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Saturday, July 31, 2021

2021 Season Countdown: #36a J.J. McCarthy

 

J.J. McCarthy

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Name: J.J. McCarthy
Height:
6'3"
Weight:
195 lbs.
High school:
Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy
Position:
Quarterback
Class:
Freshman
Jersey number:
#9
Last year:
McCarthy was a senior in high school (LINK). He completed 92/165 passes for 1,392 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions.
TTB Rating:
89

McCarthy was Michigan's second commitment in the 2021 class after only offensive lineman Giovanni El-Hadi. McCarthy was a standout player early in his career at La Grange Park (IL) Nazareth Academy before finishing his career at IMG Academy in Florida. The decision to transfer came when football in the state of Illinois came into question during the pandemic.

McCarthy is known as a great leader with a rocket arm and solid mobility. He's not the biggest or fastest quarterback, but he's in the range of a lot of mobile quarterbacks who are taking college and NFL quarterbacking by storm. At 6'2" and 195 lbs., he looks more like Mac Jones (6'2", 180 in high school), Baker Mayfield (6'1", 190), Sam Howell (6'0", 225), etc. than the 6'5" statue quarterbacks of yesteryear. I think his size, athleticism, and skills match the offense better than anyone Michigan has had since Jake Rudock in 2015.

Will he take over in 2021? That is the huge question. McCarthy graduated in December and participated in spring practice, but Jim Harbaugh came out of the spring naming Cade McNamara the starter. At Big Ten Media Days, Harbaugh reiterated that McNamara was #1, McCarthy was #2, Dan Villari was #3, and transfer newcomer Alan Bowman would slot in there somewhere, depending on how August practice goes.

Right now my guess is that McNamara is truly #1, and Bowman would be the second-best quarterback option to start the year. But I think it's important for McCarthy to get snaps this season and prepare for the future. He has more upside than McNamara or Bowman, and the offense can be more dynamic with him, since he can push the ball downfield better and he moves better than both. I also think it's important for the state of the program right now to get a 5-star player to come in and perform like a 5-star, because fans and possibly recruits might be wondering at this point whether Michigan can develop its offensive skill players to the level they should. Shea Patterson, Dylan McCaffrey, Donovan Peoples-Jones, and Zach Charbonnet are all recent high-level recruits who have somewhat fizzled during their time in a winged helmet.

Prediction: Backup quarterback

14 comments:

  1. Man, I don't think I've ever disagreed with the order of the countdown, but if I were to do so, it'd be now

    Hassan Haskins is a bit of a physical runner, working behind an OL with a question mark at Center. We're bound to miss assignments, which can wear on him. I doubt Corum is close to an every down Back, so Edwards could be #1b soon
    Same at QB. Not only is Cade McNamara not a great QB, but he too is playing behind an OL bound for miscommunication. Doesn't help that he is not very agile, and was crippled after his first career B1G hit... I think either JJ or Bowman will replace him, eventually

    Not saying I disagree just yet, as you still have to go through all the starters. But I'm leaning toward the backup QB & RB being a little bit ahead of the guy who barely wins out at Left Guard

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just looking at them, it appears McNamara has a body able to take hits better than Bowman or McCarthy. Bowman and McCarthy are both skinny, especially Bowman. Why are you thinking they're more durable than McNamara?

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    2. That's not what I meant. I expect our QB to take a few big hits, so whoever starts is going to get dinged. Since Cade is going in as QB1, I expect on or the other (Bowman/JJ) to see plenty of time

      Delete
    3. I'm expecting different results with Matt Weiss coaching QBs than with other QB coaches over the last 4 years. I don't think we will be seeing RB like runs from QB like Dylan McCaffrey:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVChIyxQU0s

      Delete
    4. Michigan has a starter in Cade McNamara, a 5-star in JJ McCarthy, and a starter in Alan Bowman.

      McNamara gets dinged? McCarthy plays with Bowman as a fallback OR vice versa.
      Bowman gets dinged? McNamara plays with McCarthy as a backup.

      It's not often that a team needs three quarterbacks to play in a season. It does happen, but not much.

      Regarding the offensive line, almost everyone is coming back except Mayfield. (Carpenter started but only after Vastardis got hurt.) Hayes, Filiaga, Vastardis, and Stueber (that's LT to RG) all come back, with rumors coming out that Keegan will replace Filiaga and Zinter will replace Vastardis. That's in addition to the fact that the RT spot could be manned by Karsen Barnhart, who played quite a bit last year when other guys got injured.

      I'm not saying the OL will be great, but they return a bunch of guys who have started games, and experience is a huge determinant of success on the OL.

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    5. Hmm, so a wholly unproven 3rd string RB and QB are more important than a starting OL because of concerns on... the OL? JE logic hurting my brain.

      -LANK

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    6. Yeah, I see a lot of OL coming back with a couple games under their belt. But, how many have they played together? How many snaps has Zinter started at Center? Will they gel & communicate well? The last two times we saw this kind of mix was 2020, and before that was 2017 ... how did that impact QB?

      And, I'm not saying the backup QB is more important than the entire OL (I don't think any of these three are more important than that unit this year). But the battle at Left Guard is between a guy who has zero starts, and a guy a 5th year who we witnessed thrown around. Because I expect a QB injury or two, I imagine we'll have our hopes pinned on JJ/Bowman a bit more than say, filiaga/Keegan

      *at least that's how I understand the purpose of this countdown

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    7. I'm not sure it matters how much Zinter has started at center, because he's supposedly ahead of a guy who has started at center.

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    8. I hope it doesn't matter. But Zinter is still only a second year player, and the guy he's replacing wasn't good

      Between a first time OL coach and a young & inexperienced Center, I expect miscommunication, is all I'm saying

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  2. I agree with the idea that Michigan had better find ways to get McCarthy into games this season. Five-star QBs do not sit on the bench. They may not necessarily start as a true freshman, but they get into games and given a chance to show what they can do.

    ReplyDelete
  3. McCarthy is HUGE for this program but... he's just not ready yet. With 2 other QBs ahead of him I just don't see him playing a big role this season - though I'm sure he'll get snaps.

    A red-shirt is probably irrelevant here as very few top 100 QBs are going to stick around at one spot for 5 years. But there hopefully won't be good reason to play JJ more than 4 games.

    -LANK

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Shea Patterson, Dylan McCaffrey, Donovan Peoples-Jones, and Zach Charbonnet"

    Two guys who produced quite well as multi-year starters vs
    two who ended up on the bench and transferred

    I don't think of these 4 in the remotely the same terms.

    -LANK

    Especially DPJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure. They're 5-stars who didn't play like 5-stars.

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    2. Charbonnet was a 4 star as was McCaffrey (who wasn't even a top 100 recruit). Those guys haven't yet played up to their rankings - which would point to a power conference starter. But they could get there. Unlike Patterson and DPJ their college careers are still going.

      DPJ and Patterson were 5 stars who played like it. We already went through this argument with Gary. A top 25 recruit is not likely to be an all american. Arguing otherwise is arguing against historical fact.

      So different number of stars, different points in their careers, and different performance relative to expected historical levels for their respective rankings (which range about 120 spots).

      Seems like the common element here is just "a guy on offense I wish was better" but that's a much longer list...

      -LANK

      Delete