Stakes are high for Michigan Wolverines QB J.J. McCarthy after playoff appearance

Not even a year has passed since Michigan football anointed J.J. McCarthy as its starting quarterback, making him the conductor of a powerful offense that was revived under the command of the upperclassman he had supplanted. The tense position battle between McCarthy and former Michigan captain, Cade McNamara, served as a choppy preamble to a season of smooth sailing when the Wolverines solidified their place among the sport’s elite programs, claimed their second consecutive Big Ten title and their new sensation behind center came into his own.

So, as McCarthy entered his junior year as Michigan’s unquestioned QB1, he felt more relaxed than ever.

“Everything is just clear,” he said in one breath this past month.

“Things are just effortless,” he added in another.

McCarthy gushed as he told reporters that he has had more fun playing football than at any other time in his life. The quarterback almost seemed liberated in that moment. In many ways, he had been. He was now far removed from the struggle that pushed McNamara out of the picture and led him to become an Iowa Hawkeye before Michigan had played its last snaps of 2022.

But just as McCarthy shed one heavy burden, he now welcomes another. The weight of enormous, maybe even outrageous expectations has been dropped on McCarthy’s shoulders by pundits, fans and even his famous coach.

“Daily he's at the top of his game right now, really in all aspects,” Jim Harbaugh crowed at Big Ten media days in July. “Everything that he does athletically, everything that he does throwing the football are at the elite level.”

The exaggerated praise continued. Harbaugh proceeded to call him a “once-in-a generation type of guy” at a school where he once starred in the 1980s and future G.O.A.T Tom Brady played in the ‘90s. Then he doubled down on that statement by inviting comparisons to two quarterbacks many see as the best in the game right now, NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.

Harbaugh’s hyperbolic comments caused quite a stir, considering McCarthy’s last impression came in a shocking 51-45 loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff when he threw a pair of interceptions returned for touchdowns and then stared morosely at the final score on the stadium’s videoboard. In that game, McCarthy was far from awful. At times, he looked downright spectacular. He threw for 343 yards, passing or running on 44 plays from scrimmage — both career-highs. He did so while he tried to chase down the Horned Frogs over the final 54 minutes of regulation.

McCarthy and the Wolverines, of course, never caught them, and it left some wondering what Michigan would need to do to advance past the College Football Playoff semifinal round after it had been stopped there each of the past two seasons. Harbaugh arrived at his own conclusion: the Wolverines’ offense needed more balance.

“I want to be 50-50, I really do,” he said earlier this week on the school’s in-house radio show.

It’s a departure from the plan that resurrected his program. During the last two years, the Wolverines have leaned on their ground game, running 410 more times than they passed it.

Their philosophical bent led McCarthy to fade into the background, which lowered his statistical ceiling. Last fall, he finished 50th in the country in passing yards despite playing more games than most of the quarterbacks ranked above him. At times last fall, he simply acted as a bridge between running backs Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, helping to keep the chains moving so they could get more touches.

"I'll sit back and be part of that ride ever single game,” McCarthy said last October following a victory over Penn State.

But as he begins his second year as a starter no one expects him to be just a passenger on the Wolverine Express, gripping the coattails of Corum and Edwards as they zoom down the tracks at full speed. The prevailing assumption is this time he will be the engineer, the kind of difference-maker with the capability of propelling Michigan to a national championship.

“J.J.,” the team’s receivers coach Ron Bellamy said, “is the best quarterback in college football. I’m saying that because I’ve watched him. I totally believe in him.”

McCarthy will be supported by a stacked offensive line, a pair of top-flight ball carriers, emerging tight end Colston Loveland and crew of receivers that can stretch the field.

Assuming he’s given more license to throw, McCarthy could etch his name in the school record books.

Given what his teammates have said about him in the preseason, that wouldn’t come as a surprise.

“He looks great,” running back Kalel Mullings said. “The dude is super-fast, super-strong, super-accurate. He has it all.”

The Wolverines hope he can keep the entire repertoire intact. With both McNamara and Alan Bowman now suiting up at other programs following their recent departures, there isn’t much quality depth behind McCarthy. Indiana transfer Jack Tuttle has appeared in 16 games in five years. Davis Warren has thrown only nine passes in his career. For Michigan to make it to the finish line, McCarthy must carry them there. Preserving his health is crucial to the team’s success, and yet McCarthy is known for his daredevil streak.

“God has given me this great ability to use my legs,” he said last month. “Got to use them more.”

But how much? And how often?

These are hard questions, and McCarthy is charged with finding the right answers in order to strike the perfect balance between being circumspect and aggressive.

The margin of error is thin, which is also true for the team he’ll direct. After all, the Wolverines see this as the year when they must seize the moment and go all the way.

“So yeah,” Corum said, “it’s win or bust.”

That’s why the pressure on McCarthy has never really attenuated in the past year. Instead, its origin has merely shifted from the cauldron of an internal QB competition to the crucible of expectations created by everyone around him.  

“I’ve always been a person that strives for the path of most resistance,” he said.

If that is the case, then he may just have what it takes to overcome the obstacles placed in front of him to lead the Wolverines to their ultimate goal. As he knows, it won’t be easy. Then again, it never was for a talented quarterback who had to fight just to get this opportunity.

Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin.