Jim Harbaugh: JJ McCarthy and Caleb Williams are the 'two best' quarterbacks in college football

Through the first half of the college football season, JJ McCarthy and Caleb Williams have been two of the top quarterbacks in the country. Williams leads the nation with 22 passing touchdowns while McCarthy ranks third in the FBS with a 77.6% completion percentage as they’ve led their teams to 6-0 records.

According to Jim Harbaugh, McCarthy and Williams are in a class of their own.

Harbaugh hasn’t hesitated to give McCarthy high praise throughout the year and put his name alongside other great quarterbacks. This time, though, he went so far as to say he and Williams are the “two best” quarterbacks in college football — and he wondered what would happen if they went head-to-head.

“I think it would be obvious for anybody, right?” Harbaugh said during an interview with WXYZ-TV’s Brad Galli. “I get to see J.J. every day. Caleb Williams, I get to see him in his games. He’s a fabulous player. J.J.’s a fabulous player. I don’t think I’m going out on any limb saying those are the two best that I’ve seen in college football. It’s great.

“Wouldn’t it be something if we were to meet up this year? That would be really cool, you start thinking of things like that.”

JJ McCarthy and Caleb Williams are both having strong seasons

In addition to his 22 passing touchdowns, Williams also has six rushing touchdowns to give him 28 touchdowns responsible for this season as he engineers USC’s high-powered offense. He also has the second-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy behind Washington’s Michael Penix Jr.

McCarthy, meanwhile, has 11 passing touchdowns and three rushing scores for Michigan and its strong attack. At +2000, he’s seventh on the Heisman odds board.

But the biggest thing Harbaugh sees in McCarthy, he said, is his ability to keep getting better. As the year has gone along, he has taken strides and grown as a player.

“That’s kind of thoughts, but the focus is to have a great day today, great meeting,” Harbaugh said. “I can’t wait to see J.J. He brings life. He’s an ignitor, and I know he’s going to come in this week and attack it like he has every single week. And because of that, you’ve seen growth, seen improvement. It’s really fun to be a part of it.”

Harbaugh previously put McCarthy alongside the likes of Andrew Luck, who played for Harbaugh at Stanford. There’s no question he’s happy with how his quarterback has played this year, and he’ll try to continue his impressive play this week against Indiana.