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

SUPER 
SUPER SOPHS
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