JARED GREENSPAN
Managing Sports Editor

Michigan obliterates Hawaii in J.J. McCarthy’s first start

J

.J. McCarthy waited years 
to walk through the Big 
House tunnel as the starting 
quarterback of the Michigan 
football team. So perhaps it’s 
fitting that, on the day of his first 
collegiate start, he had to wait a 
little while longer. 
At 8:18 pm — 13 minutes 
after the originally scheduled 
kickoff time between the fourth-
ranked Wolverines and Hawaii 
— McCarthy emerged from the 
tunnel. The weather delay had 
tamed his grand entrance: There 
was no banner for him to touch, 
no marching band to serenade 
him. The stadium remained eerily 
quiet and empty, the soaked fans 
still locked outside the gates. 
So when the game started, 
the 
sophomore 
quarterback 
created his own pomp and 
circumstance. In a 56-10 rout of 
the Rainbow Warriors, McCarthy 
— long pegged as Michigan’s 
quarterback of the future — made 
an irresistible case that he should 

be the quarterback of the present, 
too. 
“J.J. had a near flawless 
performance,” Michigan coach 
Jim Harbaugh said. “… I thought 
he had a great game. He’s playing 
really 
well. 
We’ll 
start 
J.J. 
next week. He’s earned that by 
performance, by merit.”
The decision, in the wake 
of a months-long, “neck-and-
neck” quarterback competition 
with senior Cade McNamara, 
is a culmination of McCarthy’s 
ascension. McCarthy had already 
done enough to warrant a battle 
with McNamara, the incumbent 
who steered Michigan to a Big 
Ten Championship and a College 
Football Playoff berth last season. 
Yet two-and-a-half weeks ago, the 
complexion changed. Harbaugh 
maintained 
that 
McCarthy’s 
game reached an “inflection 
point” on the season’s eve, when 
the Wolverines held a scrimmage 
at Michigan Stadium. 
Since then, McCarthy has 
merely taken off. 
“Every single day,” Harbaugh 
said, “he’s been about as good as 
can be.” 
He was certainly as good as 

can be Saturday night. In seven 
first half drives, McCarthy went 
11-for-12 with 229 passing yards 
and three touchdowns, good for 
a 334.5 passer rating. On those 
seven possessions, the Wolverines 
found the endzone six times.
When McCarthy took the field 
for Michigan’s first offensive 
series, the majority of the crowd 
stood — perhaps because of 
the damp seats, perhaps in 
anticipation. Immediately, the 
theatrics began. 
On the Wolverines’ second 
play from scrimmage, McCarthy 
lofted a 42-yard touchdown pass 
to junior receiver Roman Wilson. 
The show was on. 
“Everything 
he 
does 
in 
practice, he transferred over here 
to Main Street,” 
junior 
running 
back Blake 
Corum 
said. 
“So 
I 
expected 
nothing 
less.” 
McCarthy 
didn’t 

throw an incompletion until 
the waning minutes of the first 
quarter, only doing so because 
graduate receiver Ronnie Bell 
dropped a pass that hit him in the 
chest. Early in the second quarter, 
he delivered a 54-yard strike 
down the seams to senior receiver 
Cornelius Johnson and followed 
that picture-perfect pass with a 
13-yard touchdown dart to Bell. 
On the ensuing drive, he placed 
a 33-yard back shoulder fade into 
the lap of sophomore running 
back Donovan Edwards, setting 
up Michigan’s fifth touchdown. 
It all looked so easy, so 
effortless. And it felt that way 
on the Michigan sideline, too. 
Junior 
edge 
rusher 
Braiden 
McGregor and junior safety R.J. 
Moten recalled huddling with 
teammates, eyes glued to 
the whiteboard held by 
co-defensive coordinator 
Steve Clinkscale. 
They 
didn’t 
get 
a 
chance 
to 
watch 
McCarthy. 
“But then we hear 
the 
crowd 
erupt,” 
McGregor 
recalled. 
“And 
then 
we’re 

like, ‘Oh,’ and then we see what 
happened.” 
As McCarthy flourished, that 
scene repeated itself. 
“He was prepared, ready to 
go,” Bell said. “I mean, he was 
rolling.” 
Part of McCarthy’s success 
can be attributed to Hawaii’s 
own ineptitude, but he had to 
confront adversity, too. Pregame, 
he stayed loose by throwing in the 
tunnel while awaiting clearance 
to return to a soaked field. And 
amidst a grueling quarterback 
competition, every throw — every 
decision — carries extra weight, 
regardless of the score or the 
opposition. That scrutiny adds 
an extra layer of pressure, even 
against an outmatched opponent. 
McCarthy seemed unfazed. 
“He 
controlled 
the 
whole 
game,” Corum said. “He was 
confident.” 
With 6:22 left in the second 
quarter, 
McNamara 
relieved 
McCarthy, seemingly indicating 
that his sensational evening had 
ended. But four minutes later, 
McCarthy re-entered the game to 
a chorus of cheers. He promptly 
led the Wolverines 52 yards down 

the field, a drive that closed with 
perhaps his best pass of the night: 
a 17-yard strike across his body, 
while stepping up in the pocket, 
to Johnson in the front corner of 
the endzone. 
“That 
was 
outstanding,” 
Harbaugh said, later conceding 
that he can’t remember ever 
making a similar throw. “He 
was phenomenal. A phenomenal 
performance.” 
By halftime, McCarthy’s job 
was done. He staked Michigan to 
a 42-0 lead, keying a domineering 
performance. In the second half, 
the offense stalled — a reminder, 
as Corum alluded to postgame, 
why the Wolverines approach 
every game as if the opposition 
is 
Ohio 
State 
or 
Michigan 
State. They expect that level of 
intensity. 
A Week Two game against 
Hawaii won’t normally conjure 
that emotion. But those who 
tuned in — whether it be the 
110,012 who outlasted the storm, 
the millions who watched from 
home 
or 
Harbaugh 
himself 
— surely left with the same 
impression, 
awestruck 
by 
McCarthy’s brilliance.

QB1

SPORTS
WEDNESDAY

GRACE BEAL/Daily

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