three years without him and without my teammates,” McCarthy said. “He’s the glue that held it all together and made it happen.”
Before every game, Harbaugh famously hits his starting quarterback’s helmet, shoulder pads and chest — a small glimpse into the bond that the former signal-caller had with the men behind center on his teams.
“That’s something that the whole world gets to see, just the routine where we go into every game and his biggest thing was, ‘Let me get hit, and then all the butterflies go away.’ And that’s his way of trying to get the blood flowing, get the adrenaline pumping a little bit,” McCarthy said in an interview with ABC WXYZ.
“The bond that we have goes so much further than that small 10 seconds that everybody sees. It leads up to it in the locker room when he’s saying, ‘Here we go, champ, let’s have a day.’ Just little stuff like that, that goes such a long way in a quarterback’s process and development that I’m forever grateful for.
“It goes back to the meetings, it goes back to when he first recruited me. I mean, he’s just such a great guy, has such a great heart. And you can tell he genuinely wants every single one of his players to succeed, especially the quarterback.”
