New year, new pastures. The transfer portal is the ultimate equalizer terrain. It spews out your true value once you choose to traverse it. No matter if you were just plying your trade at a blueblood program or in the G5. The portal holds no filter and will tell you your stature among your peers. A Big 10 champion who’s spearheaded a playoff team tried his luck and the results aren’t what he’d have hoped.

Picture this trajectory. You’re the no.1 player in your state out of highschool. After redshirting your freshman season and then deputising the following year, you get bestowed the honor of being the Michigan Wolverines’ QB1. That’s a pretty conventional path at a program of that ilk. You have quarterback whisperer Jim Harbaugh to coach you to the promised land. You take your opportunity and lead the team to a conference championship. Then, however, things start spiraling out.

JJ McCarthy didn’t quite follow the aforementioned conventional path. He kept plugging away at playing time as a true freshman behind said player. A watershed moment of reckoning and convergence came, and McCarthy got the nod atop the depth chart. A national title ensued, and he’s now in the NFL. The guy he replaced? 3 seasons after losing his spot under center to McCarthy, he’s now headed to Eastern Tennessee State in the FCS. A true fall from grace, and one that’s sadly not his own doing.

Cade McNamara just cannot catch a break. His collegiate career never really got a fair chance. This is a result of some poor situational luck, i.e. JJ McCarthy’s ascension. As well as a series of injuries and losing the faith of his head coaches at 2 separate junctures. McNamara has a career spanning 6 seasons and counting, including his redshirt year in 2019. He’s made fewer than two starts in 3 of those. 

After spending the 2022 season as a backup at Michigan, Cade McNamara hit the portal ahead of next year. He found a home with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Things seemed to be on the up again, but it begrudgingly wasn’t to be. His 2023 season, and first in Iowa, ended prematurely after 5 games with a knee injury. Last season, he started 8 games before being designated to the bench after 6 TDs and 5 picks. Despite this, McNamara has not lost faith. A move to the FCS may be perceived as a step-down, but it offers a new lease on life. 

Being the big fish in a small pond may serve Cade McNamara well

Cade McNamara has shown he’s cut out for College Football after all. You don’t win the B1G unless you’re at least a serviceable signal caller. His numbers do suggest there’s a player in there who hasn’t quite been able to translate his 4-star talent into performances. Context is vital, so it’s worth keeping in mind that he hasn’t had a long stretch of games in one particular system, either.

McNamara has garnered 4703 yards across his stop-start career in 29 games as a starter. He’s got 31 touchdowns to go with 15 interceptions. Considering a third of these came during the last 8 games, you can view it from a glass-half-empty perspective. Thinking he’s coming off his worst stretch of football. Conversely, you can view it as a blip in an otherwise decent TD:INT ratio. McNamara also boasts of a 60% pass completion rate. Again, it is not the best, but it is serviceable. 

Going down to the FCS affords Cade McNamara a final opportunity to get on the grass and play some football. 2025 beckons to be his final year, so he’ll want to end on a high. With the pressure somewhat alleviated, McNarama can potentially find his mojo again. Alas, however, the epilogue of his CFB book gets written. It’ll still include the high of being a key contributor to a blueblood in winning hardware. Nobody can take that away from him.