College Football

Jim Harbaugh and J.J. McCarthy: Forever linked in success at Michigan

Updated Jan. 1, 2024 3:18 p.m. ET

College Football and College Basketball Writer

LOS ANGELES — From the moment quarterback J.J. McCarthy committed to Michigan on May 5, 2019, more than three years before eventually winning the Wolverines' starting job, he staked his legacy and career to a head coach who needed him for exactly the same reasons.

Four years had passed since Jim Harbaugh returned to his alma mater following a highly successful, highly combustible tenure with the San Francisco 49ers, a proud-but-languishing franchise he jolted to three consecutive NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl appearance. But the success he'd enjoyed by accentuating the best of quarterback Alex Smith, a former No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, and unearthing the greatness of Colin Kaepernick, a dual-threat phenom, was eluding him at Michigan, a place where elite signal-callers seemed uninterested in joining his regime. He flitted from Jake Rudock to Wilton Speight to John O'Korn to Shea Patterson, all of whom ranged from disappointing to something less than great as Harbaugh began his tenure with 38 wins in 52 games.

What Harbaugh needed was a quarterback capable of leveling the Big Ten playing field, a resilient and rocket-armed leader who could march into Ohio Stadium unfazed, ready to match wits with whichever NFL-caliber passer was slinging passes for Ohio State, the conference's unflinching and unyielding dictator. Harbaugh had been beaten by the likes of Cardale Jones, J.T. Barrett (twice) and Dwayne Haskins before McCarthy gave his pledge to Michigan, and he would suffer an additional loss to Justin Fields before eventually snapping the streak on a snow-swept afternoon in 2021. McCarthy played second fiddle to veteran Cade McNamara during the Wolverines' 42-27 triumph in Ann Arbor, but Harbaugh knew the caliber of player his first and only five-star quarterback would eventually become.

"Since the second he started recruiting me," McCarthy said in a news conference on Friday morning, "it was just a unique relationship."

The same holds true ahead of Monday's titanic matchup with Alabama in the Rose Bowl, their third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff following their third consecutive win over Ohio State and their third consecutive Big Ten title, with McCarthy atop the depth chart for the last two iterations of each. And in the same way they've been tethered ever since McCarthy made his verbal commitment in 2019, their short- and long-term futures remain unquestionably intertwined.

A win over the Crimson Tide nudges Michigan closer to its first national title in nearly 30 years, an achievement that — if realized — would all but canonize head coach and quarterback as the greatest in school history for their respective roles; while the NFL decisions that await them might prove to be similarly linked, with one man's choice ultimately swaying the other. Regardless of what happens against Alabama on Monday night, the Wolverines could soon be facing the end of an era if both McCarthy and Harbaugh depart.

"That's a great question," McCarthy said when he was asked to what extent his deliberations are connected to Harbaugh's status. "I feel like just everything that's going on right now, that's something that I'll definitely ponder on after the season."

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Any question of whether McCarthy, a true junior with two years of starting experience, is prepared for a jump to the NFL was answered unflinchingly by Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore during media sessions previewing the Rose Bowl this week. The former offered McCarthy the chance to discuss his future back in Ann Arbor before the Wolverines resumed practicing earlier this month. And while McCarthy declined his coach's offer in the name of focusing on Alabama — a move that went over quite well given Harbaugh's obsession with maintaining a "one-track mind," the program's phrase du jour throughout a drama-filled, distraction-laced season — Harbaugh told reporters on Wednesday that "I can't lie and say I don't think he's NFL-ready. I think he's very much NFL-ready."

Harbaugh's potential successor, Moore, echoed that sentiment two days later, on Friday morning, when asked where McCarthy ranks in the pantheon of quarterbacks he's seen firsthand. Moore recalled the final season of his collegiate career at Oklahoma, in 2007, when freshman quarterback Sam Bradford threw for 3,121 yards and 36 touchdowns before winning the Heisman Trophy the following year and becoming the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft the year after that. Moore said McCarthy benefits from the mobility that Bradford never had. He remembered coaching another future first-round pick, Teddy Bridgewater, during his time at Louisville, where Bridgewater was named the 2012 Big East Offensive Player of the Year. Moore believes McCarthy possesses "that same moxie and that ‘it' factor about him," that made Bridgewater the No. 32 overall pick two seasons later.

"Probably the best one I've been around," Moore said of McCarthy. "From a mental standpoint, from a physical ability standpoint, from an arm strength standpoint — he's really special."

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And most of the statistics prove it, from the annals of Schembechler Hall's record books to this year's national leaderboards. Though he's only started 26 games, McCarthy already ranks fifth in school history for both passing yards (5,865) and passing touchdowns (46). He owns the best career completion percentage of any Michigan signal-caller (68.1%) and has at least six fewer interceptions than every quarterback who attempted more than 600 passes for the Wolverines.

From a broader perspective, McCarthy's single-season completion rate of 74.2% ranks second in the country behind Oregon's Bo Nix. And his total of 18 Big Time Throws from Pro Football Focus — a metric that tracks passes with "excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window" — was only exceeded by West Virginia's Garrett Greene (30) and Alabama's Jalen Milroe (26) among Power 5 quarterbacks in 2023.

"I think J.J. is a once-in-a-generation quarterback," Harbaugh said earlier this season. "J.J. has shown to be on the path to be the best quarterback in Michigan history."

Even McCarthy believes he's already capable of playing at the next level: "I feel like there's so much more I could grow, so much more I could develop," he said. "Just so many more things that, you know, could prepare me to play better in the NFL. But I feel like I could play in the NFL right now, yeah."

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Still, a leap to the NFL for either McCarthy or Harbaugh — or both — would cut short a quarterback-coach relationship that both parties describe as more closely resembling a father-son connection, such is the depth of their bond. It was Harbaugh who pushed McCarthy to play through the pain of an undisclosed leg injury earlier this season by invoking the fictional character Freddy Soft, a diminutive shoulder-dweller known for picking at players in moments when their toughness might be questioned. And it was Harbaugh's demeanor behind closed doors during the most traumatic of seasons that McCarthy said taught him lessons about accountability and leadership. There's a chance that anything short of winning the national title could entice them to return for another year.

But should the allure of the NFL prove too great and both decide to leave Ann Arbor in the coming weeks — in which case Harbaugh would be passing on the lucrative contract extension that Michigan has reportedly offered and McCarthy, who has one year of eligibility remaining, would be exiting school early by declaring for the NFL Draft — the Wolverines' quarterback cupboard isn't as bare as it was four years ago. A commitment from highly touted prospect Jadyn Davis has given the program a potential heir to McCarthy's throne, be that next season or sometime down the road. Davis is the No. 93 overall prospect and the No. 7 quarterback in the 2023 recruiting cycle, and he graduated high school early to join the team in Los Angeles this week.

"The thing I'm most impressed about with him is just the way he carries himself," McCarthy said. "Just being around the guys and being a newcomer, he really just doesn't say much, but he puts his head down and he works. And he's always asking questions, he's always trying to grow, always trying to learn. And that's the thing I respect the most. Obviously, he can throw the football very well, but seeing his character and seeing his intangibles makes me really excited."

It's the kind of thing people said about McCarthy when he entrusted himself to Harbaugh in 2019.

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.