JJ McCarthy responds to comparisons to Tom Brady from Jim Harbaugh

JJ McCarthy heard the comparisons to Tom Brady, from head coach Jim Harbaugh, but he doesn’t look at it like that necessarily.

Harbaugh called McCarthy the greatest quarterback in Michigan and college football history. It might be biased, but at least at Michigan, it might not be a stretch.

However, McCarthy does not want to invest himself too much in comparisons.

“It’s a tremendous honor you know everything about Tom,” McCarthy said at CFP National Championship Media Day. “Like every aspect of his life, every aspect of his game you want to aspire to be like it. And I feel like me personally, I don’t like comparisons too much because we’re all individually unique. We all have our different traits or different aspects about ourselves that makes us special. 

“And you know, just hearing that it just kind of gives you that reassurance that you’re on the right path and you’re doing the right things and it means a lot. But at the end of the day, I don’t like to compare myself to anyone. I just like to go out there and you know, to be be the best version of myself.”

But that doesn’t mean McCarthy does not keep a line of communication open with Brady when he can.

“We text here and there,” McCarthy said. “Haven’t gotten the opportunity to meet him in person but he’s always been great with responding to me with detailed answers and you know, always been supportive the whole way since I got here. So just so much love, so much respect for Tom and everything he’s taught me thus far and you know, I’m gonna continue to keep bugging him.”

Being called the best quarterback in school history and maybe college football history by your coach could put a lot of pressure on one’s shoulders. McCarthy practically shrugs it off because you’d have to take the negative connotation with that assumption.

“If I took that as too much pressure, I would have to take you know, someone saying that I’m the worst quarterback to ever come through here as pressure,” McCarthy said. “So if you’re going to take, you know, the good you’re gonna take the bad, you know, naturally. So I just tried to keep everything as noise, keep everything as opinions that everyone’s entitled to and just, you know, focus on what I’m doing on a day to day basis.”

McCarthy will put it all on the line with Michigan as the Wolverines take on Washington in Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship.