Wolverine Watch: J.J. McCarthy Is A Difference Maker

By John Borton

This Michigan team is going to be a load … they’ve got a lot of talent and all that, but they’ve got a leader who can win them a game when they have to win it.

— CBS analyst Gary Danielson

Michigan IS a load, and it has nothing to do with dominating UNLV, East Carolina, or Bowling For Dollars in a nonconference scrimmage slate. It’s also not all about junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy. But every U-M fan in The Big House and beyond is glad he wears their team’s colors.

McCarthy did it again Saturday, before an adoring crowd and against an opponent with the survival chances of an ice cube on Arizona asphalt. The Michigan QB went 22-for-25 for 278 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Wolverines’ 35-7 foregone-conclusion rout of the Rebels. For you scoring at home, that’s 48-for-55 for 558 yards and 5 TDs in U-M’s opening two games.

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Michigan Routs UNLV

Game balls from the win

That’s an 87-percent completion rate in the opening fortnight, the best start in Michigan football history for a quarterback.

Big deal, you say. It’s ECU and UNLV, an alphabet soup of awful. There’s an element of truth ladled into that swipe. But there’s so much more than raw numbers at play.

Watch McCarthy move in the pocket these days. His footwork gets better and better. He glided away from pressure versus the Rebels, connecting twice for TDs to senior wideout Roman Wilson. When he wasn’t slicing up another secondary, McCarthy befuddled UNLV’s desperate defense with his running ability.

On that note, here’s a timeout for a public service announcement. McCarthy doesn’t need to run for the Wolverines to stomp this year’s nonconference foes into more rubble pellets on the playing surface. Michigan’s championship season stands one cheap shot away from going into crisis mode, without McCarthy. When he left the game, his first two successors reminded all of the vulnerability at the position. One got cheap-shotted into the brick wall of The Big House and nicked up, and another immediately pitched an interception.

Okay, now back to our regular programming …

Ask Ohio State if McCarthy can stand and deliver when the heat is on, in the toughest of venues. Ask anyone what kind of leader he represents.

Danielson harkened back to the Big Ten football meetings in Indianapolis, when Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh likened McCarthy to NFL star quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. The former Lions quarterback and CBS commentator rightly pointed out Harbaugh’s real point.

While many pundits shook their heads over the apparent overreach, Danielson got it right, following McCarthy’s 47-yard TD toss to Wilson.

“[Raw ability] isn’t what he was talking about,” the analyst said. “It wasn’t as much about his ability but as a good teammate … he showed it right there, going and congratulating everybody. Didn’t point to his own chest. He went to every one of his teammates. That’s what he was talking about when he said, like Mahomes and Josh Allen, they’re pointing to their teammates first, not themselves.”

Spot on.

Harbaugh said this: “I searched my memory for someone who has been a first-time starter and had a better first year as a first-time starter and I can’t come up with one. He’s a once-in-a-generational type of quarterback at Michigan. His progress continues to grow. Daily he’s at the top of his game right now, really in all aspects. Everything he does athletically, everything he does throwing the football, are at the elite level. Then the thing that I think makes him the most special and that differentiates good and great is, he’s willing to do anything for his teammates and anything for his team.

“I think there’s some comparison to Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen … and I know there are others that have that level of talent-plus at the quarterback position to do anything for their team. I base that off of watching the way that Patrick Mahomes interacts with his teammates, what he says about his teammates and what they say about him. Josh Allen, what they say about him and about his teammates. That’s what I see in J.J. McCarthy every single day.”

Michigan Man McCarthy doesn’t limit his respect to present teammates. He honored former high school teammate Ryan Keeler — a UNLV player who passed away last February — by drawing Keller’s No. 47 on his hand. CBS drew attention to it at a most apropos moment.

“Just like that, with 47 on one hand, he rifles it to his favorite target with the other and a 47-yard touchdown. A 47-yard touchdown,” play-by-play commentator Brad Nessler said.

Harbaugh wasn’t around to wax eloquent about No. 9 on Saturday. The Wolverines did it for him, with assistants Jay Harbaugh and Mike Hart coaching the first and second halves, respectively. They certainly appreciated the QB who shouted out some love for the soon-returning Harbaugh in a postgame interview.

Meanwhile, almost everyone else was talking about McCarthy.

“J.J.’s a phenomenal player,” Hart said. “Number one, just the way he prepares for games. He knows everything that’s going on. He knows where the ball needs to be and he controls the offense. So, when you can do that as a quarterback, you’ve got the athletic ability, arm that he has, the sky’s the limit for J.J.”

“I was on the wrong end of that for a lot of spring ball and training camp, being with the defensive backs,” Jay Harbaugh said. “He throws a high number of balls throughout a practice where, it’s like man, we were in really good position. There’s nothing else you could have done there.

“We saw this coming a little bit, just the way he and the receivers were getting in sync throughout the preseason. It’s been great to see so far.”

The greatest part remains to play out. And McCarthy stands ready to play.