As a life long Michigan fan, I must say that I am very happy with the program right now. It's back and actually better than it has ever been and its getting stronger. From 2008-2014, Michigan almost slipped into college football obscurity and university politics had very closely turned it into a distant memory. Thank God for Jim Harbaugh and he is 20-5 in just two seasons without a full cycle of his recruits. Michigan will always be a top 10 program with Jim at the helm. Harbaugh has already taught his first two cycles of recruits what it takes to win and how not executing each week can cost you dearly (Iowa) this year. The current seniors who lead this team really had terrible mentoring in their first two years under Hoke. Harbaugh nicely pieced then together his first two years. Yes, it is disappointing not being in the playoffs and especially losing again to Ohio State BUT we have an opportunity to go 11-2 better than 10-3 last year by beating Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Michigan should hammer the Noles, however, their quick DL worries me and especially around Kalis. I predict we finish at 11-2 in strong fashion and I also believe that we will be very good in 2017. DON"T be surprised if Brandon Peters starts at QB for Michigan next year. He was Harbaugh's recruit and he is very good and don't be shocked in McCaffrey plays as well.
Michigan's 2016 Season, Orange Bowl, 2017
- Thread starter scfanblue
- Start date
Don't be surprised if Speight starts next year. He should be even better and he made this offense click this year...not the running game. It was Speight who exceeded expectations by a good distance so I think your prediction of his potential demotion is greatly exaggerated. 
UM can win with Speight but what they really need is a very good running game which makes Speight some sort of ultra game manager. Peters is going to have to be one hell of a talent to supplant Speight.
RM
UM can win with Speight but what they really need is a very good running game which makes Speight some sort of ultra game manager. Peters is going to have to be one hell of a talent to supplant Speight.
RM
Peters is excellent. as a QB, he was recruited by Harbaugh so that tells you something. Speight has been good at times but no denying he cost us the Ohio State game on several plays. Throwing into triple coverage no matter how much pressure was on him and fumbling (his fault alone) on the TWO yard line is ridiculous. He also killed us at Iowa before he was injured. Shoddy QB play cost us dearly in those two games and if you do not see that then you are delusional. EVERYONE who watches college FB saw that even OSU fans. Ruddock last year NEVER made stupid plays like that and especially down the stretch as he got better and better. Speight is what Harbaugh was left with and he started this year. Peters AND McCaffrey are what Harbaugh RECRUITED. You make it sound like he is NFL ready. He is no where near Barrett, Watson, Bama or Washington's QB. Hell Wisconsin's QB is better than Wilton Speight.
I do not understand where Michigan fans are so settled on Wilton Speight. Yes, he led the teams to some good things but he really made game (outcome) changing mistakes at critical times in Michigan's most crucial games LATE in the season. Ask yourself how he stacks up against the QB's of the teams that have made the playoffs? Not even close folks and yes that includes JT Barrett. OSU has continued to beat us with better QB's for a long time. Great guy no doubt but a very average college quarterback. Peters and McCaffrey are Harbaugh type QB's or they would not be in Ann Arbor now.
I love what you say here in terms of long term perspective SC. Completely agree that the culture of winning has returned under this field general and it will continue to trend upwards. I completely disagree with your overall assessment of Speight, while agreeing he played poorly versus Iowa. He was very strong while wounded versus Ohio State. The pick six was largely the fault of his blockers. However, let me tell you this plainly, he has the best feet and QB moxie I've seen at UM since Brady. He keeps his feet moving so that he he's in position to make throws, something that is extremely hard for many QBs to master, and he's going to improve with experience in big games. Leading your team to 10-2 and 40 pts per game is nothing to sneeze at in your first year.
He has a lot of upside, I think you're selling him short to two QBs whom we have no experience with, one of whom wasn't good enough to rip off the redshirt this year (and don't you doubt for a moment if he was ready that he would have played all year and started vs Indiana). I'll be very surprised if your prediction is right about one of those starting next year.
BTW, Barrett was mediocre late in the season vs UM and MSU. He was fortunate indeed to win both games.
Barrett may have been fortunate but he won those games and made clutch plays when his team needed them. We are all entitled to an opinion on here, however, mine is that Speight is not the QB that will lead UM into the playoffs. He is not that type of player at QB or it would have happened this year. I do not buy the line about the OL fault against OSU. Speight fumbled by himself at the 2 and that should never happen. Under pressure he also threw a pick 6 which looked like a high school kid. A real good QB would have thrown it away. As the season progressed, his progress did not and that is not good. Also, the QB is a rare position where a kid out of high school comes straight in and plays. Unless they are super human like Bama's QB. Peters needed his red shirt and so will McCaffrey. No doubt about it, Peters will really push Speight and I think he will be UM's QB next season.
Fair enough, I'd bet you a beer if we lived in proximity, in that confident in Speight. The fumble was bad as was the second int. Disagree when your arm is hit throwing under duress, he's been otherwise steady if not spectacular all season. Let's flag this conversation and revisit in the fall.
Florida State is very good on defense as usual. Their defense front worries me because our OL is not that good. They will pick on Kalis and put their best speed rusher against him. Speight will have to play well or it will be a close game. Michigan should win this game if we can avoid costly turnovers and Speight will have to play well.
The game plan really didn't unshackle him in the fourth quarter of close games (two games this year). It was, instead, run out the clock.
That FSU defense isn't really as good as it seems to be on paper. They had several games where they gave up A LOT of points.
Speight starts next year and immediately becomes our most improved player. This was his first year playing for JH and I agree one of those INT was not his fault - that was all on "thank god Deveon is graduating". He played injured and he was money. I also think we had a lot of his WRs drop balls in the 2nd half. 10+ dropped balls in the 2 losses by his top 3 targets - when you do that you get tentative as a QB. Speight is fantastic and he will start next year. If Peters does start, it will be even better because it means our QB competition is fantastic!
I agree, if Peters starts we have a hell of a starter because I think Speight has a lot of room to grow and he's been very solid so far. There is not an athlete that has played Michigan sports, maybe this side of Antonio Bass (whose horrific injury ended what I think would have been a fantastic career), that I feel worse about than the way Devin Gardner was handled as a player. What a missed opportunity with a fantastic athlete (hell, we threw him out there as WR vs Alabama and he looked great, scored a TD if I recall).
If Gardner could have improved even 20% from his Jr year, he would have been a stud...what a waste. One thing to really think about though - over the past few years, the teams that have gone on to win consistently are teams that have QBs that stay 4-5 years. Think about OSU, none of their QBs will ever play in the pros and that benefits them because if you have a 5th year senior as your leader, you mask a lot of holes - look at JT, Braxton, etc. That is the biggest risk with pro style QBs, you don't really have continuity. Bama, LSU, OSU, even MSU to a certain degree, have had QBs that play for 3-4 years in a row and that helps. Michigan over the past decade:
2007 - take your pick
2008 - Threet
2009 - Tate Forcier
2010 - Denard
2011 - Denard
2012 - Denard/Gardner
2013 - Gardner
2014 - Gardner
2015 - Rudock
2016 - Speight
Denard was the only one and he had to go through coaching change and injuries. Honestly if we can have Speight start 2 more years, it will be really helpful.
2007 - take your pick
2008 - Threet
2009 - Tate Forcier
2010 - Denard
2011 - Denard
2012 - Denard/Gardner
2013 - Gardner
2014 - Gardner
2015 - Rudock
2016 - Speight
Denard was the only one and he had to go through coaching change and injuries. Honestly if we can have Speight start 2 more years, it will be really helpful.
Alabama won the NC last year with Jake Coker as a first year starter and second year at Alabama...
Before that, McCarron was a RS sophomore when he won the NC for the Tide in 2011. And he won another the next year.
FSU won the NC in 2013 with a first year starter...RS freshman.
Before that, McCarron was a RS sophomore when he won the NC for the Tide in 2011. And he won another the next year.
FSU won the NC in 2013 with a first year starter...RS freshman.
That was early in the season. In the last 7 games they averaged giving up 16.6 points per game.
Understood. But it is not like you were playing spectacularly talented offenses during that 7 game stretch, either. The one team you did (Clemson) scored 37 points.
Great Points here. Many Michigan fans are in love with the 6"5 255 lb pocket passer. It brings back the glory days of Bo, Mo, and Loyd and God forbid a true freshman is incapable of coming in to a university setting and lead his team to victory like Alabama's QB has done this year. I have heard every excuse in the book this year about Wilton Speight ranging from the OL being bad to WR's dropping balls. All though this is true, there is no doubt that Speight played like total shit against Iowa, and he killed Michigan against the Buckeyes. One of the major reasons that OSU has dominated Michigan over the last decade and beyond is because of the quarterback play. Meyer ALWAYS has a stud in the position to make plays. Barrett this year really hurt Michigan in the 4th quarter on some critical 3rd down plays by picking up the 1st down with his feet when they needed it. Speight fumbled on the damn 2 yard line BY HIMSELF!!!! and then set up 14 of the Buckeyes points by throwing under pressure into triple coverage instead of eating it or throwing it away. Everyone knows that watches football (except a few posters on this board) that Speight's ability is the Achilles Heal right now of getting over the final hump to beat a program like OSU and Alabama. Speight will struggle with FSU's DL in the bowl game (mark my words) I hope Peter's or McCaffrey take over the position.
True. But here is the thing when predicting this game. FSU and Michigan have Zero common opponents. In fact the ACC only matched up with the Big 10 3 times this year and those were games between Duke and Northwestern, Pitt and Penn State and Wake and Indiana. The ACC was 2-1 against the Big 10 this year with an extremely small sample size.
The consensus among most experts is that the Big 10 was the best Conference this year. That might be true, but again the ACC hasn't matched up against the Big 10 much. Is the ACC better than the Big 10 or vice verse? We're about to find out because Ohio State/Clemson and FSU/Michigan are matchups between the top 2 teams in each of the confereces.
This sounds like the same BS I read on this board last year mid-year about Rudock. Just wondering if you were a part of the "dump Rudock for whatever" crowd as well? This is a favorite sport of UM Monday morning QBs in my decades of following UM, ever believing that the "next guy" holds the mystery elixir to heal all that ills UM offenses.
It's not difficult to agree with Harbaugh that Speight has had a very, very good first year. Most first year starters struggle on the road, including the best QBs UM has had in the last 25 years, Grbac, Brady, Navarre, and Henne. All struggled significantly on the road during their first year of starting, for different reasons (Grbac at ND in 1990, Navarre at UCLA in 2000 and Washington in 2001, Henne at ND & OSU in 2004 come immediately to mind). If you think a freshman or redshirt freshman is just going to walk in and grab the reins from Speight you really aren't assessing what Speight brings to the table and how hard it is for a freshman to beat out a solid, if not at times spectacular, upper classman. I'll eat my words if I'm wrong, but my money is on Speight next year as a starter and for his final year.
BTW, Barrett played like horseshit for most of the game and only really broke out in the last 8 minutes versus an exhausted defense when a pathetic offensive line couldn't pick up a first down when it needed to, just like it didn't versus Iowa. Blame that on Speight if you like, I don't recall him running the ball behind that line you wish to deflect attention from, but without him, OSU game isn't close and WI is a loss.
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I have a question for you John. Do you believe the kid playing QB at Alabama could have walked into Ann Arbor this year and started over Speight? and NO I thought Ruddock got better every week. He would have never puked on himself at the end of the season against Iowa or OSU like your boy did.
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