You May Not Believe in Cade McNamara. But He Does. And That’s Enough. - CalBearsMaven

2 seed in the College Football Playoff, Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara went to watch film by himself.

But McNamara says, “I couldn’t imagine going back to my apartment not having watched film.

McNamara epitomizes his team as well as anyone in the country: “A very stubborn human being,” says his father, Gary, on a team full of very stubborn human beings.

McNamara is not the most physically talented quarterback in the Playoff.

He is not even the most physically talented quarterback on his own team.

“I always felt that I had enough,” McNamara says.

Of the four quarterbacks in the Playoff, only McNamara is a sure bet to get yanked from a game.

Hutchinson says, “I still don't understand the rotation”—but the logic is actually pretty clear.

McCarthy, a former five-star recruit, is better at designed runs or option plays where he can take off, and he is still a threat to throw, and so he gives Michigan a dynamic that McNamara does not.

is just more talented at running.”.

“I think the way I handle this situation will affect the team,” McNamara says.

Gary says his son believes he has “never had a good practice.” He and Cade often have this kind of conversation:.

And yet, Gary also says this: “Five years ago, if Bill Belichick would have brought Cade into his office and said, ‘Cade, we just don’t think you’re any good,’ Cade would have walked out of that room and said, ‘Dad, you won’t believe it: Bill Belichick doesn’t know anything about football.’ ”.

Cade chose Michigan in part because he knew he wouldn’t start right away—sitting would be good for him.

“Joe is just about as freakish of an athlete as you can find at the quarterback position,” McNamara says.

There are some obvious parallels between the McNamara-McCarthy partnership of 2021 and the most famous quarterback competition in Michigan history, between Tom Brady and Drew Henson in 1998 and ’99.

McNamara is a dogged worker who combines an unwavering faith in himself with the understanding that he must support the coaches, whether or not he agrees with their rotation—just as Brady did.

More: The Brady-Henson rotation really cost Michigan, at most, only one game: a 34–31 loss in East Lansing to a Michigan State team that finished 10–2.

Michigan’s only defeat this year was a 37–33 loss in East Lansing to a Michigan State team that finished the regular season 10–2.

Sometimes McNamara even sounds like Brady: “I think there's more to playing quarterback than being able to throw a football?

I think the effect that you have on the offense, the effect that you have on guys … the quarterback has such a bigger influence than just completing passes.”.

McNamara is the same way, and he knows it: “I think game situations (require) poise.

Like Brady, McNamara remembers the slights and the failures more than the compliments and the triumphs.

He will tell you that in his freshman year at Damonte Ranch High, in Nevada, he had to split time with an older player, that it fractured the team, that “fights broke out in the [stands] … parents screaming at me to get off the field.” He remembers “waiting to get picked up by my dad after a game, waiting for him to comfort me.

And, you know, I don’t think he cares what anybody thinks about him.”.

“Being the quarterback, I know every play that has the potential of being called every single game,” he says.

Asked about the Brady-Henson comparison, Cade says, “I‘m extremely aware of the situation.” He is hoping to talk to Brady about it soon

Saturday night, after Michigan beat Iowa to win the Big Ten, McNamara saw his parents

Michigan had won the game 42–3, but let’s keep that between us