Michigan QB Cade McNamara: 'We need to show that last year was not a fluke'

Michigan Wolverines football finally broke through in 2021, beating Ohio State, winning the Big Ten and earning a College Football Playoff berth. The pressure is off eighth-year head coach Jim Harbaugh and his team, right? Wrong.

While it would be disingenuous to say Michigan has anywhere close to the kind of pressure it was facing a year ago, the Wolverines still have a lot to prove (they always do). Harbaugh proclaimed that last season was “just the beginning” of what was to come — and they’ve got the talent to keep the momentum going. The problem is — Ohio State and others have the talent, too, and they’re not going away.

Michigan senior quarterback Cade McNamara is intent on making sure the 12-2 campaign wasn’t an anomaly.

“This team, we need to win again,” McNamara said on Big Ten Network. “We need to show that last year was not a fluke.”

RELATED

• Michigan football: Six offensive players to watch during fall camp

• Michigan Regent Jordan Acker on NIL: It’s time to embrace NIL

Michigan’s two losses still eat away at McNamara and his teammates. The Wolverines held a 16-point lead at Michigan State but blew it and lost, 37-33. They were blown out, 33-11, by eventual national champion Georgia in the Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal. Needless to say, there’s room for growth despite it being a banner season.

“What we need to do better than what we did last season is, we need to beat Michigan State, we need to win every game in the regular season, without a doubt,” McNamara continued. “I think we need to be a huge stepping stone as to how Team 143 can be better than Team 142. Last year, Team 142 didn’t get that job done, so now it’s Team 143’s job to do that this season.

“We need to continue to help Michigan football keep this winning mentality and this atmosphere that we have as a foundation for the guys that come after us.”

Michigan senior tight end Erick All added that the Wolverines are striving for perfection in every game.

“I define [success] by being the team that’s more disciplined than the others,” All explained. “I feel like the team that makes less mistakes out there on the field will win the game — and if we’re that team that’s more disciplined than the teams that we play, we’ll be successful and we’ll have nothing to worry about.

“Of course, there’s going to be adversity, and when we see that and when we experience that, we’re going to overcome it and execute.”

Just because Michigan is looking to build on what it did last season and enjoy even more success doesn’t mean what they achieved won’t be looked at as a blueprint. All said it feels “great” not to have to answer about when his team will finally beat Ohio State, but they’re not satisfied.

“Everyone just worked hard and invested into each other,” All said of the 2021 campaign. “We tried to eliminate all mistakes we would make, all huge mistakes we would make, when it comes to run blocking, running the ball, route running.

“We worked on ourselves and we didn’t pay attention to the outside noise, and made sure that we did everything that we felt like that was perfect. We went into every game knowing that we’d beat our opponent, and it came out huge for us.”

Key Michigan defensive pieces are stepping up

Michigan’s defense has a new coordinator in Jesse Minter, who replaced Mike Macdonald. And while the scheme will look similar, the personnel will have a different look, with seven starters having departed the program.

Senior defensive tackle Mazi Smith is one of the team leaders and believes the Wolverines have enough talent to reload.

“It’ll look the same,” Smith said of the Michigan defense. “Coach Minter has a similar background to Coach Mac and bringing in a similar scheme. As for the guys that we lost, we got guys who saw those guys and took pieces of those guys who want to be the best that they can be, too — and I think they all will.”

Smith is the lone returning starter on the defensive line, with Aidan Hutchinson, David Ojabo and Christopher Hinton all heading to the NFL. Several have stepped up, though, and their opportunity will come this fall.

“[Junior defensive tackle] Kris Jenkins, of course,” Smith said of who’s standing out. “He’s really been putting in that work. We had a lot of talks about what he could do, how he could do it and how important it was for him to do it this year. He could put it all together.

“And then we’ve got [senior EDGE] Mike Morris, [graduate EDGE] Taylor Upshaw, [junior EDGE] Jaylen Harrell, [junior EDGE] Braiden McGregor. Those are all guys who would be high caliber in any program in the country. They can really get after it, and I don’t really see much of a drop-off.”