J.J. McCarthy is returning to Ann Arbor.
Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore told ABC7’s Brad Galli on Monday that the Wolverines‘ national championship quarterback will be back inside The Big House as an honorary captain for Michigan’s Week 10 game vs. No. 1 Oregon.
“J.J. will be back,” Moore told Galli. “J.J. McCarthy will be an honorary captain and got some other guys that we are trying to confirm. But excited about J.J. being back.”
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Saturday’s Big Ten home game against the Ducks will be McCarthy’s first time back since Michigan celebrated its 2024 College Football Playoff national championship title.
In three seasons at Michigan, McCarthy finished with 6,226 passing yards and 49 passing touchdowns. The dual-threat quarterback also racked up 632 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. He, of course, led Michigan to its first national championship title since 1997 last year and its third straight Big Ten championship title.
He was taken with the No. 10 overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings in this past April’s NFL draft, which made him the first Michigan quarterback to be drafted in the first round since his former coach and now Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. The Vikings taking him 10th overall also tied him as the highest-drafted player in the Harbaugh era at Michigan with Devin Bush Jr., who also went No. 10 overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.
McCarthy’s first season in the NFL was cut short in August when he tore his meniscus in training camp with the Vikings. In one preseason game with the Vikings, McCarthy finished 11 of 17 passing for 188 yards and two touchdowns, adding 18 rushing yards on the ground.
The Wolverines (5-3 overall, 3-2 in Big Ten play) will kick off against the top-ranked Ducks (8-0 overall, 5-0) at 3:30 p.m. ET at Michigan Stadium on Saturday.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: J.J. McCarthy to be Michigan’s honorary captain vs Oregon
