How Michigans handoff from Cade McNamara to J.J. McCarthy paved path back to CFP

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jim Harbaugh doesn’t like to make comparisons, but sometimes the temptation prevails.

The night of J.J. McCarthy’s first start was one of those occasions. With kickoff delayed by weather, the time approached 1 a.m. when Harbaugh emerged from Michigan’s locker room. As he discussed McCarthy’s performance against Hawaii, Harbaugh’s mind drifted back to a Monday night in Chicago 10 years earlier, when Colin Kaepernick started in place of an injured Alex Smith and led Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers to a 32-7 victory.

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“A lot like that Monday night game that Colin played against the Bears, that looked a lot like what J.J. was able to do out there tonight,” Harbaugh said.

As Michigan prepares for Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game against Purdue and a likely return to the College Football Playoff, history appears to be coming full circle. A decade ago, Harbaugh’s decision to ride with a promising young quarterback over a steady-handed veteran ended with his team playing in the Super Bowl. Faced with a similar decision this season, Harbaugh gambled on McCarthy’s upside and was rewarded with a 12-0 regular season, capped by a 45-23 triumph against Ohio State that Harbaugh ranked among the best of Michigan’s 988 all-time victories.

“When you’re at Michigan,” Harbaugh said, “you get to play in the Super Bowl every single year.”

Changing quarterbacks on the heels of Michigan’s most successful season in decades was a go-for-it-all move by a program with national championship aspirations. Once Michigan committed to McCarthy, it was all but inevitable that Cade McNamara would enter his name in the transfer portal, as he did earlier this week. It wasn’t inevitable that the Wolverines would be 12-0, or that McCarthy would be able to galvanize the team the way he has.

For the B1G Championship!#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/XNW135ZGLB

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) November 28, 2022

Michigan had confidence in McCarthy, but these quarterback decisions don’t come with a crystal ball. If Michigan had fallen short of last year’s success, the decision to replace a proven starter would have been ripe for second guessing. Going 24-2 over the span of two seasons is hard enough, but even more, the Wolverines did it while executing a quarterback handoff without so much as a stumble.

“That was a pretty drastic change during the season because we were so used to Cade,” left guard Trevor Keegan said. “We were so used to Cade’s leadership and Cade being in there and J.J. coming in for special plays. I think the coaches did a really good job of handling that, and the players did as well.”

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The decision to alternate starters in Michigan’s first two games was the kind of unorthodox move that few coaches aside from Harbaugh would attempt. But it worked: McCarthy won the job on the field, for all the world to see, and didn’t let it go. McNamara injured his knee the following week, which defused any possible quarterback controversy. From that point, McCarthy didn’t have to do anything special to unify the locker room; he just had to be himself.

“During that whole quarterback battle, it wasn’t really a battle between the team,” McCarthy said. “It was just two guys going at it and getting better. The coaches were going to be the ones to make that decision. For the rest of the team, it was just two of their brothers going out there and playing ball.”

The Wolverines are quick to say they wouldn’t be where they are without McNamara. He was the one who came off the bench and sparked a comeback against Rutgers at the end of a miserable season in 2020. Along with Aidan Hutchinson and a few other veterans, he helped to set the tone for Michigan’s turnaround in the offseason that followed. He was the one who made clutch plays to beat Nebraska and Penn State in 2021, the one who snapped Michigan’s losing streak against Ohio State and the first Michigan quarterback since Chad Henne to guide the Wolverines to a Big Ten championship.

None of that was enough to guarantee McNamara the starting job in 2022, not with a five-star prospect waiting in McCarthy. There was no way to resolve the situation without some bruised feelings, as McNamara hinted when he expressed his surprise at having to audition publicly for the job. The Wolverines made a bet on McCarthy for the long term, and their 12-0 regular season vindicates the decision.

“It was a really hard decision throughout training camp and everything that played out,” said Matt Weiss, Michigan’s quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator. “It’s another credit to Jim, the way he handled the whole situation, and Cade, too. The guy’s a Michigan legend, and I don’t say that lightly.”

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McCarthy’s numbers this season aren’t markedly different from McNamara’s last year. McCarthy is completing 65.3 percent of his passes and averaging 8.2 yards per attempt, compared with 64.2 percent and 7.8 yards per attempt for McNamara in 2021. It’s possible, even likely, that Michigan could have started 11-0 with either quarterback at the helm.

McCarthy’s four-touchdown performance against Ohio State showed why the Wolverines did what they did. If he leads Michigan to even greater heights — a win in the CFP, or even a national championship — it will be further proof that he has raised the potential for a program that topped out last year in the Orange Bowl.

McCarthy faced the same learning curve as any first-year starter, but his trajectory is right where Michigan’s coaches thought it could be.

“There’s not too many 19-year-olds that have played in the College Football Playoff,” Weiss said. “I think Trevor Lawrence did it. It’s scary to think how good he’ll be when he’s 22.”

As McCarthy grew into his role as the starting quarterback, McNamara faded into the background. Any thoughts that he might return this season were dashed when he posted a photo after a knee surgery performed by Neal ElAttrache, a Los Angeles-based orthopedic surgeon.

“He’s still embracing his leadership role, even though he’s wherever he is, in L.A. rehabbing,” McCarthy said last week when asked about McNamara’s presence with the team. “It’s been great to hear from him and know he’s doing good.”

By entering his name in the transfer portal this week, McNamara officially embarked on the next chapter of his football career. He’ll have a chance to prove himself somewhere else, just as Smith did when he left San Francisco for Kansas City and made the Pro Bowl three times.

Quarterbacks with CFP experience don’t hit the portal every day, so McNamara should have no shortage of options. Meanwhile, Michigan enters the postseason with all of its biggest goals in reach, vindicating the decision to go for it all and gamble on the quarterback with the highest ceiling.

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McCarthy may be the quarterback to finish the job, but McNamara was the one who started it.

“We wouldn’t be where we are as a team right now without Cade,” Weiss said. “His story is still being written, so we wish him nothing but success. Hopefully we don’t have to play him.”

(Photo: Mike Mullholland / Getty Images)

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