Matt Weiss evaluates ups and downs of JJ McCarthy's start vs. Maryland

Sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy wasn’t quite as sharp in a start against Maryland last week as he was in the first three games of the season, leading some to wonder if the hype for the Michigan starter might have gotten a little out of hand.

Co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss is not one of those people.

“He’s improving in every area and we have no concern about him going forward whatsoever,” Weiss said this week.

McCarthy, making just the third start of his Michigan career, did lead the No. 4 Wolverines to a 34-27 win over the Terrapins. He went 18-of-26 passing for 220 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

The chief complaint was that he missed on a handful of deep shots, uncharacteristic misses given how good he was in the first few games. He also probably got lucky on a few throws that could have been interceptions.

“You could also look at it and say if we connect on a few of those deep balls he throws for 400 yards and four touchdowns,” Weiss said. “But that’s not the reality that we live in. He didn’t connect on those deep balls. So just like we’re looking at a throw that could have been an interception, we’re looking at the throws that could have been touchdowns and we’re coaching the process, not the outcome.”

To that end, Michigan is perfectly happy with how McCarthy is progressing currently.

JJ McCarthy’s start against Maryland provides coachable moments

If the start of JJ McCarthy’s rein as QB 1 for the Wolverines was nearly flawless in the first three weeks, it was less so against Maryland.

One issue that should be relatively fixable is ball security. McCarthy fumbled twice and while Michigan recovered both fumbles, those kind of mistakes could prove costly in games down the road.

Weiss laughed when relaying McCarthy’s attitude toward those miscues after the win.

“Classic JJ, he came in and said, ‘Hey, can you tell the defense to punch at the ball when I’m running through there,'” Weiss said. “It’s like, ‘JJ, it’s not the best idea to have them punching at your throwing arm and hand while you’re running at the defense, so we’re not going to do that.’ But he’s willing to do whatever it takes to fix it. And we’re going to help him do it.”

One way Weiss plans to do that is by emphasizing some ball security drills in practice going forward.

“Ball security is always an emphasis,” he said. “It’s really hard with quarterbacks, just because they don’t get the contact in practice that other guys do. So I think we just have to do a better job of, as coaches, of providing that for him in controlled settings, where it’s safe, where he’s not going to get injured.”

Still in the early stages of development

One thing that Weiss brought up almost (perhaps sarcastically?) was the level of experience McCarthy has right now.

Though the Maryland game was technically his third start in college, the previous two came against the likes of Hawaii and UConn. Michigan won those by a combined score of 115-10. Not exactly pressure-packed situations, like the duel with Maryland provided plenty of.

Weiss stressed repeatedly that Saturday was McCarthy’s ‘first full football game’ at this level.

“There’s so many things that we can fix and work on, and so you come away from it even when he did make mistakes, we were encouraged because it’s all fixable stuff,” Weiss said. “Really it just comes down to coaching more than anything else. If he’s making mistakes, not doing the right thing, that’s on us as coaches. So we were really encouraged by his first full game. Yeah, we were happy with it.”

The best part is McCarthy seems fully on board with all of it.

“I’m sure JJ would tell you there’s a lot of stuff that we need to clean up, and we’re focused on the process,” Weiss said. “We love everything about JJ and the way he goes about it.”