ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Two things became clear following Michigan's 51-7 season opening victory over Colorado State.
The first is the pass rush will still be productive even without superstars David Ojabo and Aidan Hutchinson who left for the NFL Draft.
The second is the quarterback battle remains in progress.
Wolverines junior quarterback Cade McNamara looked less than stellar in his first start of the season, while sophomore quarterback JJ McCarthy provided some extra juice off the bench.
The Michigan defense recorded seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss against Colorado State. The Wolverine defense tallied seven sacks combined during the first four games of the 2021 season. Their pressure on Saturday also forced two turnovers showing that the front seven can make some noise without the former Wolverines who are now in the pros.
"I feel like people didn't have faith in the coaches recruiting, didn't have faith in the coaches development of us and didn't have faith in our development," Michigan senior edge rusher Mike Morris said. "People come and go out of every school all of the time. But now it's like, does Michigan have a guy? But, no, we have multiple."
Backup quarterback JJ McCarthy came in during the third quarter and provided energy to the offense. He ran a 20-yard touchdown and led an additional scoring drive.
"I thought things were operating really smooth in the first half," Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said. "I finally said, 'Hey, lets get JJ in there.' He was electric when he got in. No question about that."
The veteran quarterback and team captain McNamara didn't seem thrilled with how the coaches handled the battle at the position so far.
"It was kind of a thing I wasn't expecting by the end of camp," McNamara said. "I thought I had my best camp. I thought I put myself in a good position. That was the decision that coach went with."
McCarthy will get his first career start in Week 2 at the Big House against Hawaii.
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