Cade McNamara opens up on balancing friendship with JJ McCarthy during quarterback competition

The Michigan quarterback situation is one of the most interesting and complex in the country. Cade McNamara is a veteran, who finally led Michigan past Ohio State, to a Big Ten Championship, and eventually to the College Football Playoff. Along the way, J.J. McCarthy was nipping at his heels, playing significant minutes in several games.

Quarterback battles can put a strain on a team. There is a tendency for teams who go through them to become divided, while outside pressure is usually demanding one quarterback play over another. For the quarterbacks involved, it’s important that they stay on good terms during a competition. Now, Cade McNamara has opened up on this aspect of the battle.

“I mean I have kind of been in a competition, with the exception of my redshirt freshman year, just every single year I’ve been at Michigan,” said Cade McNamara. “That’s something that’s not really foreign to me at this point. Anything I do is going to be for the sake of the team winning. That’s what’s most important on my mind.”

“What comes with that is having good relationships with my teammates and really for me, like I take a lot of pride in what I bring to the team from a leadership standpoint, so allowing negativity or anything like that, I don’t think that’s healthy for the team or really for myself either.”

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The state of the Michigan quarterback battle

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh opened up during Big Ten Media Days as to how he will handle the quarterback battle. Cade McNamara is going to get starter’s reps to begin camp. He got them to the College Football Playoff and he returns with tons of experience. At the same time, Harbaugh didn’t do much to dispel the idea that J.J. McCarthy could overcome him.

“Well last year, made it work,” Jim Harbaugh said. “Both had phenomenal seasons, JJ in his true freshman year, Cade in his junior year, both played outstanding, winning football every time they went out there. A really cool stat on Cade McNamara is over 50% of his drives ended in points, and I don’t know exactly what the number is for JJ, but seems like every time he got in there and led a drive, it ended in points as well.”

It remains to be seen who takes the first snap of the season for Michigan, but there’s a good chance the Wolverines use the same strategy as 2021.