Joel Klatt reveals last thing holding back Michigan football

Michigan is off to their second consecutive 5-0 start this season, fresh off of a 27-14 win over Iowa where they saw big performances from running back Blake Corum and edge Mike Morris. The Wolverines lost quite a few of their best players from last season to the NFL, but so far seem to have picked up right where they left off from last year. College football analyst Joel Klatt likes how Michigan has looked so far this season, but believes there’s one dynamic of their game that’s holding them back.

“Been following Michigan around a little bit and they’re just scratching the surface of what they could potentially be. They’re a team that I think could be really good, when you look at what they can be offensively, JJ McCarthy has missed a couple of those long throws down the field,” Klatt said. “If they start hitting those, watch out, because that’s the only thing missing from this team right now.”

McCarthy entered the season battling with quarterback Cade McNamara for the starting job and was named the starter heading into their week 3 game versus Connecticut, a game where McNamara also suffered a lower body injury that will sideline him for a few weeks.

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McCarthy has proven he can be an effective dual threat for the Wolverines, and efficient, not throwing a single interception so far this season and completing 78% of his passes on the year. However, his deep ball accuracy could see some improvement, as he’s completed just 2-13 of his passes in their last two games of 20 yards or more downfield.

The good news for Michigan is that’s a very small deficiency in what they bring to the table all around, and maybe their only one, as Klatt spoke on how the Wolverines have been firing on all cylinders.

“They play great special teams, their offensive line might be better than last year when they won the Joe Moore Award for the top offensive line in college football. They can run the rock, their defense is stopping people and getting after the quarterback, which was a major question coming into the season,” Klatt said.

So far this season, McCarthy’s deep ball accuracy seems like it hasn’t held the team back or prevented them from winning games in any way, and an improvement in that area would just raise the Wolverine’s ceiling even more. But it will be interesting to see how important it will be when they face some of the conference’s ranked opponents like Penn State and Ohio State to end the season, in games where big, explosive plays are even more important and the stakes overall are even higher.

“So the biggest question is JJ McCarthy, is he going to take them to the next level throwing them the ball down the field?” Klatt asked.