Ohio State Football Uses Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy’s Foolish Quote To Fuel Offseason Motivation

• Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy couldn’t keep Ohio State’s name out of his mouth.
• Now the Buckeyes are using his words as motivation.
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Ohio State football has dominated Michigan in recent years. Prior to the 2021 season, the Buckeyes had won 15 of the last 16 games and had beaten the Wolverines eight-straight times.

This past November, however, Michigan got back in the win column with a 42-27 victory over Ohio State in the most recent playing of ‘The Game.’ For Wolverines freshman quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who saw time in 11 games last season, it meant just a little bit more.

McCarthy, a five-star recruit in the Class of 2021, grew up a Ohio State fan. He wanted to be a Buckeye, but committed to Michigan when tOSU head coach Ryan Day accepted a commitment from five-star quarterback Kyle McCord in the same class.

During The Game, McCarthy played six snaps. He completed a 31-yard pass that set up a touchdown and ran twice for 12 yards.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound rising sophomore recently spoke about the win with Wolverines Digest and said that it was personal.

“For me, that rivalry is very personal, and I won’t dive too deep into that,” McCarthy said. “That was just one of those games where you definitely want to win it a lot more than the other ones. Of course, you want to win every game the way that you want to win every game, but that one was super, super nice to win.”

In that same interview, he managed to piss off Ohio State.

Technically, because Michigan’s freshman class is 1-0 in college football’s greatest rivalry, all they know is beating the Buckeyes. McCarthy said exactly that, before making a bold claim about how the future is going to go between the two teams.

“For us, the whole 10-year stretch of us not winning, that’s all we know is beating Ohio State right now,” McCarthy said, “so we’re going to keep that going.”

While that is technically true, to ignore the last 20 years of the rivalry is silly. Everybody knows what went down prior to the freshman classes’ arrival, and everybody knows not to keep your rival’s name in your mouth before you even made a start against them.

McCarthy’s quote was published online on Sunday, February 27, 2022. On Monday, February 28, 2022, McCarthy’s quote was already plastered all over the Ohio State team facility.

At least one of the TVs in the Buckeyes’ Woody Hayes Athletic Center was turned to a red background with only McCarthy’s quote written on the screen. It doesn’t even refer to him as “Michigan QB” J.J. McCarthy, but instead labels him “TUN QB” J.J. McCarthy, which stands for “Team Up North.”

In less than 24 hours, McCarthy managed to keep tOSU’s name in his mouth with a ridiculous quote and had his words positioned as bulletin board motivation for the Buckeyes during the offseason. It’s safe to say that next year’s matchup between the two bitter rivals is going to be chippy.

McCarthy is going to get lit up at every chance that Ohio State gets.