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“The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.”
― Elena Gorokhova, A Mountain of Crumbs

Let’s wrap up spring practice, shall we?

We didn’t get a spring game—I’ve said enough about that—and all of the information these days is filtered through Pravda. It’s a bummer, but as long as this stance lasts you need to add three layers of negativity to everything the program releases to feel half-reasonable. I’ll lead each section with the tiny bit of insider information then share what the program’s saying.

Quarterback

BA life. [Patrick Barron]

What we want to hear: Soviet passing economy strong like Comrade Putin rectus abdominis muscle. Comrade McNamara is people’s chain mover. Comrade McCarthy has talent that is bigger than Soviet Union. Ha ha is joke, nothing is bigger than Soviet Union.

What we’re hearing: If you heard one thing from the spring game it’s that passes were batted at the line…a LOT($). Cade’s got a much better command of the offense, but gets a lot of passes batted down due to his height; ITF’s guy compared him to Ian Book($), which, uh, yeah, that guy gets a lot of passes filed BA. McCarthy’s talent is evident but he’s making lots of true freshman in his first spring practice mistakes.

A guy I spoke to thinks quarterback will be a limiting factor again this year and “you didn’t miss much” about Cade’s spring game performance, a sentiment echoed by ITF’s source($). Sam Webb shared on our podcast that McCarthy’s just a matter of when($):

That being said, the excitement about JJ McCarthy ’s future is palpable. Physically, he is just on another level compared to the other quarterbacks. One source offered the same assessment of McCarthy that he’d offered previously about Donovan Edwards… “he is what a five-star is supposed to look like.”

Jansen’s In the Trenches podcast said Cade was better at directing his offensive line and knowing where the rush is coming from. He does a great job of letting his receivers make a play. As for JJ: You saw what you’d expect from a 5-star recruit with regards to ability, and he’s faster than he expected.

New QB coach Matt Weiss was featured, and they summarized his bits:

So, what does Weiss think of the Wolverines' three scholarship quarterbacks?

On McNamara: "You can say he's not enough of this or not enough of that, but at the end of the day, he's really smart. He makes great decisions. He processes things very fast, and his accuracy and arm strength are more than enough to win with."

On Villari: "He has arm strength. He has mobility. I love working with him. He's a guy who, for sure, could develop into a really good player for us."

On McCarthy: "Arm strength, mobility, great athlete -- all that stuff is obvious as soon as you step on the field with him -- but I've been even more impressed with his approach to things. His maturity is far beyond his years."

Gattis also went on the Jansen pod, and Isaiah Hole of WolverinesWire painstakingly typed up and organized all the things the OC said. From that: the players believe in Cade, who moves the ball and commands the offense well. JJ’s working on “understanding every day is a new day.”

Gattis also pointed out Villari was the scout team QB last year so he’s getting in his first reps as well.

What it means: We’ll have to keep an eye out for the batted passes thing—those tend to stick to certain QBs because of release points and styles of play.

Read nothing into J.J. McCarthy’s struggles this spring, or the suggestion in Gattis’s comments that the true freshman is frustrated with his play. I strongly disagreed with Sam when he suggested on WTKA last week that you might as well roll with the kid if it’s a lost season. Quarterbacking is about comfort, so yes, game reps are important. Reps when you have no protection however are counterproductive, and can ruin a guy. Unless McCarthy himself gives you a timeline, I prefer to take it slow.

Projected depth chart McNamara, [Bowman], McCarthy, Villari

[After THE JUMP: No CCCP2 jokes today]