The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1508023
8 THE WOLVERINE ❱ OCTOBER 2023 I t's been 1,388 days since Michigan football last lost to a team from the state of Ohio, as of this writing in mid- September. That means life for the Wolverines and their fans re- mains good, heading into the Big Ten season. Life isn't perfect, mind you, despite the 3-0 record, No. 2 na- tional ranking and a quarterback connecting on 82 percent of his passes. Junior signal-caller J.J. McCarthy needed to complete three more to the proper team in Michigan's 31-6 win over Bowling Green to keep panic from setting in for a few. But he didn't. Receivers didn't space well on one Falcons interception. McCarthy should have thrown another one where nobody could catch it. A third, who knows? Another team with athletes just made a play, or McCarthy pressed his confidence to make every play. It was enough — amid a 25-point win — to send keyboard mopes and warriors into a frenzy. Let's just admit this team isn't a serious national championship contender. Wow, we're sure not what we thought. McCarthy has some tools, but he's a long way from … A long way from what? Throwing the football like an NFL quarterback, with precision, poise and pure pocket move- ment? Yes, all those — if, in fact, seven days constitutes long. Jim Harbaugh saw all of that (from afar) in his quarterback against UNLV. He's certainly not among those throwing up his hands or tossing in the towel follow- ing the season's first speed bump. Harbaugh will be back on the sidelines for the Big Ten opener against Rutgers, and he expects to see a team that got humbled for a short stretch hit confer- ence play breathing fire, including the quarterback "Sometimes I say, 'Gosh, it's scary good right now,'" Harbaugh mused. "That's where you want to be. But the law of averages is going to catch up to you at some point. You do what you can to keep those balls in the air. They want to come down. "Where were we just at? We were com- paring touchdowns to incompletions ra- tio. We weren't talking touchdowns to interceptions, because there hadn't been any. There's no way that's going to con- tinue. It's not going to happen that way," said the Michigan head man. "You want confident, you want ag- gressive, optimistic that everything is going to work out," Harbaugh continued. "Sometimes, even as a football player, there's optimistic bias that can get you in trouble, leave you unprepared. It cer- tainly does in life. "Now in football or athletics, you're much better off there than playing scared. It works out better when you play that way. But some precautions have got to be taken, and some risks avoided. Turnovers, ball security — those are the big ones. "There's plenty to learn from, plenty to coach. I'm super excited about it. J.J. is smart enough to know he didn't play a very good game. But he's also smart enough to know that he can learn from it as well." Teams don't covet uneven perfor- mances, earlier or especially late. Still, they happen. Alabama lost a game in September and fought for its rolling Tide life against South Florida, which won a single game last year. LSU, Flor- ida and Tennessee all added an L to their resume before October hit. No. 1 Georgia had its hands full with South Carolina before winning by 10. Ohio State didn't bury Indiana, and the Buckeyes will need to take a big step up to win at Notre Dame, the next game on their slate. It happens, everywhere. So, if Harbaugh's team doesn't roll the nonconference foes 180-0 (in- stead of 96-16), it's not a sign that you should white out the "Na- tional Championship Or" por- tion of your "National Champi- onship Or Bust" sign. It's a good reminder, though, that winning, execution and emotion can never be taken for granted on a given week, even with a highly talented team. That's what Harbaugh possesses, and he knows it. He also knows his offensive line has to come together into a stron- ger, more cohesive unit. He knows his receivers must block better, like they did to some degree versus Bowling Green. He knows the wideouts and tight ends can't run routes imprecisely, in ways that lead to interceptions. And yes, he knows — and McCarthy knows — the QB re- mains the key to ball security, which re- mains the key to winning football games. He also knows this. He's ridiculously excited to be entering the Big Ten with a team (still) expected to be in the run- ning for everything. And he'll be there on game day, the rest of the way. "I went to a place I've never been, which wasn't on the sideline — as a player or a coach," Harbaugh said. "Watching it from the perspective I had, maybe there's been too much put on the players. They've got to win by 40 points, or 30 points, or 25 points. That's a lot. I'm going to make sure our team knows that. The goal is to win the game." And keep on winning them. ❏ WOLVERINE WATCH ❱ JOHN BORTON Ready For Bigger Challenges J.J. McCarthy had 3 interceptions against Bowling Green. Head coach Jim Harbaugh said his quarterback knew he didn't play well and was "also smart enough to know that he can learn from it as well." PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @JB_Wolverine.