When Cade McNamara traveled to quarterback showcases during his high school years, a pattern developed. In the shorter combines, squeezed into a morning or afternoon, he’d struggle to distinguish himself from his peers — some of whom had stronger arms or bigger frames. In the camp events that lasted a full day, or stretched beyond 24 hours, McNamara would usually rise to the top, earning recognition as one of the best guys there.
“He just starts to grow on you,” his father, Gary, told the Free Press this week.
In Ann Arbor, where McNamara has led Michigan football to a 9-1 record and a series of impressive road victories, the Wolverines’ impatient fan base can attest to that. Until recently, the reformed gunslinger-turned-game manager had been criticized for his perceived shortcomings and derided as a lesser version of more-gifted freshman backup, J.J. McCarthy.
McNamara’s stats, after all, don’t jump off the page. He ranks sixth in the Big Ten in efficiency rating and seventh in passing yards per game. When the Wolverines threw the ball at a rate of a service academy during a 4-0 start in the first month of the season, the 6-foot-1, 212-pound McNamara became a convenient scapegoat for the pedestrian offense he commanded.
“I kinda felt bad for him early in the year, because there was a lot of pressure put on him,” coordinator Josh Gattis said Wednesday. “Obviously, there was outside noise and everything. And he constantly felt like he was in defense of his own leadership and his own play on the field. … When you put so much pressure on a certain kid and regardless of what they do, they can’t be right, these kids, they see that stuff and they carry that pressure.”
But McNamara wasn’t fazed by it, hardened as he was by past experiences. As a freshman at Reno (Nevada) Damonte Ranch High, McNamara beat out the incumbent starter and was promptly shunned by a faction of his teammates. At games, students would chant the other quarterback’s name, pleading for him to usurp the position McNamara had won. But he defied his naysayers — launching one of Nevada’s most distinguished prep careers, which ended with state records for passing yards and touchdowns.
“Dealing with that at a young age was difficult,” he said Monday. “But I think it totally prepared me for the situation I am in now.”
McNamara now lives in the fast-moving world of college football, where he is a testament to patience and perseverance. When he arrived at Michigan in January 2019, he wasn’t met with the same fanfare as McCarthy, and there was no expectation he’d see the field in the immediate future. Not only was senior Shea Patterson the returning starter, but there were three other quarterbacks on the depth chart ahead of him. Then Brandon Peters entered the NCAA transfer portal that May.
The following year, Dylan McCaffrey suddenly left the program, just as the 2020 schedule was reinstated. Joe Milton was immediately promoted to QB1, and the coaches were infatuated with his raw ability. Gattis cooed about the 70-yard throws and “wow” plays he made in preseason practice. But when the games began, Milton struggled, and Michigan began to lose. As the Wolverines were headed for their fourth consecutive defeat on the road at Rutgers last November, McNamara came to the rescue. He lifted Michigan out of a 17-0 hole and rallied the team to a 48-42 triple-overtime victory. McNamara was then named the starter, which triggered Milton’s eventual transfer.
In the end, the kid from Reno was the last man standing, just as he’d predicted.
“I know I’m going to pass these guys,” he confided to his father two years ago. “And I know I am going to get ‘em.”
Now, he’s the one being chased by McCarthy, whose legion of backers are enamored with the freshman’s athleticism and arm strength.
In 110 snaps, McCarthy has drawn "oohs" and "aahs" while splicing together his own highlight reel. His debut against Western Michigan featured a 69-yard touchdown pass thrown from one side of the field to the other after he eluded an oncoming defender. Against Northwestern, he ripped off a pair of impressive runs, juking multiple tacklers.
But in a loss to Michigan State, he was involved in a fumbled handoff that gave the Spartans their final advantage. Jim Harbaugh later blamed running back Blake Corum for the bad exchange. Still, the play offered a reminder of how well McNamara has protected the football this season.
Despite 599 snaps this season, he has committed only three turnovers. McNamara’s conscientious approach has allowed the Wolverines to play the complementary style they prefer, where the offense maintains possession and minimizes the exposure of its defense. By heeding the coaches’ advice, he has minimized risk at the expense of his own numbers. A healthy 7.9 yards-per-attempt average suggests he’s capable of more.
“Everyone focuses on stats,” Gattis said. “The only stat that matters is the wins and loss column for a quarterback. Are they able to deliver wins for their team and are they able to lead the team onto success? And that’s obviously a category that he’s done an extremely good job of since he’s been here.”
McNamara is the only starting quarterback under Harbaugh to lead the Wolverines to road victories over Penn State and Wisconsin in the same season, and the first to beat either since 2018.
The results have been so overwhelmingly positive that the criticism never registered with McNamara, according to his father.
“The narrative gets thrown a little bit out of control,” Gary said. “He doesn’t care about that stuff. He only cares about winning and leading. He does a really good job of understanding, 'The coaches are the only people I’m supposed to listen to, and I’m doing what they’re asking me to do. And no one else really matters.' …When we watch Michigan football, I can now see Cade McNamara’s stamp on that football team.”
Those imprints don’t develop overnight, of course. They take time, deepening over days, weeks and months. During that period, Michigan’s starting quarterback won the hearts and minds of the fans once reluctant to embrace him. In essence, he has grown on them.
The man snubbed by his own student body in high school is now a big man on campus in Ann Arbor, cheered by his peers.
“I get recognized pretty often,” he said. “It’s cool and all. But I think it’s just really cool being on a winning football team right now.”
