The Curious Case of Cade McNamara

Cade McNamara was living the dream. The Michigan QB had left his high school in Nevada early, redshirted at Michigan in 2019, and played sparingly as a backup in the miserable 2-4 Wolverines season in 2020. But in his first year as a starter, he had a magical run. Would anything in life compare to beating the Buckeyes for the first time in damn near a decade? What about doing it in the midst of a picturesque snow globe in Ann Arbor, all while sealing a B1G divisional title, and guaranteeing Michigan's first slot in the four-team CFP?

The only blemish on Michigan's 2021 record was a loss to MSU, which was primarily the doing of Spartan RB Kenneth Walker III and his five TDs. After that cathartic win against the Buckeyes, Michigan blew out Iowa 42-3 to take the Big Ten title. The Wolverines and Cade rolled into the Orange Bowl riding high for the matchup with eventual champ Georgia.

And then Cade's luck went cold: two interceptions in the game after allowing a total of four all year. It wasn't entirely his fault that Georgia led 24-3 at half, at least not given the otherworldly defense the Bulldogs fronted that year. But when 5-star recruit and true freshman JJ McCarthy took the reins in the second half and scored a garbage-time TD, that was probably it. The game was over; the QB battle was lost.

Harbaugh set up an in-game duel to pick the official starting QB for the 2022 campaign; McNamara played reasonably well against Colorado State, but McCarthy was damn near perfect against Hawai'i. McNamara got dinged up in the third game against UConn and that was ballgame. McCarthy was electric all season, Michigan went to the CFP for the second year in a row, and McNamara entered the new transfer portal for greener pastures (and some newly-legal NIL money) in Iowa City. Injuries continued to plague him. Also, the venerable Iowa offensive scheme didn't exactly help his cause. After a second blighted season with the Hawkeyes, he hit the transfer portal once more ahead of the 2025 season.

He's still here. He's still playing every Saturday for the Eastern Tennessee State University Buccaneers. 2 touchdowns, 4 interceptions so far this season, 66% completion rate in four games. His story isn't over, but it isn't the same as it was.

The case of McNamara was unfortunate, filled with injuries and bad breaks, but it really couldn't have occurred in any other era, despite the absurdly wide range of this sport's history. His story spans the FBS to the FCS, a rarely crossed divide between the haves and the have nots in college football. He bridges the Before Times in advance of the Covid pandemic and the truly haunted 2020 season. He was there before the liberalization of the transfer portal rules and is still here in the constant free agency churn of today's game. And when he started playing, the concept of getting paid for his likeness was a legal impossibility, but with the innovation of NIL money becoming endemic across every fanbase, it's an understood reality. His story directly plays out through the arc of Michigan football, from Harbaugh's near-firing after 2020 to the championship in 2023* and to the Connor Stalions fallout afterward. Cade McNamara probably just wanted to ball, but he's the cipher through which we can view nearly everything about modern-day college football.

His story couldn't have happened in any other time. He was there for an epochal transition, one that appears more impactful in each season following. His story could not happen again; it will never happen again. I wish him well.