Minnesota Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy and the big business that made him

Is the Vikings’ new QB a product of a booming coaching industry, or was he destined to thrive in it? Either way, he’s a beacon for hopeful Vikings fans and an archetype for aspiring young players.

By Ben Goessling

The Minnesota Star Tribune

It complicates the path for families, with proven instructors showing up in the same Google search as hucksters charging hundreds for a large-group session. Vikings QB coach Josh McCown and NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah slow-played extra training for their own sons, unsure of its long-term benefit, especially if it discouraged multisport participation.

“Is it really a net win? It’s hard to say,” McCown said. “It’s hard to discourage anybody wanting to get extra work. It’s just who’s teaching them is critical.”

But with middle schoolers landing major scholarship offers (as McCarthy did from Iowa State and Indiana and Holcomb’s son Sam did from Michigan and Purdue), the QB development industry likely isn’t slowing down.

J.J. McCarthy (9) scrambles for a first down in the first quarter of a preseason game against the Houston Texans at U.S. Bank Stadium, Aug. 9, 2025. (Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Its marks are all over McCarthy’s path to the Vikings.

He carried the ball lower after lessons with Mike Donato, the first coach the McCarthys hired when Jim realized he’d taught his fifth-grader as much as he could. The search for a coach in middle school taught McCarthy to trust his instinct about the fit with Holcomb, his private coach to this day. And his fall 2020 stint at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., after Illinois’ pandemic-related postponement of the football season, meant he would leave home for the first time at 17 to play with teammates from around the country and cope with the depression that crept in through boarding school isolation.

He estimates that “75 percent” of his lessons at IMG were off the field.

When Skach’s mother approached Holcomb, he feared she would come to confront him. Instead, she asked if he could return each Sunday to work with him. The sessions grew as Skach thrived that fall, and as Holcomb fielded interest from more families, he realized he could leave his corporate job and make a living training quarterbacks.

“It was a huge blessing in disguise,” Holcomb said. “And then, it wasn’t long after that J.J. walked in the door.”

Skach and McCarthy started working with Holcomb in middle school, which is when interest in private instruction seems to spike. Belle Plaine quarterback Reed Creighton started with Frisell before seventh grade, to get an edge on two other QBs he’d be competing with in high school. When Vikings QB Max Brosmer sought a coach in sixth grade, Atlanta-based coach Quincy Avery, a former Minneapolis Washburn quarterback, gave him a free trial. Brosmer’s family hired Avery shortly after, and the two still work together. Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick in the draft by the Titans, said he started with Houston-based coach Darrell Colbert Jr. after eighth grade.

Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer (12) calls out from the line of scrimmage in the third quarter of a preseason game against the New England Patriots on Aug. 16, 2025. (Anthony Souffle/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

As more young athletes seek extra training, Brosmer worries about the ones who are left behind because of cost. He’s proud to work with Avery, he said, because he is willing to support kids who don’t have the means to pay for training.

“It’s so expensive nowadays,” Brosmer, 24, said. “There are third-graders having private coaches. I’m not sure how people do it, and it shows the business of football at such an early age. But that’s the world we live in. You’re getting income now as a high schooler, which is insane.”

Indeed, the potential for a payoff is hard to ignore: Of the six first-round QBs in McCarthy’s 2024 class, five were picked in high school for the Elite 11 camp, which selects the country’s best prospects from a series of regional tournaments. People told Holcomb he should start pursuing NIL deals for his 14-year-old son after he received scholarship offers.

Then the pandemic brought sports to a standstill.

In July 2020, Illinois became the third state to move football to the spring. McCarthy had already committed to Michigan, hoping to graduate high school early and start college in January. He couldn’t do that if he played Illinois’ spring season, which would have no state tournament, which meant no championship for McCarthy and Nazareth to chase.

“That was the most difficult part,” McCarthy said. “Because it’s like, ‘All right, this isn’t happening, whether you like it or not.’”

Shortly after, he received a call from IMG Academy. He was familiar with the school after a trip there to work with former coach Adam Behrends. He’d never left home for long, even for camps. But IMG offered elite coaching, a national schedule, a chance to play with teammates from across the country and a weekly routine built around football.

His parents supported it, and Holcomb endorsed it. They left the decision up to him; he made it with a pragmatism more common in corporate strategy meetings than a 17-year-old’s brain.

J.J. McCarthy, the NFL’s youngest starting quarterback, said his experiences coping with depression and anxiety have helped him grow up and find power in his practice. He returns to both his hometown and the national spotlight on Monday night. (Carlos Gonzalez and Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

“How can you adapt and keep rolling? It was an easy decision for me,” McCarthy said. “I knew I was going to get the toughest competition every single day, the best coaching. It taught me a lot about life and myself, too.”

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