Jim Harbaugh On JJ McCarthy: 'I Want Him Gunslinging'

Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh said that there's some teachable moments from JJ McCarthy's performance against bowling green, but he doesn't want his junior quarterback to change his style of play.

Preparing for his first game back on the Michigan sidelines after serving a three-game suspension to open the season, head coach Jim Harbaugh met with the media on Monday to discuss a wide range of topics. Most notably, Harbaugh shared his thoughts on JJ McCarthys performance against Bowling Green last Saturday - making it clear that he didn't want his junior quarterback to change his style of play at all. 

"Taking in all the film, everything that occurred — I mean, such great learning there," Harbaugh said on the 'In The Trenches' podcast. "I’ll say this: A couple of things easily coachable. Got them coached. But I’m not ever gonna make him a victim of over-coaching. I don't want him to change. This is a guy who's an unbelievable competitor. I want him gunslinging. I don't want anybody making the mistake that I've seen made before where you break the stallion."

Christopher Breiler

McCarthy, who was deadly accurate during the first two weeks of the season, had one of his worst performances in a Michigan uniform on Saturday. Although he completed 8-of-13 attempts for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns, McCarthy also threw 3 costly interceptions. Following the game, the veteran QB took full responsibility for his performance.

“I’m gonna take all those on the chin, put them all on me,” McCarthy said. “There’s a lot of a lot of stuff that obviously didn’t go my way and didn’t go off in some way. But I can’t wait to watch the tape and see the mistakes that were made and get better from it, honestly. But I’m gonna take all those on the chin. They were on me.”

For Harbaugh, there are certainly some teachable moments from Saturday, and he's confident his quarterback will learn and improve as a result. Most importantly, nobody wants Saturday's performance to change McCarthy's style of play moving forward.

"What we have in J.J. is: He's everything you want in terms of the competitor, the gunslinger," Harbaugh said. "Everything you just don't want to coach out of him. Do not break the stallion, do not make him a victim of over-coaching. I’m glad I'm in the position to coach him, because I know where he's going. I've been to this movie; I’ve seen this one before."