Michigan football: How Jim Harbaugh sees some of himself in 'great competitor' Cade McNamara
Michigan Wolverines football senior quarterback Cade McNamara was described in a feature by The Athletic as the quarterback head coach Jim Harbaugh “always wanted, and Michigan needed.” In 2021, McNamara led U-M to a win over rival Ohio State, its first Big Ten title since 2004 and first-ever College Football Playoff appearance, throwing for 2,576 yards and 15 touchdowns with six interceptions.
It’s McNamara’s confidence and competitiveness that serve as his top traits and unlock the rest of his game, which includes having the knowledge and talent to play at a high level.
For Michigan fans, it sounds familiar. The Wolverines had a quarterback just like that in the 1980s — Harbaugh himself. The Michigan coach had more athleticism than McNamara during his college days and finished third in 1986 Heisman Trophy voting, then became a first-round pick to the Chicago Bears. But still, Harbaugh’s best attributes were his grit, conviction and love for competition. And that’s where the comparison lies.
“Cade — I often think about that, like he’s a young Jimmy Harbaugh,” Harbaugh told Fox Sports at Big Ten Media Days. “I can just see it. He’s a great competitor.
“He’s a great practice player, he’s a great game player. My favorite stat in any quarterback is how many drives did they lead and what’s the percentage that those end up in a touchdown or points on the board. Cade’s is off the charts — it’s over 50 percent.”
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Michigan’s returning starter, who’s battling with sophomore J.J. McCarthy for the starting job this fall camp, has long worked with elite trainer Jordan Palmer. The two hooked up on the West Coast when McNamara was in sixth grade and have worked together ever since. Palmer has seen that competitiveness on display for quite some time.
“Honestly, I’ve probably spent as much time with Cade as anybody,” Palmer said on the Rich Eisen Show last year. “The family never missed a camp, he was living in Reno, always coming back down. By no means was he ever the guy where you said, God graced him with … he’s not 6-5, he doesn’t have the craziest arm I’ve ever seen, he doesn’t run a 4.2 [40-yard dash]. He’s just got a little something different in him, the way he competes.”
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Palmer wasn’t around Michigan’s coach as a player at U-M or in the pros, where Harbaugh played 15 seasons, but from what he’s heard, the comparison is spot on.
“From what I hear, there are a lot of similarities,” Palmer said. “In 2021, kids care a lot about perception and social media and likes and how things are perceived. Cade doesn’t. He’s very old school. He doesn’t really care about Instagram, he doesn’t care about any of that stuff. He’s just trying to win.”
Added Palmer of the Michigan quarterback: “What Cade was able to do was kind of mirror what Jim wanted — all ball, don’t care about any of the other fluff — and that’s who he is naturally. Cade didn’t have to act like that. I wasn’t around Jim as a player, but I see a lot of those things.
“Guys used to talk about, well, he was competitive in these situations where he shouldn’t have been competitive. The QB challenge, he’s the guy who took it more serious. Cade kind of takes everything more serious, too. He competes in everything.”
