Cade McNamara says he’s in ‘a really good place’, not allowing negativity into QB competition

“I’m in a really good place right now,” Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara told the media at Big Ten Media Day.

McNamara said he spent the offseason focusing on his body and becoming stronger as well as fine-tuning his mechanics. McNamara said his accuracy this off-season is as clean as it has ever been.

“I think my footwork has changed a lot, I feel like I have a better base right now. I feel really confident in my throwing right now.”

McNamara will have to fend off J.J. McCarthy to hold onto the starting job, but Jim Harbaugh said McNamara will be hard to beat. A lot has been made of the quarterback competition, but McNamara isn’t allowing the conversation/debate become a detriment to the quarterback room or the team.

“Anything I do is gonna be for the sake of the team winning and that’s what’s most important on my mind. What comes with that is having good relationships with my teammates,” McNamara said. “I take a lot of pride in what I bring to the team from a leadership standpoint, so allowing negativity or anything like that, I don’t think that’s healthy for the team or really for myself either.”

McNamara’s mindset is something head coach Jim Harbaugh talked about last month — the quarterback competition may be tightly contested, but there won’t be vitriol, it’s been the opposite.

“Here’s the cool thing with J.J. and Cade, it’s competitive, but it’s not combative,” Harbaugh said in June. “Two guys that play the same position and are on the same team. Everything that I’ve noticed is that they’ve got each other’s backs, and they’ve got the team’s back.”

Harbaugh said at Big Ten Media Day that the best man will win the job, and both McNamara and McCarthy are focusing on doing what they can to help better themselves to help the team.

“Any quarterback's job should be focused to make sure the team wins. I think that whole group is confident that that’s our mindset, and if it’s not then we’ll change it,” McNamara said.