The Hard Truth About Cade McNamara
Michigan fans love Cade McNamara for what he did last year, but he's not the best quarterback on the roster right now and that's just the way it is. That's not an attack on Cade, that's not meant to hurt anyone's feelings, but anyone who watched Michigan trounce Colorado State on Saturday saw it.
JJ McCarthy is the guy.
McNamara finished the day 9-of-18 for 136 yards and a touchdown, but if you take away his throw to Roman Wilson, that was completed at the line of scrimmage on a bubble screen and "traveled" 61 yards into the end zone, McNamara was just 8-of-17 for 75 yards. Against Colorado State. Granted, he wasn't asked to throw it much, but that's still just 47% when he did put it in the air for only 75 yards. I never like the whole, "take away this run, or that catch, or this throw and Player X only..." argument, but it feels a little more appropriate when you look at McNamara's stat line because of how his biggest play happened and because of how the rest of his day played out.
There's another angle to keep in mind when analyzing McNamara's outing. This was supposed to be his day, his start and his audition to win the job. That's not me saying that, that's not the fans demanding that, that's Jim Harbaugh's publicly announced plan and vision for his two quarterbacks. The coordinators didn't dial up many passing plays for Cade, but he still threw it 18 times and didn't do much with it. There's just no other way to slice it. He also brought nothing to the table in terms of running the ball himself. McCarthy, on the other hand, carried the ball three times for 50 yards and a touchdown, which came on a 20-yard keeper off a zone read.
McNamara started the game today and Michigan won 51-7, yet he didn't appear to be in the best of moods after the game. McNamara is always pretty even-keeled, I'll give him that, but he seemed pretty somber and even spoke like he knew his run as U-M's quarterback was over.
"It’s not my decision," Cade said when asked if this approach was fair. "I’m honored that my teammates recognized me for the role that I have currently, but...that’s about it."
As Jim Harbaugh famously said last week, "No man knows the future," so we don't know how things are going to go for McCarthy during his start against Hawaii, but if today was any sort of indicator, I think Cade McNamara has started his last game as a Wolverine.
