What We're Hearing On Michigan's Quarterback Battle
"Here's the really, really good news, if you want to call it that," one of our sources with decades of program access shared over the weekend. "Considering the limitations of being separated from their coaches and most of their teammates, our three quarterbacks have been getting after it, the film study, the workouts, working on mechanics with local coaches. I haven't seen a quarterback competition quite like this at Michigan since, maybe, the 1990s."
The reason?
There's no clear cut frontrunner simply because it's impossible to say who can take their individual workout habits and mental reps and apply them to full 11-on-11 contact situations.
And there are at least three QBs all working extremely hard to win the job. As one former quarterback shared, having been involved in two major quarterback competitions, "usually one guy outworks everyone, and he's your starter. Sometimes you have two really going at it, but it's rare for a third because that guy, just doesn't put in the same effort."
Redshirt junior Dylan McCaffrey has more experience than redshirt sophomore Joe Milton and redshirt freshman Cade McNamara overall and in the crucible (on the road at Notre Dame in 2018), but that doesn't mean as much as it used to.
It helps that while McCaffrey missed a few weeks in 2019 with concussion-like symptoms, Milton received all the second-team reps in practice.
All three players could have benefited tremendously from spring practice, and no one is yet sure how preseason practices will shape up - will the Big Ten and/or NCAA extend practices another two weeks to work on the fundamentals lost in March and April or will fall camp proceed as normal (four weeks, the fourth a game week)?
This much is certain two different insiders shared with Wolverine Digest, all three quarterbacks are preparing to hit the ground running.
"The gains each of them have made in film study has been tremendous, they're recognizing coverages and discussing plans of attack so much better today than a few weeks back, it's really impressive stuff," a source said. "But I'll caution that by saying looking at the entire field from eye-in-the-sky level is a lot different than being on the ground, with limited lanes of vision and such.
"I wish, I wish, I wish they had gotten some run in November, when Michigan was out of the Big Ten race.
"I guess the good news is most of the people I've spoken to don't expect Michigan to open the season at Washington, but probably to have three non-conference games with Mid-American conference opponents so there should be plenty of game reps for two quarterbacks to get experience, and I do expect two to play, if the schedule goes that way.
"That's for two reasons - 1) I think the coaches want to extend this competition as long as they can, to give all the quarterbacks an equal shot, and to keep them invested in the program 2) they have different skill sets, especially if it's Joe and Dylan, and there's a scenario in which you could play both consistently.
"If you can find a pattern and groove the first three games, there's no reason that says you have to abandon the platoon once you get to Big Ten play, especially if you think it can help you exploit different areas of weakness."
So will it be Milton and McCaffrey, or McCaffrey and Milton? Is McNamara a threat? Offensive coordinator Josh Gattis recently talked about his quarterback situation and had a lot of love for the redshirt freshman.
"If Cade wins this job it'll be because he's outworked everybody, which I don't think is the case right now, and because when they get to live reps, his reads and accuracy, limiting the mistakes, are better than the other guys, which is entirely possible.
"He doesn't have Joe's arm, and I know they want to stretch the field more than they were capable a year ago, and he doesn't run the read-option like Dylan, which is also something they want more of than they got last year, but this is a kid that threw the ball more than 1300 times in high school, threw for more than 12,000 yards and close to 150 touchdowns.
"This is a kid that has a lot of experience and has had a lot of success so let's not sleep on him just because he's not as physically impressive as the other two."
I asked all three sources we spoke to how they would handicap the quarterback battle heading into June, and I got mostly laughs.
"You just don't know because of the separation, and anyone telling you 'This guy leads or that guy leads' is just guessing or lying because we won't know until they come back together, get in pads and throw against Don Brown's defense that is bringing pressure and disguising the back end and such. Everyone is excited for that day, whenever it comes, because all three are putting in the work. I know the Michigan coaches are really happy with their quarterbacks preparation."
