I don’t expect we’ll learn much about McCarthy against UConn or even Maryland, as the prior is awful and the latter doesn’t play a lick of defense. Again, nothing back-breaking but definitely some areas where we’ll have to see how he performs against defenses inside the top 120 of SP+.

Again, against a better team that might have been trouble, though when you’re up 21 taking a risk isn’t as big of a concern. The other throw that probably won’t work was the long bomb to Johnson – he was looking for that throw from the snap and left the ball a little short with two defenders in the vicinity.

By comparison, the crossing route to Bell on the subsequent play was better because it was a tough spot to be in and was the safe throw (even if it had little chance of converting). His lone incompletion to Bell in the first half wasn’t a great throw or a great decision – he stared down Bell from the snap and the Hawaii linebacker read it and was closing in try that against Iowa or PSU and that’s likely a dangerous deflection or a pick. But Hawaii really is bad at football right now and there are some throws that McCarthy made that he probably can’t/shouldn’t try to make against better teams. And I’m less bothered by some expected growing pains than some – having to call TOs twice in the first half due to miscommunications or confusion about the playcall will (hopefully) ease over time, especially as the first-year starter at QB and first-year OC get on the same page. Yes, some of these plays were opponent invariant – a great QB making a great throw isn’t going to be stopped by Georgia any more than the Rainbow Warriors. Now, are there areas where McCarthy still has to improve? Absolutely. McCarthy finished the day 11/12 for 229 yards and 3 TDs, and his numbers would have been even better had the running game also not been largely unstoppable against a bad Hawaii defense. This throw to Donovan Edwards was a stark contrast to last week’s game where Cade failed to throw to a similarly wide-open guy Edwards. Compared to McNamara’s performance last week the offense looked much more fluid and dynamic, and its hard to overstate how “plays were made” when the defense gave it to them. He threw with touch, with strength, and guided the offense up and down the field with aplomb. This will be short because there’s not much to talk about – JJ McCarthy played amazingly in this game and solidified his hold on the starting spot.

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