LA GRANGE PARK, Ill. (CBS) — When the Michigan Wolverines face the Washington Huskies in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Monday, two suburban athletes will be in the spotlight.
Wide receiver Tyler Morris and quarterback J.J. McCarthy both played at Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park. CBS 2’s Jori Parys spoke with their high school coach, and McCarthy’s personal quarterbacks coach – who saw something special in McCarthy well before he was in Ann Arbor.
J.J. McCarthy helped Michigan punch its ticket to a national championship game by beating Alabama in overtime at the Rose Bowl. It was moment that has been many years in the making for the La Grange Park native – who received his first college offer in the 8th grade.
“The coach calls me and I’m like: ‘Coach, what are you doing? What are you doing to this kid. You know how much pressure that is? He hasn’t put a helmet for me yet, and he’s got an offer?’” said Nazareth Academy head football coach Tim Racki. “Even at that young age when that can go to your head as a young kid, he stayed humble modest – never talked about it.”
McCarthy’s play did plenty of talking.
“His first varsity start, he plants throws across his body 40 yards – and it’s a laser,” said Racki. “The headsets were just silent and one of the coaches you just hear, ‘Well, I think he’s ready.’”
“I take a lot of video. I’ll record a game like you know, Patrick Mahomes, for example is kind of like the go-to – and then show our kids that, and then we try to like put a drill together around that,” adds Greg Holcomb, McCarthy’s longtime personal quarterbacks coach, who owns Next Level Athletix, “and J.J. was the kind of kid who would nail it on the first throw.”
McCarthy made three state championship appearances at Nazareth, winning an IHSA 7A title as a sophomore in 2018. He ended up finishing his high school career in Florida at IMG Academy, transferring in the middle of the pandemic.
“People think why did he got to IMG – for more exposure? No. We weren’t playing football here,” said Racki. He would have stayed here. We had a loaded team going into his senior year. He loved his teammates. He loved Nazareth. But for his – to play at the next level, you can’t sit around not playing football.”
McCarthy ended up winning a championship his senior year and has since gone 26-1 as a starter at Michigan. Now just one game away from another title.
“He’s just so mature – I mean, you saw like, he does his mental focus and all the things that he does before the game. I mean, he reads books on Navy SEALs and meditation,” said Holcomb. “I think he is the best quarterback to come through Michigan, and I think you know, he’s got a ton of potential in front of him.”
“He’s had the goal to play at the next level – whether it was Division I – which he’s doing now – or the NFL, since he was little,” said Racki. “He had all his goals – again, to speak to his maturity – on this white board, and the NFL shield logo in the middle, so this is something that he’s been working on.”
McCarthy continues to keep in touch with his coaches, who are both proud of the work the quarterback is doing on and off the field.
“He’s so selfless,” said Holcomb. “There’s so many non-football things I could say about him, and so it’s just really special to see him do all that.”
Coach Racki asked McCarthy to send a video message to his team before their state championship game this year. McCarthy did so, and Racki said you could “hear a pin drop when he played it to them.”
The Roadrunnders went on to win state.
