Pete Thamel weighs in on Jim Harbaugh, Michigan quarterback situation

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is taking an unusual approach with his quarterback room to start the 2022 season. On Saturday, Harbaugh announced that Cade McNamara will start Week 1 against Colorado State and JJ McCarthy will start Week 2 against Hawai’i before an official starter is named ahead of Week 3.

The move spotlights the unique situation at Michigan, which also employed the use of both quarterbacks a year ago. ESPN senior writer Pete Thamel joined the College GameDay podcast Monday, where he suggested that it could be an attempt to keep one of the two players happy.

“Actually doing this is one thing. Announcing it and sort of trumpeting it as a topic for the next essentially three weeks is different,” Thamel said. “It makes me theorize that somebody is unhappy. JJ McCarthy was a highly regarded quarterback out of Florida. He probably could have gone somewhere better than Michigan — and quite frankly, there are only seven or eight places better than Michigan — but he’s a little bit of a thin guy. That hurt him and the bluest of the blue bloods. He’s a guy who’s progressed. All these quarterbacks have camps now. Quarterbacks are their own ecosystem and rightfully so. They are the engines of a billion-dollar business. So, to me, this (is) an appeasement to the McCarthy camp.”

McNamara served as the official Michigan starting quarterback in 2021, throwing for 2,576 yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions. McCarthy, a top 100 recruit who ranked as the No. 9 quarterback in the 2021 class according to On3 Consensus, appeared in 11 games as his backup. He finished the year 34-of-59 passing for 516 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions in addition to 124 yards rushing and two touchdowns.

Thamel also pointed out that the decision to start the season off with both quarterbacks could be seen as an affront to McNamara. Last season marked first time that Michigan won the Big Ten since 2004, and the ongoing battle has cast question onto his ability entering the 2022 season.

“If I’m in the McNamara camp, there’s a little bit of Colt McCoy/Chris Sims here,” Thamel said. “Now, McCarthy wasn’t Chris Sims, but it’s like (McNamara) won you the Big Ten. You haven’t won the Big Ten in a longtime. You haven’t beaten Ohio State with a full-time coach in a generation. And McCarthy went in and cost them the Michigan State game. There was some quarterback fumbling going on in that game.

“I just think this is a little bit of a window into the modern reality of where we are. Like, ‘OK let’s make sure that JJ’s happy.’ This is a way to kind of calm everybody down and say, ‘You’re gonna get your chance.’ We’re gonna announce on Week 0 this really unique quarterback plan. Announcing that plan doesn’t sound like it’s the best thing for Michigan football, it sounds like it’s the best thing to keep the quarterback room together.”

It will be interesting to see whether the two-quarterback arrangement continues past Week 3, even if either one of McCarthy or McNamara is eventually named the full-time starter. Michigan is set to kick off the 2022 season at noon ET on Saturday in Ann Arbor against Colorado State.