Michigan lost out on five-star QB CJ Carr and gained a stain on its football soul | Opinion

What happened to you, Michigan football?

When I heard that CJ Carr, the 20th-best prospect in the country from Saline High School, couldn’t be talked into driving 15 minutes up State Street to continue his family’s legacy, I was stunned.

Lloyd Carr’s grandson saying "Hail No!" to the Wolverines? I couldn’t believe it. Michigan and Carr go together like peanut butter and jelly, like Batman and Robin — like Maize and Blue.

And yet, somehow, it happened. A tear in the fabric of Michigan’s ties to one of its most illustrious families pierced the heart — or perhaps stabbed the back — of a weary Wolverine fans everywhere after Carr announced last week he would not be attending Michigan in 2024.

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Actually, he said he was attending Notre Dame. But it almost didn’t matter, because any school other than Michigan — OK, Michigan State and Ohio State would have been more devastating — would be tough to swallow.

"Probably like a lot of Michigan fans," Lloyd told reporters in a classic understatement, "I expected him to go to Michigan."

Let me be clear. Carr has every right to choose where he plays. The fact everyone expected, or at least strongly hoped, he would choose the school his grandfather led to a national title and where his father, Jason, was a quarterback is not his problem.

Those expectations and that legacy are a mighty yoke for a young person to carry, regardless of any innate ability or advantages he might have in Ann Arbor. I can understand why Carr might choose to walk his own path, either free of comparisons or expectations perhaps. And that’s kind of what he implied by explaining his choice.

"I never wanted to go to school close to my hometown," Carr said. "I kind of wanted to branch out a little bit. Notre Dame was just the perfect place."

It’s hard to blame Jason or Lloyd Carr. It sounds like they guided the decision perfectly. Even though Carr had a strong early preference for Notre Dame, his father asked him to hold off and take more visits in order to consider all his options.

"I thought maybe, maybe, you get Michigan to sneak in there and he starts to change his mind a little bit," Jason said. "And he just never did. He never wavered."

Jim Harbaugh even pulled out his ace in the hole, recruiting closer Mike Hart, who would give Alec Baldwin’s character a run for his money in "Glengarry Glen Ross."

Imagine this. You’ve got a kid who has grown up in the shadow of the Big House. He has heard nothing but Blue all his life. His family has deep, emotional ties to the school, in part through the ChadTough Foundation named after his late younger brother. And he still said no.

I wish I could tell you it’s as simple as an uplifting story about a young person wanting to strike out on his own and choosing to earn is way, rather than being handed things because of his name. But there is more.

Think carefully about Lloyd Carr’s words, when he said his grandson was eager to "go somewhere where he could be developed as a quarterback."

The implication is that Michigan isn’t the place where Carr could be developed. That’s hardly breaking news. Let’s face it, by now it’s safe to say Michigan is where college quarterbacks’ NFL dreams go to die.

The school hasn’t had a QB drafted since the Detroit Lions took Jake Rudock in the sixth round … six years ago! Before that, it was Chad Henne, a second-rounder … 14 years ago!

Hey, if you have NFL aspirations as an offensive lineman or as a defensive player, Michigan is the place. If you want to attend Michigan and throw a football on Sundays, get your degree and join your company’s flag-football team.

Quarterback is the biggest disappointment of Harbaugh’s tenure, when you consider all the unctuous exhortations that arrived with him in Ann Arbor about his ability to develop NFL quarterbacks like Andrew Luck and Colin Kaepernick.

What’s worse is Carr spurned Michigan for a school that hasn’t exactly churned out NFL quarterbacks, either. Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees helped develop DeShone Kizer, a second-round pick in 2017, and Marcus Freeman is a defensive-minded first-time head coach who hasn’t played a role in any quarterback’s development at his previous stops.

Yet this is the team that beat out Michigan? These are the coaches who will prepare Carr better than Harbaugh?

Sometimes too much knowledge is a bad thing. You have to believe Carr is intimately and intensely aware of all the warts of the Michigan program. For as much success as the Wolverines had on their magical ride last season, it also wasn’t a smooth one. It started with Harbaugh taking a pay cut, then paying back athletic director Warde Manuel and the administration with an ill-fated flirtation with the Minnesota Vikings.

Only Carr knows what he knows and feels what he feels about Michigan. He will likely never publicly disclose his most serious reservations about playing for the Wolverines.

The only thing we’re left with is knowing that Michigan has suffered a deep and embarrassing loss that extends past a recruiting trail that began in its backyard and in its home.

Michigan has lost a lot more than an elite recruit.

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.