Michigan Football: In J.J. McCarthy, Jim Harbaugh has found his QB

J.J. McCarthy is going to be the guy to break the cycle of disappointing quarterbacks for Jim Harbaugh and Michigan football. 

After holding his commitment for nearly a year-and-half and getting him to sign, Michigan football is getting its first glimpse of five-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy this week as the Wolverines hit the field for spring practices.

McCarthy enrolled early at Michigan and with Joe Milton hitting the transfer portal, Cade McNamara, who started one game and led a comeback off the bench against Rutgers, is his main competition for the starting job.

According to what head coach Jim Harbaugh told reporters on Thursday, it’s so far so good for the new signal-caller.

“So we do have quite a few mid-year players, new players that have come in. J.J.’s doing extremely well,” Harbaugh said on Thursday. “I can say that really — it’s been impressive, the mid-years.”

Of course, Michigan football fans have heard this kind of thing before. Harbaugh and others raved about Milton, although not as much publicly and we all know how that worked out.

Shea Patterson proved to be a solid quarterback, leading the Wolverines to 19 wins in two seasons but he wasn’t the answer either, at least in terms of achieving what Michigan wants to achieve.

Since taking over the job prior to the 2015 season, Harbaugh has had one quarterback drafted into the NFL and that was Jake Rudock, following one season in 2015. He was a graduate transfer from Iowa.

Outside of that, Patterson, another transfer, was Harbaugh’s most productive quarterback. Brandon Peters, Milton, Dylan McCaffrey all ended up transferring out.

But McCarthy is a different cat. He’s an exceptional leader and extremely talented. There’s a reason Ohio State wanted him at one point, among a number of other programs.

Last season at IMG Academy, McCarthy didn’t throw a single interception. He only completed 59 percent of his passes, which is a concern, but he can make all the throws. Harbaugh also seems more excited about McCarthy than any quarterback I can remember.

We obviously don’t know much about what’s happening during spring practices, but McCarthy seems like the real deal and that’s why I expect him to be the starting quarterback on day one.

While the Wolverines haven’t had enough skill guys going to the NFL, the biggest problem has been the lack of an elite quarterback.

So if McCarthy is that guy, you might as well play him now, because there’s a good chance he will be gone after three years anyway. That is, if, he’s as good as we think.

Michigan football fans probably feel burned from having drunk the kool-aid so many times before. Yet, J.J. is different and in him, Harbaugh has finally found his quarterback.