After nine weeks, the Michigan football team appeared to be the most consistent and dominant squad in the country, but they hadn’t played anyone yet. The Wolverines’ first important game of the season was against #10 Penn State, and they had to do it with Jim Harbaugh suspended. The Wolverines won the game, although their play-calling was very different from previous games. Michigan then got a good fight from a bad Maryland team before rolling over Ohio State.
Many people were wondering during that stretch if the play-calling was related to Harbaugh being gone. Before his suspension, the Michigan football team was using JJ McCarthy’s passing ability to dominate teams, and after Harbaugh got suspended, it was mostly the run game. The Wolverines didn’t look as dominant against Maryland, but they picked up two massive wins over Penn State and Ohio State during that stretch.
So, what was the reason for the switch up in play-calling? It wasn’t because of Harbaugh’s absence, it was because of a slight injury that McCarthy was dealing with. He’s back to 100% now, and he looked good against Ohio State, but it did have an effect on the team.
“Absolutely (it had an impact),” Quarterback coach Kirk Campbell said, according to an article from Blue By Ninety. “Whenever you’re not 100 percent, especially with the lower body as a quarterback, it’s going to be hard to finish a throw. I just thought that it was definitely bothering him. Now he’s 100 percent, and we’re ready to rock (for the Big Ten title game). It definitely affected his game a little bit. He’s a warrior; he’s a stalwart. He was going to battle and he was going to go out there and play no matter the percentage he was.”
Nothing was going to keep McCarthy off the field for the Ohio State game. Next up for Michigan is Iowa football in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday. The Wolverines are massive favorites and are expected to punch a ticket to the College Football Playoff with a win. If Michigan does get the win, they will have an entire month before they would play in the CFP semifinals.
