J. J. Mccarthy
Jonathan James McCarthy (born January 20, 2003) is an American football quarterback.
He played college football at the University of Michigan. McCarthy led the Michigan Wolverines to three consecutive Big Ten Conference titles, culminating in a national championship in 2023. He finished his career at Michigan with a 27-1 record (.964) as the starting quarterback, the third-best winning percentage by a quarterback in college football history.
.jpg) McCarthy with Michigan in 2023 | |
| Michigan Wolverines – No. 9 | |
|---|---|
| Position | Quarterback |
| Class | Junior |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | January 20, 2003 La Grange Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 2+1⁄2 in (1.89 m) |
| Weight | 202 lb (92 kg) |
| Career history | |
| College |
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| Bowl games | |
| High school |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Early life and high school
McCarthy was born on January 20, 2003, in La Grange Park, Illinois. He attended Nazareth Academy for high school until transferring to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, as a senior in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of Nazareth's football season. In two seasons as the starting quarterback at Nazareth, he led his team to a 26-2 record with consecutive appearances in the IHSA Class 7A state championship game, winning the state title as a sophomore in 2018. In his lone season at IMG Academy, he led his team to an 8-0 record and a consensus high school football national championship.
McCarthy was a five-star recruit in the 247Sports Composite Rankings, which aggregates the ratings of the major recruiting services. At age 16, McCarthy said Ryan Day "lied to my face" by telling him in March that Ohio State would not take a quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class until the end of the summer, but then accepted a commitment from Kyle McCord in April. Despite growing up an Ohio State fan, McCarthy committed to rival Michigan the next month. Speaking about his new hatred of Ohio State, he said, "I used to love them. Now I want to kill them."
McCarthy played hockey growing up and said that was actually his first love, not football. Around his freshman year of high school, he made the decision to give up hockey in order to focus on football. McCarthy called it "one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make."
In eighth grade, he received a scholarship offer to play football at Iowa State from head coach Matt Campbell.
College career
2021 season
Rated as one of the top quarterback recruits, McCarthy committed to play college football for the Wolverines at the University of Michigan in May 2019.
On September 4, 2021, he made his Michigan debut against Western Michigan and completed four of six passes for 80 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown pass to Daylen Baldwin.
He appeared in 11 games during the 2021 season, primarily as the backup quarterback, completing 34 of 59 passes for 516 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions.
2022 season
Prior to the 2022 season, McCarthy competed with Cade McNamara for the role as Michigan's starting quarterback. Before the opening game, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh announced that the competition was close and would continue at least for the first two games, with McNamara starting in the first week against Colorado State and McCarthy starting in the second week against Hawaii.
McCarthy started and played most of the first half against Hawaii, completing 11 of 12 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns while leading the Wolverines to a 42–0 halftime lead. In his postgame press conference, Harbaugh announced that McCarthy would start against UConn in week 3 and added, "He's the starter moving forward on merit."
McCarthy continued as Michigan's starting quarterback, completing 15 of 18 passes against UConn for 214 yards, 18 of 26 passes against Maryland for 220 yards, and 18 of 24 passes against Iowa for 155 yards. Against Indiana on October 8, he completed 28 of 36 passes for 304 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception (on a ball tipped up into the air in the end zone).
McCarthy helped lead the Wolverines into an undefeated matchup with Ohio State on November 26. He passed for 263 yards and three passing touchdowns and recorded a rushing touchdown in the 45–23 victory.
In the Fiesta Bowl, he completed 20 of 34 passes for a career-high 343 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, both returned for touchdowns, in the 51–45 loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff Semifinals.
For the 2022 season, he completed 208 of 322 passes for 2,719 yards, 22 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a 155.0 quarterback rating.
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2023 season
On September 2, 2023, against East Carolina, McCarthy recorded his best career passing game at home (280 yards, three touchdowns). McCarthy's 86.7% completion percentage (26-for-30) ranked second-highest in program history, behind Elvis Grbac's 90.9% (20-for-22) against Notre Dame on September 14, 1991.
On October 7, against Nebraska, he completed 12 of 16 passes for 156 yards and two touchdowns. With two passing touchdowns in the game, he tied Todd Collins for ninth-most in program history with 37 career touchdowns. On November 4, against Purdue, he completed 24 of 37 passes for 335 yards. With 335 passing yards in the game, he passed Tom Brady for ninth on the program's all-time passing list.
On November 25, in the win against Ohio State, he completed 16 of 20 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown. With 148 passing yards in the game, he passed Shea Patterson for seventh on the program's all-time passing list.
In the win against Iowa, in the Big Ten Championship Game, McCarthy became the fastest quarterback to reach 25 career wins in the 144-year history of Michigan football (26 starts). On January 1, 2024, against Alabama in the Rose Bowl, he completed 17 of 27 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns in a 27–20 overtime win, and was named Rose Bowl Offensive Player of the Game.
On January 8, 2024, against Washington in the College Football Playoff National Championship, he completed 10 of 18 passes for 140 yards in a 34–13 win, leading Michigan to an undefeated 15-0 record and its first national championship title since 1997.
McCarthy finished his career at Michigan with a 27-1 record (.964) as the starting quarterback, the third-best winning percentage by a quarterback in college football history.
Statistics
| Season | Games | Passing | Rushing | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Record | Cmp | Att | Pct | Yds | Avg | TD | Int | Rtg | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | ||
| 2021 | 11 | 0 | 0−0 | 34 | 59 | 57.6 | 516 | 8.7 | 5 | 2 | 152.3 | 27 | 124 | 4.6 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 14 | 13 | 12−1 | 208 | 322 | 64.6 | 2,719 | 8.4 | 22 | 5 | 155.0 | 70 | 306 | 4.4 | 5 | |
| 2023 | 15 | 15 | 15–0 | 240 | 332 | 72.3 | 2,991 | 9.0 | 22 | 4 | 167.4 | 64 | 202 | 3.2 | 3 | |
| Career | 40 | 28 | 27−1 | 482 | 713 | 67.6 | 6,226 | 8.7 | 49 | 11 | 160.5 | 161 | 632 | 3.9 | 10 | |
Professional career
| Height | Weight | Arm length | Hand span | 20-yard shuttle | Three-cone drill | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft 2+1⁄2 in (1.89 m) | 219 lb (99 kg) | 31+5⁄8 in (0.80 m) | 9 in (0.23 m) | 4.23 s | 6.82 s | |||||||
| All values from NFL Combine | ||||||||||||
Personal life
McCarthy is a practitioner of meditation, which he began doing in high school. McCarthy is engaged to high school sweetheart Katya Kuropas.
References
External links
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