Michigan
Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy’s former coaches in Chicago’s suburbs couldn’t be prouder
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.
Fans will be in for a visual treat on Saturday when Michigan clashes with No. 1 Oregon in the Big House. Not only will it feature two of the most recognizable brands in college athletics, but the matchup will also feature two elite uniform combinations.
For the Wolverines, it will be the traditional blue top with maize pants and blue accessories – a classic look.
Always looking good#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/3Tm9kNy4Ns
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) November 1, 2024
For Oregon, it will be the all-white “Warp Speed” alternate for the road matchup in Ann Arbor.
Warp Speed.
Game 9 uniform combo for @OregonFootball. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/nAxc1Gx5uY
— GoDucks (@GoDucks) October 27, 2024
This will be the sixth meeting all-time between the two programs, and the first meeting with both programs being part of the Big Ten conference. The Wolverines currently hold a 3-2 advantage all-time, but the Ducks have won the last two consecutive meetings. Here’s a quick look:
Michigan and No. 1 Oregon will kick off LIVE from the Big House at 3:40 pm ET on CBS.
– Enjoy more Michigan Wolverines coverage on Michigan Wolverines On SI –
Kamala Harris visits Harrisburg PA less than week before the election
Kamala Harris speaks to an enthusiastic rally at the Farm Show in Harrisburg less than a week before Election Day.
EAST LANSING — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Michigan State University’s campus Sunday to rally young voters two days before Election Day.
The Democrat is expected to deliver remarks around 6:30 p.m., according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
“The rally builds upon Harris-Walz campaign’s youth organizing program in Michigan, which is the largest youth organizing program anywhere in the country,” the campaign said in a release.
No other details were available from the campaign early Friday morning but officials said the vice president’s stop is her second visit to the Lansing area and marks her 11th trip to Michigan.
Harris gave remarks Oct. 18 at UAW Local 652 hall in Lansing.
Former President Donald Trump, her opponent, also has been a frequent visitor in Michigan. He visited mid-Michigan in late August, speaking at Alro Steel in Potterville.
A new poll of likely Michigan voters by Suffolk University/USA Today showed a tie race going into Tuesday’s presidential election
Students living in East Lansing could play a determining role in one of the most high-profile congressional races nationwide – Michigan’s 7th district.
Both of the men running for the seat, Charlotte Republican Tom Barrett and Lansing Democrat Curtis Hertel, have spent time and resources on campus educating students about their campaign platforms and hiring on-campus volunteers to get their messages out.
Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will attend a church service in Detroit and rally young voters at Michigan State University as part of a campaign swing through Michigan on Sunday.
Two days before Tuesday’s presidential election, Harris is planning to make four stops in Michigan, according to a senior campaign official who declined to be identified in order to provide information on the yet-to-be-announced details of the trip.
The Democratic nominee will speak at a church and visit a restaurant in Detroit, a Democratic stronghold and the state’s largest city. Harris also will stop in Pontiac before the evening event in East Lansing, where MSU is located, the official said.
Harris held a large rally at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Monday night.
Turning out college students in East Lansing and Ann Arbor could be key to Harris’ hopes of winning Michigan. Also, East Lansing is located in the hotly contested 7th Congressional District, where former state Sens. Curtis Hertel, an East Lansing Democrat, and Tom Barrett, a Charlotte Republican, are vying for an open seat in the U.S. House.
Harris is locked in a competitive race for Michigan’s 15 electoral votes with Republican former President Donald Trump. Michigan is one of seven battleground states that are expected to decide whether Harris or Trump leads the country for the next four years.
Trump is visiting Michigan on Friday and will hold a rally at Macomb Community College in Warren.
A late October poll of 600 likely Michigan voters, commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV (Channel 4), found Harris was beating Trump by 3 percentage points, 46.7%-43.7%, with 7.3% of the participants saying they planned to vote for a third-party candidate. Another 2.1% said they were undecided.
The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Four years ago, Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump in Michigan by 154,188 votes or 3 percentage points, 51%-48%.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
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