Michigan QBs coach breaks down what J.J. McCarthy saw on TD to Roman Wilson in OSU win

The Michigan Wolverines have the program’s first recipient of the Big Ten Quarterback of the Year award in junior J.J. McCarthy, who helped lead U-M to another undefeated regular season at the helm of the offense.

Quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell has overseen his development since last winter and believes the honor is the result of plenty of man-hours of hard work.

“That is a compliment to him,” Campbell said on Wednesday. “Super proud of him and his work. Obviously, the first player in Michigan history to ever do that. He’s a special, talented player. He invests in the meeting room in the offseason, for him to be rewarded with that is just special. So happy for him and his teammates, too. They’re a large part of that. The receivers, O-line blocking for him and the running backs. Huge accomplishment for J.J. right there.”

There has been plenty of outside noise in recent weeks, but that is something McCarthy is used to. He signed with the program during a turbulent time, then was part of a Michigan quarterback battle last offseason. Dealing with external forces is something that Campbell has seen McCarthy excel at.

“J.J. is really good at compartmentalizing everything,” Campbel said. “He’s very good at staying at the task at hand. The most important thing, as we talk about today, we’re going to attack practice. Today’s Wednesday has got to be the best Wednesday of the year. The only thing that matters is this Wednesday and that’s how you compartmentalize it. Some people use a 1-0 mentality, we use it as being in the present mentality. What happened in the past is the past. What happens in the future you can only prepare for by having a great practice today.”

But even with a heady and efficient showing for the most part this season, McCarthy is not without flaw. Sometimes, he can be risky with the football. The good news for Michgian is that most of the time, it results in positive plays.

In last week’s win over Ohio State, McCarthy fired in a pair of risky passes to Cornelius Johnson and a touchdown to Roman Wilson. Campbell shared what he saw on those plays in the Michigan victory.

“When that specific throw happened, the touchdown I assume you’re talking about and the Cornelius one, the Cornelius one was a lot safer one, the sidelines,” Campbell said. “He learned a lesson from Maryland, he threw the ball back across the middle. When you scramble to the sidelines, try to get the ball back toward the sidelines, low and away, where only your guy can make it. The Cornelius one was a nice adjustment from the week before. On the one at the sidelines, the one at the end of the game, that was a little bit crazy. We want to make sure we control those and not throw the ball back across the middle as much there.

“The one to Roman, that’s the one where, as a coach, you’re like, ‘no, no, no, YES! Touchdown, Michigan.’ You see what he saw but he’s in a different position than I am in the box. You could see the defender is not fully cued in on him, you could see that. I’ve talked to him ad nauseam, he sees the field extremely well. Using his eyes to the right, he looks back left, right when he goes back to throw the ball the defender starts looking at the receiver. At that point, he was able to make the throw. In big games, some of the throws are in tight windows and you’re going to have to make them. That was a big play in the game. Couldn’t be more excited that he made that decision.”

McCarthy said this week that he noticed in film study that the Ohio State defender he targeted on the Wilson touchdown has a tendency to turn his back in coverage. When he saw it, he fired it in. And it is an example of the progress he made this year in his processing power.

“We 100% look at that stuff,” Campbell said. “You talk about depths of defenders, are they deep enough? Can we get the ball up and down over them? Are their backs turned to us? You think about the Colston Loveland touchdown against Michigan State, it’s the same exact situation. The linebacker was turned around and he put the ball back over his had. When the defender is not looking at you, you can always put that ball over his head. There’s very few times that he’s ever going to turn back around. There’s no reason for that, now he’s in chase mode, that DB, because our receiver is behind him. There’s things we talk about on film. To be able to execute it, that’s just a special player there.”

McCarthy threw for 2,483 yards with 19 touchdowns and 4 interceptions during the regular season, completing 74.3% of his passes at 9.7 yards per attempt. His next shot to impress comes Saturday night against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten Championship game, set for an 8:17 p.m. kickoff from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.