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Quarterback Jonathan James McCarthy was born in the United States on January 20, 2003. He was an offensive lineman for the University of Michigan. McCarthy guided the Michigan Wolverines to three Big Ten Conference championships in a row, which culminated with a 2023 national championship. As the starting quarterback, he concluded his time at Michigan with a 27-1 record (.964), the third-best winning percentage of any quarterback in college football history.
McCarthy was born on January 20, 2003, in La Grange Park, Illinois.[1] He attended Nazareth Academy for high school until transferring to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, as a senior in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of Nazareth’s football season.[2] In two seasons as the starting quarterback at Nazareth, he led his team to a 26-2 record with consecutive appearances in the IHSA Class 7A state championship game, winning the state title as a sophomore in 2018.[3] In his lone season at IMG Academy, he led his team to an 8-0 record and a consensus high school football national championship.[4]
McCarthy was a five-star recruit in the 247Sports Composite Rankings, which aggregates the ratings of the major recruiting services.[5] At age 16, McCarthy said Ryan Day “lied to my face” by telling him in March that Ohio State would not take a quarterback in the 2021 recruiting class until the end of the summer, but then accepted a commitment from Kyle McCord in April. Despite growing up an Ohio State fan, McCarthy committed to rival Michigan the next month. Speaking about his new hatred of Ohio State, he said, “I used to love them. Now I want to kill them.”[6][7][8]
McCarthy played hockey growing up and said that was actually his first love, not football. Around his freshman year of high school, he made the decision to give up hockey in order to focus on football. McCarthy called it “one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make.”[9]
In eighth grade, he received a scholarship offer to play football at Iowa State from head coach Matt Campbell.
Rated as one of the top quarterback recruits, McCarthy committed to play college football for the Wolverines at the University of Michigan in May 2019.[13][14][15]
On September 4, 2021, he made his Michigan debut against Western Michigan and completed four of six passes for 80 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown pass to Daylen Baldwin.[16][17]
He appeared in 11 games during the 2021 season, primarily as the backup quarterback, completing 34 of 59 passes for 516 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions.[18]
2022 season[edit]
Prior to the 2022 season, McCarthy competed with Cade McNamara for the role as Michigan’s starting quarterback.[19] Before the opening game, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh announced that the competition was close and would continue at least for the first two games, with McNamara starting in the first week against Colorado State and McCarthy starting in the second week against Hawaii.[20]
McCarthy started and played most of the first half against Hawaii, completing 11 of 12 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns while leading the Wolverines to a 42–0 halftime lead.[21] In his postgame press conference, Harbaugh announced that McCarthy would start against UConn in week 3 and added, “He’s the starter moving forward on merit.”[22][23]
McCarthy continued as Michigan’s starting quarterback, completing 15 of 18 passes against UConn for 214 yards, 18 of 26 passes against Maryland for 220 yards, and 18 of 24 passes against Iowa for 155 yards.[24][25][26] Against Indiana on October 8, he completed 28 of 36 passes for 304 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception (on a ball tipped up into the air in the end zone).[27]
McCarthy helped lead the Wolverines into an undefeated matchup with Ohio State on November 26. He passed for 263 yards and three passing touchdowns and recorded a rushing touchdown in the 45–23 victory.[28]
In the Fiesta Bowl, he completed 20 of 34 passes for a career-high 343 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, both returned for touchdowns, in the 51–45 loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff Semifinals.[29]
For the 2022 season, he completed 208 of 322 passes for 2,719 yards, 22 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a 155.0 quarterback rating.[30]
