Michigan football QB Cade McNamara reveals where he's most improved, discusses excitement for loaded offense

INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan Wolverines football senior quarterback Cade McNamara had a stellar 2021 season in which he led his team to the Big Ten championship. But the signal-caller isn’t resting on his laurels. 

Soon after Michigan lost to Georgia in the Orange Bowl New Year’s Eve, McNamara got back to work. He took his training seriously, including heading west to work with elite trainer Jordan Palmer during spring break.

“It started in January,” McNamara said of his offseason work while speaking to reporters at Big Ten Media Days. “It was a long season, so I spent the majority of the beginning part of the offseason focusing on my body. I feel like I’m in a really good place right now, and as my throwing reps have continued to grow, those phases continue.”

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The Michigan offense is expected to be even better this season, after averaging 35.6 points per game in 2021 (16th nationally). Per ESPN.com, The Wolverines are returning 87 of their production on offense (13th-most in the country), plus graduate wide receiver Ronnie Bell, who led the club in receiving yards in 2019 and 2020, is back, making for a comfortable situation. 

The Michigan offense now has two co-coordinators in Matt Weiss, the quarterbacks coach, and Sherrone Moore, who also leads the offensive line, but McNamara appears to be picking up where he left off despite the change.

“Right now, whether it’s footwork, whether it’s the offense, I’m very comfortable in this offense,” he said. “Building chemistry even more with some of the guys that are on the field, rebuilding my chemistry with Ronnie, maybe some guys that I haven’t gotten as many reps with, especially this time right now, that’s the time to do it. We’re really close right now, and I’m excited to see all that work come into fruition and us get after it in camp.”

The Michigan quarterback said he’s improved most on a couple details in particular.

“My footwork has improved a lot,” McNamara explained. “I feel like I have a better base right now. I feel really confident in my throwing right now. As the season went on, as more balls were being thrown, you settle into midseason form. 

“This offseason, especially, my accuracy has been as clean as it’s ever been in my career — and I’m very confident in my ability.”

There wasn’t one specific way in which McNamara improved, instead several different factors having made a difference.

“It’s a combination of studying my motion and then working with the coaches, working with my quarterback coach, Jordan Palmer, as to where my inefficiencies are,” the Michigan signal-caller said. 

“Part of my motion could be, where I step could cause me to pull on my front side, which is why the ball goes right. It’s not just because, ‘I missed the ball right; let’s go grab the football and throw it again.’ It’s more of, why did I miss there, what caused it? And whether that’s biometrically, whether that’s physically or even mentally, finding those things. 

“Obviously, you can’t change everything in one day or one offseason, but I’ve been able to find things that have helped me improve, and I’m just going to continue to work on those things.”

Cade McNamara fired up about Michigan weapons

Michigan back nine players who caught 10-plus passes and eight who registered 148 or more receiving yards. They’re one of five programs with multiple Mackey Award watch list members at tight end in senior Erick All and graduate Luke Schoonmaker. Bell leads a now-experienced crew of wide receivers who stepped in for him last season.

McNamara hopes to be the man behind center to lead Michigan to another championship (or two). And he feels great about the guys surrounding him.

“I’m just really excited to see a group of guys that’s been together for so long … I want to see success,” McNamara said. “Everyone else does, too. We’ve got a big group of guys who’ve been playing together for a while, a lot of guys who have seen a lot of game experience, and I think over the course of my career, with the exception of [2019] with Donovan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins, Sean McKeon — guys who have been on the field as much as them — this is the most experienced group that I’ve been around really my entire career.