Previously: Last year's profiles. S Quinten Johnson, S Daxton Hill, CB DJ Turner II, CB Jalen Perry, LB Joey Velazquez, LB Anthony Solomon, LB Charles Thomas, DE David Ojabo, DE Gabe Newburg, DE Mike Morris, DT Chris Hinton, DT Mazi Smith, OL Jack Stewart, OL Nolan Rumler, OL Zach Carpenter, OL Karsen Barnhart, OL Trente Jones, OL Trevor Keegan, TE Erick All, WR Giles Jackson, WR George Johnson III, WR Mike Sainristil, WR Quintel Kent (probably), WR Cornelius Johnson, RB Zach Charbonnet.

Reno, NV – 6'1", 205
		24/7	4*, #375 overall #8 PRO, #2 NV
		Rivals	4*, NR overall #8 PRO, #1 NV
		ESPN	4*, #253 overall #12 PRO, #1 NV
		Composite	4*, #268 overall #7 PRO, #1 NV
		Other Suitors	ND (decommit), UGA, Bama, USC, Wisc
		YMRMFSPA	Shea Patterson
Previously On MGoBlog	Hello post from Ace.
Notes	Twitter, where he asks the important questions. Early enrollee.
Film
Senior Year:

Cade McNamara has been around the block. He became Nevada's all-time leader in touchdown passes after he showed up at Damonte Ranch his freshman year and deposed a returning all-conference starter by game four, and not without controversy:

The Damonte Ranch fans still chanted Vestbie’s name during games.

“It totally divided the team, it created a lot of stuff in the stands,” Gary McNamara said. “There were actually fights in the stands. Parents were yelling at him, booing him. We didn’t know until this summer it spilled over into the classroom. A lot of the older kids who didn’t know who this freshman was were treating him disrespectfully and giving him a hard time on campus.”

That is a coach with some cojones, and McNamara heard about it for the duration of his freshman season. Things got rough; McNamara stuck it out, and now he enters college with over 1300 attempts to his name. There are vanishingly few high school quarterbacks who can claim as much live-fire experience. And probably just as few have put in more time off the field. Local reporter Jim Krajewski:

[McNamara] started attending elite-level quarterback camps and training sessions all over the West coast starting about four or five years ago. … spends every day, year-round, working out and preparing to be a quarterback.”

Super-prepared guys can be a bit of a double-edged sword, popping up early in the recruiting cycle and then falling off once everyone else catches up. This is less of a concern at quarterback, where processing information is the most important thing. QBs learn into their 30s, so McNamara's occasionally maniacal tendencies…

“Last year when the season was over I told him, ‘Cade, I just need you to go be a kid for a month,’” Gary McNamara said. “He watches so much film. … When everybody else is taking a day off, my kids go work out again because Cade wants to clean one little thing up that he caught on film with his throwing mechanics.” …

Dupris joked he only gets half the play call out of his mouth before McNamara runs with the rest because he knows the playbook so well.

…make him a good prospect without necessarily capping his ceiling.

[After THE JUMP: the somewhat more finished product]

As you might expect for a guy who's been a full-time QB since sixth grade, Cade McNamara knows who he is. I was going to write a paragraph like this and then he just… said it:

"I feel like my ability to throw off platform and in funky positions and really extend the play [is a strength]-- not as much with downfield running as much as just buying time in the pocket … I have the confidence to make every throw needed to be a quarterback.”

Also:

“I feel like my release is so different, and something that no one else has ... I felt like I was very accurate. I had a lot of zip on my ball, and I was able to control my ball really well when it came to one on ones.”

All of this is true. McNamara has a ton of throws where he's getting lit up or can't set his feet that work out just fine. He's able to throw accurately from wacky arm angles. And the guns, they are slung:

• Allen Trieu, 247: "… accurate, has good placement and touch and can throw into windows. … best asset may be his ability to throw from odd angles and on the move without needing to have his feet set. … good ability to elude pressure and extend plays. … quick release and necessary velocity"
• Adam Gorney, Rivals: " …moxie …competitive edge …not going to wow you with mind-boggling athleticism or arm strength but he's not going to make mistakes. … heady, skilled quarterback"
• ESPN: "…good decision maker out of the gun … accurate passer who is able to fit the ball into tight windows… poised and confident … touch and timing. Changes ball speeds nicely. …Marginal height and strength. Not sure he has elite arm power."
• Blair Angulo, 247: "strong arm and can dissect defenses from the pocket … capable of hitting receivers in stride when rolling out … tremendously effective on throws to the perimeter and fits passes into tight windows over the middle"
• Also Angulo: "…strong arm … quick release without sacrificing precision or accuracy, … great feel for putting the ball only where his teammates can make a play. … able to use his legs effectively to buy time … fits passes into tight windows over the middle, knowing when to look off linebackers and safeties to find his weapons. … great understanding of offensive concepts and can recognize defenses at the line of scrimmage."
• Greg Biggins, 247: "… ripping the ball through windy conditions early on in the camp and threw with a lot of poise and confidence throughout. He was accurate, threw with touch … quickest release in the camp. "
• Ernie Howren, HC at Bishop Manogue: "Great mechanics, great accuracy, explosive arm, such a quick release. …field presence …takes some shots and he just gets right back up like it was nothing … tough"

McNamara's toughness is not in question after a broken rib forced him out of one(1) game last season.

So that's a fair bit of scouting, and then there's the Elite 11. It has gone through another revamp, which is mostly for the better. Previous editions of the camp were trying to jam it in over a single day and saw judgments being made on single-digit throws. Now the thing has sprung tentacles. There are regional camps to qualify for a final, and then I think there's another thing? I don't know. I do know that one article cited McNamara going 28 of 50 on a particular day, and there appears to be about a week's worth of days. So okay, I'll accept some weird Trent Dilfer scouting:

"…command from start to finish. … very few thick-jointed guys who also have twitch [ed: ?!?!] and he’s one of them … fundamentally sound  … consistent. .…baller mentality … going to hang in there until the last second and make a play for his team. …unbelievable how many different arm angles he can throw from. … natural, intuitive playmaking ability. … played through adversity and some chaos. …understands changing speeds on the ball. He knows how to get it up and down. He knows that different plays and routes call for different throws."

Like Cornelius Johnson, McNamara fits into a particular type: the undersized, scrambly broken play maestro. McNamara's quick release helps mitigate his height—DL have less time to get their hands up—and his maniacal tendencies should help him be the kind of tick-tick metronome he'll need to be under center. As 24/7 said during the opening, "he won't wow you with his physical tools but just knows how to play the position."

McNamara went off the board early to Notre Dame but opened his recruitment back up after, uh, something. McNamara's dad:

“It wasn’t a good fit. The reaction from some players was not what we expected. Some things were said, some things were not said, some things were not done."

He picked up Michigan, USC, Georgia, and Alabama offers just before he shook free. Those offers were likely legit. Georgia ended up flipping instate QB Dwan Mathis from OSU on Signing Day, and a guy who would know asserted that McNamara was high on Alabama's board:

"One little side story is Josh [Gattis] had told me that Cade McNamara was their No. 1 quarterback on their board at Alabama … You like to hear that."

It was a down year for QBs, with just one guy in the top 50 and three in the top 150 on the composite, so it's not that much of a stretch if you assume guys like Spencer Rattler and Graham Mertz were no longer on those boards due to commitments.

Michigan is going to have to coach the gunslinger out a bit. QB highlight film is amongst the least enlightening because being a QB is about making the throws, and highlight films don't have the throws you don't make. Even so, you can draw certain things from McNamara's. The sheer number of off-platform throws is a thing, and then when he throws from a relatively clean pocket and has the same 3/4ths or sidearm release, well, that's another. There's a genre of QB that thrives on chaos and only chaos; McNamara might be in this category.

Also, McNamara's focus on off-platform throws can mean that the simple stuff is less accurate than you want. This popped up in the spring game. Your author:

…more likely than any QB other than Patterson to look between the hashes … accuracy was shaky, with a few balls well behind his man. … did pass the first test, which is to look like a plausible Big Ten quarterback. … If he can clean up his accuracy he gives off a Patterson-esque vibe.

24/7 discussing the Elite 11 competition:

…one of the most polarizing prospects, even from one event to the next. He can look dominant one day and underwhelm with his arm on another. Our biggest question is about his downfield arm strength.

Adam Gorney went through the usual list of positives ("can really deliver the ball all over the field … great at prolonging plays") before getting to the bugaboo:

". … maybe a little stronger [than Shea Patterson] but not nearly as athletic or mobile. …biggest weakness with him is consistent accuracy. Sometimes he throws behind and above receivers."

You can see this in McNamara's stats, as well. He had a 58% completion percentage against weak competition as a sophomore and junior. That did pop up to 63% as a senior.

The other potential hiccup is McNamara's ability to run. You'd think a guy who can operate on the run like McNamara would probably be at least a decent option in a zone read game but there are some pretty negative takes on his ability to move. One's just above; a UCLA site scouting a camp also was pretty down on him ("didn’t look particularly athletic").

McNamara's coach explains his lack of rushing attempts:

“Cade can definitely run. I don’t like to run him a ton though and have him take a lot of shots. …Cade is just so good at rolling in the pocket and keeping his eyes down field — he’d rather throw the ball 40 yards than try to pick it up with his feet.”

There are a couple clips on his senior highlight film that are encouraging, albeit against not great competition.

Etc.: Sampson gonna Loy:

Tom Rees gets it right with Pyne-McNamara swap

Drew Pyne is a 2020 recruit.

Why Shea Patterson? Approximately 6'1" guy who's been pointed at QB since he was in middle school. Moxie. Buckets of experience. Not a dual-threat guy but has escapability and the ability to do damage on the run. Patterson established that he can be an effective zone read QB last year; that's an open question for McNamara. Patterson was a five-star guy coming out of high school and McNamara is less likely to hit. If he hits it won't be too far off Patterson.

Other quarterbacks in this genre include Tate Forcier and Iowa's Drew Tate.

Guru Reliability: High. All the camps, Elite 11, but difficult to judge his high school games because of competition level.

Variance: High. Short QB without outstanding wheels; motion kind of weird; competition level could be a shock to the system.

Ceiling: Moderate-plus. McNamara could end up one of the creepy accurate and prescient short-ish pocket-ish guys who are really standouts but the ideal version of him doesn't get to the level of the ideal version of, say, Joe Milton.

General Excitement Level: Moderate. McNamara appears to be a fighter and may well outperform this but inconsistent accuracy is tough to overcome.

Projection: Is quarterback, redshirt. Looks like it's going to be difficult for anyone to overcome Dylan McCaffrey next year. Unless he leaves early McNamara's first real shot at the starting job will be as a redshirt junior, when he'll compete against a senior Joe Milton, a redshirt sophomore JD Johnson, and a redshirt freshman JJ McCarthy—if they're all still around.

Handicapping that battle way down the road is hard to do, but everyone will want it to be McCarthy.