ANN ARBOR, Mich. — J.J. McCarthy’s third start for Michigan football perhaps didn’t go quite as he would have liked. Still, the Wolverines won the game in his first-yet complete game in a maize and blue uniform.
His next test will be his toughest to date, as he’ll get the start on the road going up against a good, albeit unranked, Iowa team. PFF has Iowa rated as the best defense in the country, while Michigan has the No. 8 offense per the same ratings.
On Wednesday, Michigan football co-defensive coordinator Matt Weiss, who also oversees the quarterbacks, discussed what he’s seen from McCarthy thus far, the challenges Iowa presents, and much more.
Here is everything he had to say.
Assessing McCarthy’s play in his first Big Ten start vs. his first few games
Yeah, I think, as you said, it’s his first real appearance, it’s the first time he’s ever played a full football game. So, I think for the first time playing a full football game, there’s a lot of positives to take away from it. I think he did a good job. Certainly looking at the stat line, it’s really good for a guy playing his first football game. At the same time, I’m sure J.J. would tell you, there’s a lot of stuff that we could clean up. And we’re focused on the process. And we just love everything about J.J. and the way he goes about it. And there’s so many things that we can fix and work on.
And so we come away from it, even when he did make mistakes, we’re encouraged, because you can see it’s all fixable stuff. And really, it just comes down to coaching more than anything else. If he’s making mistakes, we’re not doing the right thing. And that’s on us as coaches. So we’re really encouraged by his first full game. Yeah, we were happy with it.
Was not running McCarthy last week by design? Do they intend to keep running him?
Yeah, absolutely. We will use them in that role. A lot of it has…
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