Ten months ago, with the Michigan football team trailing 17-0 in Piscataway, N.J., Jim Harbaugh turned to quarterback Cade McNamara. The move was seen as a last resort. McNamara, then a sophomore, began the season third on the Wolverines’ quarterback depth chart behind Joe Milton and Dylan McCaffrey. He had never seen meaningful game action, but after the former played his way to the bench and the latter transferred, McNamara was thrust onto the field. He made the most of the opportunity, steering the Wolverines’ comeback win and saving the program from a catastrophic loss. He completed 27-of-36 pass attempts for 260 yards and accounted for five total touchdowns in the 48-42 overtime victory. But above all, he showed the leadership traits Michigan’s previous quarterbacks lacked. “That’s probably the biggest statement you can make,” Harbaugh told reporters on Monday. “Coming into a game like that, that’s your opportunity. Seventeen points down, rally the team, comeback victory. That does a lot — that does a tremendous amount for your own confidence and the belief everyone has in an individual.” Nearly a year later, that confidence has only grown stronger. McNamara has emerged as the Wolverines’ stabilizing factor, leading to a 3-0 start this fall. Even in Michigan’s run-heavy offense, McNamara’s consistency through the air maintains a valuable dimension of any college offense. Despite limited opportunities to throw, he’s completed 24 of his 37 passes so far — a 64.9% completion rate — and has three touchdowns through the air, including an 87-yard bomb, the third-longest in program history. McNamara’s early success dates back to the end of last year, when he went into the offseason as the program’s unquestioned starting quarterback. That allowed him to take on a bigger leadership role following a dismal 2-4 season in 2020. “When something’s not right, he’s going to speak up,” fifth-year senior safety Brad Hawkins said. “He’s going to point it out. He’s a great guy, a great leader. He wants to be successful, he wants his team to be successful and he does everything he needs to do for the team to win. He’s a great leader. Everyone looks up to him. Everyone listens to him when he talks. He’s going to continue to be a great leader, he’s going to continue to play well and he’s going to continue to do great things.” Immediately following Shea Patterson’s departure in 2019, the Wolverines struggled to find a reliable pocket presence. That’s not for a lack of trying, though. While McNamara patiently waited his turn, others gave it a shot at the helm. Milton, for all his untapped potential, never panned out. McCaffrey decided to opt out and enter the transfer portal before last season even began. Yet, any newcomers brought in to add depth to the roster haven’t been able to pry the job from McNamara. Texas Tech transfer Alan Bowman still hasn’t thrown a pass in a Michigan uniform. Five-star freshman J.J. McCarthy has shown flashes of special talent, but he lacks the consistency of a veteran like McNamara. Since the two-year Patterson era ended, McNamara is the only quarterback to establish firm control over the job. He hasn’t earned it with style points or circus throws — rather, his fundamentally sound approach has set him apart. “He’s been consistently good since he’s played in games,” Harbaugh said. “The ability to drive the team for points, that’s getting really impressive. His overall confidence, ability, time on task, reps … just like anybody when you play in a game and realize you can do this. Not as hard as it seems. Get better at football by playing football.” When McNamara takes the field against Rutgers this upcoming Saturday, his journey from third-stringer to starter will come full circle. And his grip on the job has only grown tighter since leading the Wolverines’ memorable comeback against Rutgers 10 months ago. “He capitalized on his opportunity and took the bit and ran with it,” Harbaugh said. “Got to give great credit to Cade for doing that, for having the fortitude to step in there and take the bull by the horns. And he hasn’t given it up, so that’s all to his credit.” On Wednesday, Michigan running backs coach Mike Hart told reporters that his biggest regret from the Wolverines’ matchup against Washington was keeping Donovan Edwards on the bench for so long. On Saturday, we saw why. With just under seven minutes left in the third quarter, the freshman running back came barreling down the middle of the field with the ball in his hands and one thing in his sights: his first college touchdown. With just four yards between the line of scrimmage and the end zone, Edwards easily made it through, putting Michigan up, 56-3. Edwards had picked up a handful of yards in the Western Michigan and Washington games — 27 and four, respectively — but he made his first true impact on the stats sheet this weekend against Northern Illinois with eight carries, 86 yards and two touchdowns. Two minutes after his first, he found the end zone again. At the 42-yard line, Edwards waited for the Wolverines’ offensive line to create an opportunity, and then he took it. Finding a hole in the Huskies’ defense, he outran every defender en route to a 76-yard touchdown. Together, these two moments were emblematic of Michigan’s offense this weekend: systematically grinding down Northern Illinois’s defense while creating and taking big offensive opportunities whenever it could. More than that, it kept the ball almost entirely on the ground. After receiving criticism for last week’s run-game-dominated performance, the Wolverines did pick up the passing game, securing 233 yards in the air compared to 44 against Washington. “That was a goal of ours going into the game. We wanted to rush for 200 yards, we wanted to pass for 200 yards,” Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters after Saturday’s game. “Felt like the timing is there, the execution has been there in practice.” Yes, the Wolverines were passing, but it wasn’t the driving force behind the offense. It was barely an afterthought. Out of nine touchdowns, only one resulted from a pass — an 87-yard bomb caught by junior receiver Cornelius Johnson. Michigan’s offense is still irrefutably defined by its run game. Saturday, the Wolverines registered 373 yards on 48 carries. In each game so far this season, the Wolverines have picked up more rushing yards than the one before. Michigan now leads the nation with 1,051 yards on the ground. This identity — an identity it seems offensive coordinator Josh Gattis has been trying to find since arriving in Ann Arbor three years ago — could serve as a strong, stable foundation for Gattis to build upon. Even with the implied asterisk that comes with a win over an inferior opponent, a 63-point trouncing isn’t meaningless. It’s an identity built primarily on the backs of sophomore Blake Corum and senior Hassan Haskins. The duo holds a combined 688 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns this season. Going into the season, it was anticipated that the run game would be a focal point of this offense. “We’ve got really good running backs,” Gattis told reporters before the start of the season. “Those guys need the ball. We’ve got to make a firm commitment to run the ball. That’s how your numbers go up from that standpoint.” Adding Edwards as a valuable third wheel adds stability to that strategy. “It’s so tremendous with (Corum) and (Haskins),” Harbaugh said. “You talk about that kind of tandem at running back. Each is so good. Add Donovan in there. Donovan, he’s quite the back himself. He does a great job with ball security, it’s important to him. Some people are just better at that than other people, and he’s really good at that.” If Haskins and Corum are thunder and lightning, Edwards is a downpour: maybe not as flashy, but relentless and powerful all the same. This trio could be planting the seeds for an offensive identity that defines Michigan not just this season but for years to come. Or it could be a ceiling. Yes, give Haskins the ball and you can beat Northern Illinois. You can beat Rutgers and probably Minnesota. But Penn State? Ohio State? The Wolverines are going to struggle to find the success they’re looking for in the long term without an equally strong passing game. A common football truism is that the team that controls the rushing game usually wins. Think back to the Wolverines’ most recent triumph over the Buckeyes in 2011. Michigan was focused on the run game. It outran Ohio State 277 yards to 137 and the Buckeyes out-passed the Wolverines 235 yards to Michigan’s 167. But a regression analysis published in the Sport Journal showed that having a first-half passing-yard advantage increases the probability of winning whereas an advantage in rushing yards has no effect. As such, the saying is probably a case of reverse causation — teams that takes the lead will likely pull ahead in rushing yards as well. Now, think back to 2016. Michigan had an offense anchored by running backs Karan Higdon, De’Veon Smith and Chris Evans. The Wolverines started the season with a 63-3 win against Hawaii, a blowout that started a nine-game win streak. It was a good Michigan team, but in big moments it couldn’t pull through. An Iowa defense was able to stop the run game, and there was no passing game to fall back on. An intercepted pass in the third quarter caused the Wolverines to blow a 17-3 lead against Ohio State. Michigan notched two passing touchdowns in its Orange Bowl appearance, but it wasn’t enough to prevent another loss to another ranked opponent. No one can say that 10-3 is a disappointing season. No one can say that the Wolverines weren’t good in 2016. But it didn’t hit the benchmarks of success that Michigan has set for itself, that Michigan fans have come to place their blind faith in — and it hasn’t done so since. If the Wolverines really hope to live up to their own expectations, they can’t rely solely on the run game. But, it’s a great place to start. Managing Sports Editor Lane Kizziah can be reached at lkizziah@umich.edu or on Twitter at @KizziahLane 2-News SportsWednesday: Is Michigan’s rushing game the floor or the ceiling? LANE KIZZIAH The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Sports 10 — Wednesday, September 22, 2021 Cade McNamara has thrown three touchdowns in three games this season. GRACE BEAL/Daily GRACE BEAL/Daily Michigan’s run game has fueled its 3-0 record this season. But the run game alone may not be enough to shatter expectations. Last November, the Michigan football team stumbled into Piscataway, N.J., on the heels of three consecutive losses and required three overtimes and a quarterback change to escape with a victory. The game made for a stunning indictment of the state of the program, exposing the depths to which the Wolverines had fallen in Year Six of the Jim Harbaugh era. Now, as Michigan prepares to face Rutgers again this weekend, the 3-0 Wolverines appear to be back on the upswing, causing others to take notice. “Sounds like Michigan’s back to being Michigan,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano told reporters on Saturday. A calamitous 2020 season resulted in Michigan entering the 2021 campaign as a national afterthought, a first under Harbaugh. But that perception is beginning to change. Having outscored their opponents 141-34 through three games, the Wolverines find themselves ranked 19th in this week’s AP Poll. And, according to ESPN’s SP+ metric, Michigan is the sixth-best team in the nation, sandwiched between Ohio State and Penn State. The obvious disclaimer is that these marks are both wonky and meaningless, by no means an indication of what is to come. Each of the Wolverines’ three opponents have been unranked — their stiffest competition was Washington, which dropped its season-opener to FCS level Montana. Michigan players recognize the insignificance of a national narrative themselves. “We’re just looking at it as if we haven’t won anything,” fifth-year senior safety Brad Hawkins said on Monday. “We haven’t done anything yet. Yeah, we’re 3-0, but we still haven’t done anything. We’re just gonna continue to play with that chip like we haven’t done anything, which we haven’t. That’s just where we are.” That mentality is quickly becoming the mantra for this iteration of Wolverines. After the season-opening victory over Western Michigan three weeks ago, senior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson offered, “We haven’t done a damn thing. We’re not content with this at all.” Senior cornerback Vincent Gray echoed Hutchinson’s sentiment, chipping in, “We haven’t done anything yet.” That phrase is a common trope among sports teams, often used as a way to restrain egos and focus on expectations. Now that Big Ten play and a subsequent uptick in competition are imminent, Michigan continues to adhere to that mindset. “We know as soon as we lose one game, everyone’s gonna be like, ‘Michigan sucks again.’ We’re just taking every game as an underdog,” junior linebacker Mike Morris said. “I feel like we’re underdogs against Rutgers. Everybody probably thinks we’re gonna lose that game. Everybody probably thinks we’re going to lose every game in the Big Ten right now. We’re just taking it as us versus everybody. We don’t care if that team is 3-0 or 0-3. We’re just taking it one week at a time and just kicking everybody’s butt.” The collective chip-on-the-shoulder disposition can in part be attributed to Michigan’s culture change, starting with the coaching staff — a common talking point through fall camp. In the offseason, Harbaugh turned his staff upside down, bringing in four new coaches in a youth infusion that instilled a new energy within the program. That vigor has carried over into the season, painting a stark difference through the first three games. “As you can see on the sidelines, we’re having a bunch of fun,” sophomore running back Blake Corum said. “Last year, when you looked at the sidelines, we weren’t having much fun. We’re dancing now, we’re cheering each other up. We’re here for each other.” The true test of the team’s new culture will come with the inevitable adversity. And as it heads into the gauntlet of Big Ten play, Michigan is sticking to the same mentality it shaped in the offseason. “What we’ve done to this point is good,” Harbaugh said on Saturday after the team’s 53-point victory. “But now, it really starts counting.” JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Editor ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily Michigan looks to continue its strong start to the season Saturday against Rutgers. Michigan maintains underdog mentality despite early success How Cade McNamara became Michigan’s stabilizing factor DANIEL DASH Daily Sports Editor