During the first 55 minutes and 19 seconds of Michigan’s College Football Playoff semifinal game against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Monday, J.J. McCarthy remained largely silent.
But he made a major impact when the Wolverines most needed him. On Michigan’s last drive of the fourth quarter, McCarthy completed three of four passes for sixty yards and a touchdown, ran once for an additional sixteen yards, and recorded three first downs. These moves helped the Wolverines go 75 yards down the field in eight plays, tying the score at twenty and sending the Rose Bowl into overtime, where they defeated Alabama to advance to the national championship game.
In addition to saving Michigan’s season, McCarthy’s late-game heroics won him high accolades from Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh, who said he believes what McCarthy has accomplished over the last two years is on par with the greatest college players of all time.
Following the game, Harbaugh told reporters, “I’ve said it before, but right here, this is the greatest quarterback in the University of Michigan — college football history.” “I still have a long way to go before I can be considered the greatest of all time, like Tom Brady was. When it came to that, he outperformed everyone. However, J.J. is the best college student at Michigan ever in terms of performance.
After defeating the Crimson Tide on Monday, McCarthy is now 26-1 as Michigan’s starting quarterback. Over the past ten years, his winning percentage of.962 has topped that of any collegiate quarterback, surpassing players such as Trevor Lawrence (34-2,.944), Tua Tagovailoa (22-2,.917), and Deshaun Watson (32-3,.914).
Actually, McCarthy’s career victory percentage outperforms that of some of the top quarterbacks in the program, such as Brady (20-5), Brian Griese (17-5), Chad Henne (34-13), and John Navarre (31-11).
He has guided the Wolverines to back-to-back Big Ten titles, College Football Playoff berths, and their first trip in a national championship game since 1997 in his two seasons as the starting quarterback.
