J.J. McCarthy is one of only two quarterbacks in the last decade and change to beat the Ohio State Buckeyes and the only one in that span to do so multiple times. But Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day – despite having been on the losing end of all of those games – had nothing but praise for him this week.
After the NFL Draft and McCarthy being taken No. 10 overall by the Minnesota Vikings, Day appeared on Good Morning Football this morning to speak glowingly about him. He said that he believes McCarthy has shown enough growth in college to give confidence that he’ll be successful in the NFL.
“Almost all the guys who have success in the NFL work through adversity over time. They fail, they grow, they learn and they stick with it. He certainly has done that,” Day said.
While some Michigan fans felt that Day’s words were meant as a dig at McCarthy, many more fans believe it was well-deserved praise from the Ohio State head coach.
“I have No problem w this. JJ talked about learning thru failure in his own interview a couple days ago. Not sure why they asked Day about JJ but otherwise it seems fine,” one user wrote.
“What he said wasn’t wrong. He was giving JJ his due. Every successful person fails, it’s how quickly that person learns from it and keeps going that makes success. JJ has done exactly that that (ex. 2021 MSU fumble, 2022 TCU turnovers),” wrote another.
“Only failure JJ had in his career was TCU game. The next closest thing was the BGSU game with the interceptions,” a third pointed out.
Day on @nflnetwork giving his opinion on JJ
“Almost all the guys who have success in the NFL work through adversity. They fail*, they grow, they learn”
bahahahahahahaha
“fail” – as in 27-1 as a starter, 3-0 vs Ohio State, 3 B1G titles, & a Natty
Keep his name out your mouth pic.twitter.com/zM9C2rckL3
— Due# (@JDue51) April 26, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Now McCarthy gets to ply his trade in the NFL – and he has a pretty strong support network around him in Minnesota to boot.