Excellent long-form article on JJ McCarthy
TL;DR: JJ's a really great QB, but even a better person. Oh, and he's channeling a bit of disrespekt.
The Force is strong with this one.
Interesting article, as were some of the linked other articles, such as the one on how osu stacks up this year.
The other "Maychigan" articles are definitely worth a read. It's amazing how the expanded CFP in 2024 will dilute the importance of The Game. It feels like this year's edition will again be a win-and-in situation. It may not feel that way again for a while as long as both teams are entering the game with fewer than two losses.
OSU got in last year after we destroyed them at home.
I get that, but that only happened because Clemson crapped the bed against South Carolina and USC never learned how to play defense. We would've likely made it if the result was flipped and no one thought we would get in with one loss.
OSU fans aren't afraid of him. Welp, that's certainly an opinion...
Thanks, OP. Good read and much better than a long, loosely connected string of Twitter links.
Original article for those interested:
Happy people are difficult to defeat - when things start to suck it takes them much longer to wear down. JJ strikes me as a really happy person.
Conversely, CJ Stroud always looked like everyone else wants him to play football, and he wishes he was anywhere else.
I had that thought as well. In fact as a Sixers fan my initial take was that he gave off a serious Ben Simmons vibe (sigh), though to be fair I should note that Stroud at least throws with his correct hand.
That's only when he's playing against UM. He was happy when it was over 50 degrees and they were winning.
Get JJ to read this. Fantastic quotes from worthless buckeyes to feed JJ. Love the confidence and leadership from JJ. He exudes being a great person.
Ohio state fans really come off as quite a treat in this article. In order to talk JJ down, they have to say how bad their own team played.
It's the gift that keeps on giving. Many OSU fans I interact with online know better, but you can set your watch to the ones who don't know how to act and make the whole fanbase look silly.
After the draft, a friend of mine (OSU fan) tried to give me grief by saying mockingly, "I was wondering where all the Michigan players were." Um, we had more players drafted than you did, I guess you didn't watch past CJ Stroud.
Thanks for the link - that was a great read! And yeah, those OSU fans are going to be hating life in Nov. I really believe the leap we see from JJ this year will remind us of the Tom Brady that beat Bama in the 2000 Orange Bowl. I also believe that he will force Harbaugh and Moore to open up the offense more than we've seen over the last few years. Not going to be the TCU 2nd half offense all the time, but closer to that than to the forced feeding of 3rd and short runs we constantly see.
Of course, we've all had those thoughts before, only to see Harbaugh go inexplicably more conservative than we thought possible...
Thanks for the link and heads up, MrWoodson. It's an excellent article for a more excellent person, athlete, and UM ambassador. I'm grateful to see the spotlight directed positively, a practice so contrary to the focus of most media. Go Blue, Go JJ
CJ Stroud has a lot of the measurables you'd want in a QB, but the story of The Game last November wasn't JJ bombing WIDE OPEN receivers, but the 3rd and mid play in the long TD drive where he kept the ball for a first down, and trucked an OSU safety for extra yards, and then had the presence of mind to shush CJ Stokes from drawing a possible taunting penalty. If you want to say that dragging OSU safeties for extra yards isn't a big deal because everyone else does it, then fine, but that's a sample of high leverage winning plays that get the whole team fired up.
Give me a superstar/super talent who does the little things you describe as well as he does the BIG things and I will show you a winner 99 out of 100. The IT factor missed by many superstar/super talented players
JJ also threw a rope of a pass while facing an all out blitz on a sideline route to Cornelius Johnson that only a rare few QBs can do. That was an elite NFL throw. Look forward to this year’s OSU game!
Those ohio state fan comments are incredible.
Welp, sounds like they have nothing to worry about.
I'm surprised Harbaugh didn't just go recruit some guy off the street in Columbus that can hit open receivers all day. It would certainly simplify things.
Some of us enjoy doing oppo research on 11Warpedbrains. It's comedically delusional how they rag on JJ, if he played for them and they had won the Game last two years, they'd be naming their kids after him.
well i named my kid after bobby hebert, and i was 30 at the time.
“If you watch all the previous games, he wasn’t throwing for 300 yards and three touchdowns all the time.”
Well no shit. If he’d actually watched those games he’d know we run the ball 2/3 of the time and never throw the ball in the red zone. When called upon, JJ generally delivers as nut fans have seen.