ESPN article ranks UM QB situation 29/131
The article reads both as a grouping by situation and a ranking of all 131 teams' QB situations:
1 C.J. Stroud (Ohio State)
2 Caleb Williams (USC)
3 Bryce Young (Alabama)
4 Devin Leary (NC State)
5 Cam Rising (Utah)
6 Tyler Van Dyke (Miami)
7 Stetson Bennett (Georgia)
8 Brennan Armstrong (Virginia)
9 Malik Cunningham (Louisville)
10 Sam Hartman (Wake Forest)
11 Hendon Hooker (Tennessee)
12 Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina)
13 Aidan O'Connell (Purdue)
14 Will Rogers (Mississippi State)
15 KJ Jefferson (Arkansas)
16 Dorian Thompson-Robinson (UCLA)
17 Spencer Rattler (South Carolina)
18 Will Levis (Kentucky)
19 Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma)
20 Quinn Ewers and Hudson Card (Texas)
21 Blake Shapen (Baylor)
22 Anthony Richardson (Florida)
23 Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss)
24 Cameron Ward (Washington State)
25 Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti (Pittsburgh)
26 JT Daniels (West Virginia)
27 Hank Bachmeier (Boise State)
28 Phil Jurkovec (Boston College)
"Tier 7: You might not have noticed, but they're pretty good (five players, four jobs):
29 Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy (Michigan)
30 Adrian Martinez (Kansas State)
31 Payton Thorne (Michigan State)
32 Taulia Tagovailoa (Maryland)
"What to make of the Michigan QB situation? McNamara led the Wolverines to the College Football Playoff last season and became the first Michigan QB to beat Ohio State since Denard Robinson, a decade earlier. That he struggled against Georgia's defense in the Orange Bowl simply puts McNamara in a long line of QBs who met their match against the Bulldogs. Yet, it's impossible to look at McCarthy's talent and not have visions of an even brighter future with a more dynamic QB -- one who might ultimately be good enough to test even the toughest of defenses. Still, Michigan went the better part of a decade trying to find just one decent option at QB, so perhaps Wolverines fans shouldn't be so quick to assume they have two capable starters now."
Other B1G/2022 opponents:
37 Sean Clifford (Penn State)
39 Tanner Morgan (Minnesota)
49 Graham Mertz (Wisconsin)
63 Connor Bazelak, Jack Tuttle and Donoven McCulley (Indiana)
70 Casey Thompson, Logan Smothers and Chubba Purdy (Nebraska)
72 Spencer Petras and Alex Padilla (Iowa)
88 Ryan Hilinski (Northwestern)
89 Tommy DeVito and Artur Sitkowski (Illinois)
90 Noah Vedral and Gavin Wimsatt (Rutgers)
102 Joey Yellen, Brayden Schager and Cammon Cooper (Hawai'i)
111 Clay Millen (CSU)
125 Ta'Quan Roberson and Tyler Phommachanh (UConn)
I leaned toward the cyaning at certain points of last year, but even at my most pessimistic, this ranking is ridiculous. I get that it's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but we're listed under four teams' situations that are described as "just stay healthy".
"He's convinced me. Give me my dollar back."
-Mr. Orange
Let the cyan flow!
Cyan Cade! Cyan JJ! Cyan them all!!!!
Rudock and a healthy Speight were at least decent options. And bringing up past QBs as a caution to this year's situation is so weak.
All aboard the Devin Leary hype train!!
but seriously these are some strange rankings. I'd take anybody 14-19 above a few of those top-10 guys.
And yeah, Cade & JJ should be top-10. the disrespekt is real.
LOLOLOLOL
20 Quinn Ewers and Hudson Card (Texas)
Texas was horrible with Card last year and Ewers played 3 snaps. That is a much better situation than what Michigan has, I am sure of it.
Texas is BACK.
Until they play Maryland, they are.
This x100. Ewers may turn out to be great. But thus far all he has done in college is count his NIL money.
That is way off the mark. You have completely left out the important aspect that he has also rocked quite a mullet.
I feel like if not for the injury in Spring it would be all but public knowledge that McCarthy is Michigan's starting QB. He had already replaced McNamara in the last game.
I like this ranking. Harbaugh should blow it up to 4' x 8' and hang it in a very prominent place in Schembechler Hall or the Glick.
agree this is excellent bulletin board material
Seems like DTR has been at UCLA foreverrrrrr
The only thing I got from this list was that I think Clifford has been the QB at PSU for 27 years.
Is it honestly that surprising?
QB has not been a position of strength for UofM for quite some time and honestly, the formula for wins last year was heavy running mixed in with the passing game.
Prior to the narrative changing, I think that either the position needs to produce some #'s in the passing game, or one of the QBs needs to be able to be seen as leading the team directly to some big wins through their own talent and abilities, not as support to the run game.
There still needs to be some proven growth in the position this season to move them up significantly higher in the discussion.
McNamara ended the season at #57 is QB RTG - so I dont think this is too far off until proven otherwise.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/stats/player/_/table/passing/sort/QBRating/dir/desc
I would agree if the article title was about "dominant QBs." But the title is about "QB situation."
This should lead a reasonable reader to conclude that the list intends to prioritize teams with fewer QB questions along with solid QB play. Michigan not being listed crazy high would be fine...except loads of teams ranked higher have nothing but questions in their QB room.
Yeah... there is no team in the nation that's better prepared to suffer an injury to its starter. A 5-star, non-true-freshman backup with game experience and stats should put us in the top 10 for "QB situation" automatically.
Is it just me, or is Aidan O'Connell from Purdue the most overrated dude in college football? I just don't see it.
I've even seen people speculate he goes round 1.. Reminds me of McShay mocking that Minnesota QB round 1 and the entire conference chuckled.
espn listicles are the fucking worst, and they would be if they'd ranked us #1. unreadable shite.
That certainly is a list of QBs in college football. I'll give ESPN that.
Not only that, but we return every major receiving weapon we had last year, plus we add our best WR who played only a half all year.
This will be the best passing year in school history.
That's not very stellar analysis, from my POV. They're the darned analysts, creating the rankings. So they talk about what Michigan fans think? What do they think? What do they know?
Twenty-one seems a long way down the list, but let 'em talk--we will do our thing. From my POV, M stands to have one of their best offenses in many a moon; it's the D we will wonder about.
Under DTR is pretty funny. And I am also a Boise State fan, and I love Bach but I'd swap him for McNamara and McCarthy in a hot second.
Oof and Thorne around 30, when dude had as many picks as TDs in conference play. Terrible.
I love how literally half of the top ten are QBs I have never heard of. And I generally pay attention to college football.
This list is asinine. I know there's a lot of hate for Michigan and it generates clicks, but good lord even the biggest Sparty and Buckeye slappies would say that we are criminally underranked here.
It's hard to pile on an author who clarifies the entire thing is pretty much inaccurate and to expect a lot of satire. The whole article is full of jokes, albeit lame, but I laughed at some of them.
We're sifting through all 131 quarterback situations (plus a few more, for good measure) in what is the definitive, no doubt about it, inarguable ranking of talent that will undoubtedly prove 100% accurate at year's end.
My personal favorite.
Then there's the battle at Texas, which features one of the highest-profile recruits in recent years (Ewers) and the guy who started the Longhorns' opener last year before going down with an injury (Card). Both have tremendous upside, and both will surely be at the forefront of a truly astounding number of "Texas is back" jokes before the 2022 season ends (with a loss to Indiana in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl).
Nick Patti? How is that possible? Hoke was after him.
Cade/JJ are a couple slots better than MSU and significantly lower than Purdue's guy. This is arguably Michigan's best QB room in probably 15 years and we barely crack the top 30. Jeebus, this list is a steaming pile.