TE Erick All (Iowa): All is now a Hawkeye and might play second fiddle at tight end to Luke Lachey, but Iowa uses multiple tight ends on a regular basis, so he should get plenty of playing time. Last year’s second tight end was Lachey, who had 28 catches for 398 yards and 4 touchdowns behind Sam LaPorta, who is now with the Detroit Lions.
WR Andrel Anthony (Oklahoma): Anthony is slotted in as a starting receiver for the Sooners this fall. He’s listed as a 6’1″, 192 lb. junior.
QB Alan Bowman (Oklahoma State): Bowman is in a battle for the starting quarterback job at one of the “other” OSU schools.
OG Zach Carpenter (Indiana): Carpenter is a redshirt senior who is expected to start at center for the Hoosiers.
S Damani Dent (Charlotte): Dent is a 5’11”, 196 lb. redshirt freshman at Charlotte.
CB Darion Green-Warren (Nevada): Green-Warren is a redshirt sophomore who is expected to be a backup for the Wolfpack in 2023.
TE Louis Hansen (UConn): Hansen is expected to start for the Huskies at tight end this fall. He’s listed at 6’4″ and 238 pounds.
Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara has entered the transfer portal. The class of 2019 signee won the starting job from Joe Milton in 2020 and held it through 2021, leading the Wolverines to a 12-1 record, a Big Ten championship, and the College Football Playoff.
Unfortunately for McNamara, his 2022 season started by losing his starting job to J.J. McCarthy in week two. As a backup in week three, he hurt his knee, which was followed up by knee surgery and ultimately an entry into the portal.
McNamara completed 267/431 passes (63.1%) during his career at Michigan for 3,181 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions. He ranks #14 all-time at Michigan in passing yardage despite starting for just over one season.
I gave McNamara a TTB Rating of 65 and assumed he would probably transfer after being stuck behind Dylan McCaffrey and/or Joe Milton. Obviously, I was wrong about the circumstances – and he deserved a higher TTB Rating – but it turns out he is transferring after being knocked down the depth chart, just not in favor of McCaffrey or Milton. The 2021 season was a pretty magical year and McNamara had some great performances, including against Rutgers in 2020, Penn State in 2021, and even Michigan State in 2021, despite the latter being a loss.
It’s hard to blame McNamara for looking for a new opportunity. He had the job and lost it, and his replacement is going to be around for another year or two. McNamara has two seasons of eligibility remaining, and with his resume, he could potentially go elsewhere and earn a starting job for the next two years. He could even end up still playing in the Big Ten; Iowa (Spencer Petras) and Purdue (Aidan O’Connell) both have quarterbacks graduating after this season.
Michigan is now down to McCarthy, walk-on Davis Warren, and redshirt freshmen Alex Orji and Jayden Denegal. The Wolverines appear not to be interested in taking a quarterback in the class of 2023. Unless they go after a player in the transfer portal, the depth will be rather thin in 2023 and, in my opinion, not very talented outside of McCarthy and Warren. However, some Michigan people seem to believe that it opens the door for an early contribution from Charlotte (NC) Providence Day quarterback Jadyn Davis, who is thought to be a Michigan lean.
Well, that was a butt whoopin’. Everyone expected a Michigan blowout, but UConn couldn’t do anything. Other than an 18-yard scramble by quarterback Zion Turner, UConn’s longest plays were 9 yards, 8 yards, 7 yards. When’s the last time you saw a team only have one double-digit offensive play? That’s an odd thing to remember off the top of my head even if it’s happened in the last 20 or 30 years, but I don’t remember another time when that was the case. Altogether, UConn’s quarterbacks combined to go 5/20 for 24 yards. That’s 1.2 yards per attempt.
Hello, J.J. McCarthy. Well, McCarthy didn’t wait too long to stake his claim for the starting quarterback job. He completed 11/12 passes for 229 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions while rushing 1 time for 16 yards. His first pass was a 42-yard bomb to Roman Wilson for a touchdown, and he didn’t really slow down after that. Every pass was accurate, even a crisp RPO slant to Ronnie Bell that accounted for McCarthy’s lone incompletion. It was an excellent starting debut against an atrocious team.