Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy discusses his relationship, competition with Cade McNamara

Michigan Wolverines football sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy and senior Cade McNamara are competing for the right to lead the U-M offense on a full-time basis. McCarthy will start this weekend against Hawai’i after McNamara got things started in Week 1 in a 51-7 win over Colorado State. Head coach Jim Harbaugh will continue to evaluate how each performs before he makes a final determination on who the main signal-caller will be.

“He just gave us the whole rundown on how he doesn’t have a clear decisive decision on who’s going to be the guy, so he’s going to give us opportunities in the first two games,” McCarthy said of Harbaugh’s conversation with the two quarterbacks at the end of Michigan’s fall camp.

Harbaugh said on Michigan’s pregame radio show last weekend that McCarthy was on fire, previously explaining that his best 4 practices came at the end of camp. McCarthy, though, viewed it as constant improvement throughout the month, after missing most of the offseason with a shoulder injury (labrum).

“I don’t necessarily feel like there was a certain time that I made a push,” McCarthy explained. “I think it was just constantly getting better every single day. Maybe 1, 2, or 5 percent better every day.

“I was just so locked in on myself and my improvement. Getting back from this injury, and all of that. There was no direct, ”OK, I’m ahead of him,’ or anything like that. It was just, I feel like I’m growing, I feel like I’m excelling with my guys, and it’s been like that constantly.”

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McNamara said after Michigan’s game against the Rams that he felt he did enough to retain the job after fall camp. After all, he started all 14 games during the Wolverines’ Big Ten championship season in 2021. McCarthy wasn’t as focused on that, he said, instead honing in more on his development.

“That decision is something that’s out of my control,” the Michigan quarterback said. “I never really took it to the thought process of, ‘Oh, I should be the guy. I want it.’ That’s not for me to decide. I need to decide what I’m doing every single day. How I’m improving every day is my obligation. It has nothing with making that decision that I’m the man or anything like that.”

McNamara appeared to be frustrated in the postgame press conference after Michigan’s Week 1 win. He went 9-for-18 passing for 136 yards and 1 touchdown. McCarthy was more impressive, but in a smaller sample size, playing just 11 snaps to McNamara’s 43. McCarthy was a perfect 4-for-4 passing for 30 yards and rushed for 50 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown, on 3 carries.

The Michigan senior said that he feels Harbaugh doesn’t want to switch back and forth between quarterbacks all season long, but McCarthy expressed that he’d be fine with however the cards fall. Harbaugh said Monday that he’d “prefer” to have a clear-cut starter but that he can’t predict how it’ll play out.

“I actually didn’t see [his postgame comments],” McCarthy said of McNamara’s remarks.

“Not making that switch, I feel like that’s the best way to do it for the team. Whatever Coach Harbaugh picks, I’m right behind it. Being on this football team last year, it worked with switching. Like I said, whatever happens, happens, and I’m ready for it.”

Despite outsiders pitting the quarterbacks against each other, McCarthy said that he and McNamara have a strong relationship. He provided some insight into it Tuesday night.

“It’s been awesome,” McCarthy said of the bond between the two Michigan quarterbacks. “What better way to have a guy who’s that intelligent, that motivated, that driven, and just be able to observe him every single day, be able to replicate parts of his game that I can improve in my game?

“It’s been an honest blessing for both of us to be in this position that we’ve been in and just grow from each other. There are so many outside voices that try to make us dislike each other in a way.

“And there were a couple practices where we’re like, ‘Man, the media really doesn’t want us to like each other,’ and we just kind of laugh at it. We take on that challenge and embrace it. It’s made us so much better as players and as human beings.”