A career in the making, McCarthy’s
journey has led him to this point
INDIANAPOLIS — J.J. McCarthy’s patented smile
seemed to peak just a little bit higher Saturday night.
The sophomore quarterback had every reason for
his glee: maize and blue confetti blanketed the field at
Lucas Oil Stadium, the No. 2 Michigan football team
won its second-straight Big Ten title and McCarthy led
his team under center to the moment of glory, hoisting
the conference trophy once more.
His own stat-line — 11-for-17 for 161 yards and three
touchdowns — displays the contribution McCarthy
made to the 43-22 win over Purdue. Turn on the
tape, and it gets even more impressive; scrambling
throws across his body and frozen-ropes filled up the
11 completions, sending Michigan fans into stupor
and making Boilermaker-faithful drop their jaws in
disbelief.
The golden boy was finally golden.
The performance spoke for itself. Nobody in the
postgame press conference asked McCarthy about
how he felt he played, nobody asked Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh his thoughts on his quarterback’s
performance and nobody asked sophomore running
back Donovan Edwards how McCarthy’s game helped
him succeed on the ground.
It was just expected of McCarthy to do what he did.
He’s a player so talented that circus-plays and NFL-
caliber throws are the status quo.
But, unlike Saturday, that talent hasn’t always
translated to results.
“The journey has definitely been a roller coaster,”
McCarthy said Saturday. “Just going back to my injury
in the offseason and then obviously the competition
with Cade. Cade is a great quarterback. A lot (of) it at the
beginning of the year and fall camp was just focused on
trying to beat him out.”
That’s nothing to underestimate in McCarthy’s
journey.
Cade McNamara, too, is a Big Ten Championship-
winning quarterback. The now-Iowa transfer did it all
before McCarthy as the Wolverines’ leader and QB1 last
season, with McCarthy playing second fiddle. It was
McNamara’s poise, his decision-making, his tact that
made him a champion.
Even if McCarthy had all the talent in the world, he’d
need those McNamara-esque qualities to reach the top.
After his talent won him the job in September,
McCarthy’s next task was to prove he had them.
“It was like, ‘OK, now we have games to win,’ ”
McCarthy said. “It was just that constant kind of — a
bunch of obstacles that just made me improve in every
way I possibly can.”
Obstacles they were.
McCarthy often struggled throughout the season.
He was never truly bad, but as he showed glimpses
of greatness within prolonged streaks of mediocrity,
there was much to be desired. Missed deep passes, poor
decision making and a risky affinity for contact along
with other growing pains filled the narrative more than
his high upside.
Still, Harbaugh held the highest praise for his
prodigy: comparing McCarthy to himself.
“He’s better than me — but I mean, he reminds me
of a young Jimmy Harbaugh,” Harbaugh said after
Michigan’s win over Iowa on Oct. 1. “Off he goes, he
drops back, and then he runs over to his left, circles back
to his right, back to his left, runs it, or throws it, to an
open guy. Man, I love it, I just love it.”
McCarthy could always do that — it just wasn’t
consistent. He had the ability to lift the Wolverines to a
victory on his very own shoulders, but he simply never
put a game together and did it.
Until Nov. 26 against then-No.2 Ohio State.
McCarthy threw for 263 yards and three touchdowns,
connecting on his deep balls and saving drives with
his legs and arm. It was a clinic in quarterbacking.
For the latter half of that game, McCarthy wasn’t just
a young quarterback with heaps of talent, he was the
Wolverines’ leader — a beacon of light ushering them to
victory.
In Saturday’s Big Ten Championship Game,
McCarthy’s light shined just as bright.
It was a culmination of McCarthy’s journey. He was
often flashy and gaudy. At times, he made mistakes —
such as attempting to extend a play too long and forcing
a ball into coverage, resulting in an interception — a
product of his inexperience. By no means was he perfect
Saturday, but for the second week in a row the five-star
recruit performed exactly as he was billed: great.
On Michigan’s first drive of the game, McCarthy
delivered. After a double play-action, McCarthy placed
a ball where only freshman tight end Colston Loveland
could reach it. Through double coverage, Loveland high-
pointed the ball and hauled it in for a touchdown. Later,
McCarthy demonstrated his mobility, rolling right to
evade the Boilermaker rush, firing in stride across his
body to find graduate tight end Luke Schoonmaker,
putting the Wolverines up 14-10.
As a result of poised plays like those, just one season
after McNamara lifted the Big Ten Championship Game
trophy for the first time in program history, McCarthy
found a way to lead his team to the title once again.
His journey has been winding, with a plethora of
ups and downs. McCarthy spent a year as a backup, an
offseason fighting for his chance and a season learning
how to lead an offense. He’s done everything he can to
become a winner.
Now, on the winningest Michigan football team of all
time, that’s just who McCarthy is.
NICHOLAS STOLL
Managing Sports Editor
SPORTSWEDNESDAY
KATE HUA/Daily
Design by Lys Goldman
& Sophie Grand
December 7, 2022 | Page 12
‘Made for the big moments’: Donovan
Edwards leads Michigan to Big Ten title
INDIANAPOLIS — For the second consecutive
year, the Michigan football team transformed Lucas
Oil Stadium into a colossal celebration. And when the
main event — a 43-22 victory over Purdue in the Big
Ten Championship game — gave way to the afterparty,
Donovan Edwards still found himself at the center of it all.
Edwards, standing on a makeshift stage at midfield,
snaked his way to the front of the scrum as his name echoed
throughout the stadium. The sophomore running back
had just been honored as the game’s MVP, recognition of
his 185-yard, one-touchdown performance. He accepted
the trophy from college football legend Archie Griffin,
hoisted it above his head and glanced upwards, a drizzle
of maize and blue confetti falling from the rafters.
“I rise to those occasions,” Edwards said postgame. “I
thrive for that. … I believe I’m made for the big moments,
you know?”
After back-to-back commanding performances in
the two biggest games of Michigan’s season to date, that
much is clear.
“This guy comes alive in big games,” Michigan coach
Jim Harbaugh said, his voice rising an octave to emphasize
“alive.” “… This guy, when it’s a big game, I mean, his
whole career, whether it was high school, college, now, he
just hits another gear. He takes off to another level.”
Edwards’s ascent isn’t entirely unexpected. He is a
former five-star recruit who, over the past two seasons,
has shown brilliant flashes. A combination of injuries and
a crowded running back room, though, have limited them
to just that — mere flashes.
That complexion has changed, drastically. When Blake
Corum injured his knee in the second quarter of Michigan’s
game against Illinois on Nov. 19, the Wolverines’ season
teetered. Yes, Michigan is a complete team, but Corum
was their engine, their Heisman candidate, their bellcow.
Filling his void seemed impossible, especially when the
Wolverines struggled to move the ball against the Illini
once Corum went down.
Only one player had the potential to change that.
And Edwards — after missing two games himself with
a hand injury — returned last Saturday in Columbus
with a vengeance. On the heels of a mundane first half
performance, he exploded in the second half, tallying 216
rushing yards and two long touchdown runs. He carved
up Ohio State’s defense while cradling the ball only in his
left hand, his right hand still wrapped in a soft cast.
Saturday unfolded similarly. Edwards took his first
four carries for six yards. By halftime, he had 11 carries for
just 37 yards, while Michigan clung to a 14-13 lead.
Then Edwards came alive.
Before a number of fans could even return to their seats
from the concession lines, Edwards opened the second
half with a bang. On a simple run to the left, he drew
a one-on-one matchup at the line of scrimmage with
Purdue cornerback Reese Taylor. Edwards juked, sent
Taylor to the ground and sprinted down the far sideline
for a 60-yard run. Michigan scored a touchdown four
plays later.
On the next drive, Edwards took care of the job himself.
Receiving a handoff at Purdue’s 27 yard line, Edwards
pinballed his way off seven different Boilermakers,
churning up the middle and into the endzone on a
Marshawn Lynch-esque carry. Five minutes into the half,
the Wolverines led by 15, with Edwards to thank.
“That’s who you are,” Harbaugh said postgame, looking
at Edwards. “401 yards in the last two games. Amazing.”
Amazing and also necessary. When Corum injured
himself, Michigan didn’t want to abandon the run. For
two years, the Wolverines have dominated the opposition
with a bruising, physical play style predicated on a
bullying offensive line and talented running backs. It’s
their identity — a smashmouth, wear you down football
team — and it has propelled this stunning turnaround.
But without Corum, that vision no longer seemed
feasible.
Few could have imagined the dominance that has
followed.
Harbaugh — who described Corum and Edward as
“two supreme backs” — was one of them.
“When this is the next man up, it’s that good,”
Harbaugh said, grinning.
A few moments later, Harbaugh left the podium,
ducking back into Michigan’s celebratory locker room.
Walking down the stairs, he pointed at Edwards and
pounded his chest. Edwards reciprocated.
In another world, it’s Corum at the podium, healthy
and brilliant. But this is Edwards’s time now, his moment,
and it felt like it as he hoisted the MVP trophy, did an array
of postgame standups, ran over droves of defenders. And
while unfortunate circumstances have created that, it’s
clear that he’s ready.
Last week, charging out of the Ohio Stadium tunnel
after the win, Edwards proclaimed “damn, this my
stadium.” This week, in the wake of a similar performance,
Edwards struck the same tone.
“I would say this is our home, too,” Edwards said.
“We’ve been here last year, this year, and when we did
our walk-through yesterday, it was just like, yeah this is
our home right now. We were completely comfortable
because a bunch of us have already played here last year. It
was just another day in the office.”
Edwards makes it seem like that sometimes,
undeterred by added burdens and unfazed by heightened
stakes. He has at least one more big game to tackle, and
if he can keep up this dominant stretch, well, he’ll likely
have another one, too.
JARED GREENSPAN
Managing Sports Editor
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