Jim Harbaugh on his unique quarterback plan: 'It's Biblical'

Jim Harbaugh is far from the first coach to stage a quarterback derby without a clear winner as the first game approached, but he may be the first to come up with this particular solution.

Over the weekend, Harbaugh announced senior Cade McNamara will start No. 8 Michigan's opener with Colorado State on Saturday (noon ET, ABC). The following week, sophomore JJ McCarthy will start against Hawaii. The results of the first two games will determine who starts Sept. 17 against Connecticut. 

The Occam's Razor explanation here is that McCarthy is the more talented of the two players -- he was a 5-star recruit in 2021, for what it's worth -- but McNamara is a veteran leader who did most of the heavy lifting in Michigan's Big Ten title run and has played too well to be demoted. 

Last season, McNamara was a solid-but-not-spectacular 210-of-327 (64.2 percent) for 2,576 yards (7.9 per attempt) with 15 touchdowns against six interceptions. McCarthy had the higher yards per attempt (8.7) and rating (152.29 to 141.87) of the two, albeit over only 59 passes. McCarthy is also the bigger run threat of the two, totaling 124 yards and two touchdowns on 27 credited carries.

Watch McCarthy lead block on this run in the Big Ten Championship.

While McCarthy led blocked, McNamara led by example for Michigan's best season in a quarter century. So one can see why Harbaugh declined to declare a winner just yet. 

Perhaps Michigan coaches are secretly hoping one clearly out plays the other, at which point their choice will be made for them. Or maybe they keep the competition going all the way through September, waiting to declare a full-time starter until their Oct. 1 trip to Iowa.

Asked to explain his decision on Monday, Harbaugh went Full Harbaugh.

"It's a process. It is a process," he said. "No person -- that's Biblical -- no person knows what the future holds. It's a process that's going to be based on performance. Both have been tremendous quarterbacks. We think that both are capable of leading our team to a championship. 

"Some people have asked, 'How'd you come to that decision? Was it based on some kind of NFL model?' No. It's really based Biblical. Solomon was known to be a pretty wise person."

Harbaugh doesn't cite which text inspired his decision, but I think it's based on Ecclesiastes 11:6, which says (NIV): "Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well." There's also Ecclesiastes 10:14: "No one knows what is coming—who can tell someone else what will happen after them?"

Of course, the most famous example of King Solomon using his wisdom comes from 1 Kings 3. When two women came to Solomon arguing over custody of a baby, Solomon called for a sword. He was to cut the baby down the middle and give each woman half. When one of the women begged the King to give the baby to her rival in order to save the child's life, Solomon knew she was the babe's true mother.

So perhaps this all ends with McNamara and McCarthy laying on the floor of Michigan's locker room and Harbaugh, sword in hand, demanding the quarterbacks' teammates tell him which of the two to spare.