ANN ARBOR -- There were countless reasons why Jim Harbaugh's hiring at Michigan was the grand slam of grand slams for the Wolverines.
Obviously, he's Jim Harbaugh. He's won everywhere he's been. He's a tireless worker. He's a dogged recruiter. He knows what it takes, and makes others figure out the same.
But he's also a quarterback. At least he was. A very good one. And, as it happens, Michigan's only real productive quarterback over the past seven years (Denard Robinson) had trouble throwing the football.
Robinson was the only answer at quarterback under Brady Hoke, even if the staff did everything it could to shove him into a system that didn't work for him. There was no development. There was no progression. And entering 2015 spring practice, there is no starter.
Enter Harbaugh.
Michigan's head coach has preached competition since -- well, probably since he was born. And his quarterback situation at Michigan is no different. He signed two freshmen (Alex Malzone and Zach Gentry) and added a transfer (John O'Korn, who will have to sit this season). On top of that, he's already targeted several of the country's top passers in the 2016 recruiting class.
But for now, next week, he'll start working with three scholarship passers: Malzone, junior Shane Morris and redshirt freshman Wilton Speight. One of those three could very well close this 15-week period with a serious leg-up on the starter job headed into the fall, when Gentry will join the battle.
But how will that be accomplished? What is Harbaugh looking for in a quarterback?
In terms of physical ability, he's coached all different types of players -- and pushed them all to success in one way or another. San Diego's Josh Johnson was very different from Stanford's Andrew Luck. But they both set records.
Mentally, though, there's a constant. Mentally, Harbaugh's looking for himself.
This might be best explained by recalling a recent conversation I had with former Michigan running back Jamie Morris -- a teammate of Harbaugh's -- on his radio show.
"When he was in the huddle, I was confident we were going to win, no matter what," Morris said. "Didn't matter what we were playing, or who we were playing. The No. 1 defense in the Big Ten or the No. 1 team in the country.
"I felt we were going to win (when he was our quarterback)."
Between the ears, he's looking for a leader of men. A player who might not be make every play 100 percent of the time, but one who is mentally prepared to do so every time.
The Skinny
Michigan's quarterback competition will technically begin Tuesday, but in reality, it started the day Harbaugh was hired. And it won't end until he says so. For the first time in a long time, the Wolverines will go through an honest-to-God quarterback battle. Which, in my opinion, is a good thing. It's needed.
Each player in question this spring -- Morris, Speight and Malzone -- will have different challenges individually, but they'll also share the same task from wire-to-wire: How hard are you willing to work, and how far are you willing to push yourself mentally? Because Harbaugh's going to find out.
Harbaugh didn't spent much of the past two months watching game tape of these three, he wants to see it all with fresh eyes. Which means, if Shane Morris' hand placement -- the same hand placement he's been using since he was a kid -- looks off to Harbaugh, he's going to change it. And Morris -- or any other player, for that matter -- is going to have to roll with it. He'll demand full mental focus, as much extra play study and film work as possible and maximum effort.
No other players on the field will be challenged more than these three this spring. They'll be tossed into the cauldron, and Harbaugh will crank the heat as high as it can go.
For Morris, almost everything at this point is upstairs. Physically, he has everything he needs to be a solid quarterback in the Big Ten. He has the big arm, he has foot speed. He's continued to add weight to his 6-foot-3 frame. But the little things -- the footwork, the pocket awareness, the ability to be precise with touch throws and deep tosses -- are now standing in the way. He'll have to learn a new offense for the third time in three seasons, but he's also a junior now and he should be mature enough to handle it.
If Morris can mentally handle the challenge Harbaugh's throwing down, and find a way to create consistency this spring, then he'll enter fall camp as the front-runner for the job.
Speight has a year (plus a spring) under his belt, and knows the basics of how fast things go at the college level. But at the same time, he's never seen a live bullet during a game. The good news, though, is that he gets a clean slate like everyone else. He's a student of the game, he prides himself on play study and work ethic when no one's looking. He, like Morris, has a big arm and the frame to fit this offense. But, again, mentally, can he take the next step?
The 6-foot-6, 234-pounder also had the benefit of something Morris never really did. He got to sit out last season and really observe everything. The struggles. The positives. Everything. He wasn't asked to play, so he had the chance to just absorb everything about the college game. Beginning Tuesday, he'll have the chance to show Harbaugh what he has and how much he's learned.
Malzone is the player the most behind the 8-ball here, and the one who can't afford many mistakes if he wants to be a serious contender for this job. He's only 6-foot-2, his arm strength is nowhere near the level of Morris and Speight and he's never been through a college practice.
But, at the same time, Harbaugh's not entering spring ball with any preconceived impressions.
"There are five quarterbacks here now (including walk-ons), they're all training, they're all lifting, they're all getting ready for spring football, and it will be a lot of fun," Harbaugh said. "Guys will compete. There will be scrimmages, there will be 7-on-7, there will be team drills and 11-on-11 football will be the most important.
"Who moves the team the best, who avoids turnovers, who takes care of the football, who can rally his team. All that will be played out on the football field. It will be a meritocracy at its best."
Michigan will be happy if:
Morris leads the way this spring, and exits the spring game as the clear front-runner for the job.
He's the junior, the guy who has been thrown into the fire on the field. No one else on the roster can say this. He has more tools, right now, than anyone else and he should be expected to play that way. This spring has to be a major growth period for Morris, and if he leaves with the look of a comfortable, confident player, then Michigan's in pretty good shape.
This doesn't necessarily mean Morris is the only answer for Michigan, but in reality, he should be. If spring ball ends, and Alex Malzone looks as comfortable as Shane Morris -- then you've got some issues.
There's enough time over the next five weeks for every player to make strides. In my opinion, Michigan's best-case scenario prior to the summer is to have Morris take the lead, with Speight hot on his heels and Malzone not lagging far behind.
If this happens, then you enter fall with the competition still pretty hot, and you see who survives then.
Michigan will be bummed if:
Its quarterbacks perform the way they did at the end of last spring. Which, looking back, was an erratic mess.
Morris, Devin Gardner and Wilton Speight all looked shaky after one spring with Doug Nussmeier. None of them seemed to have a grasp on the offense, and fundamentally, everything was inconsistent. The spring can't be a waste this year. Someone has to take a leap here and start to create some space, even if it's not by a wide margin.
Again, if Malzone -- a true freshman -- leaves camp looking as comfortable as Morris and Speight, then that could be an issue.
Numbers
0 -- number of college touchdown passes thrown by a quarterback on this roster
33-1 -- Alex Malzone's record as a starting quarterback at Birmingham Brother Rice. He won 33 straight games.
4.73 -- Wilton Speight's 40-yard dash time in high school as a 6-foot-6, 234-pounder.
2,790 -- 23 -- 8: The average number of yards, touchdowns and interceptions thrown by a Harbaugh-coached starting quarterback during his seven seasons as a college coach.
Obviously, he's Jim Harbaugh. He's won everywhere he's been. He's a tireless worker. He's a dogged recruiter. He knows what it takes, and makes others figure out the same.
But he's also a quarterback. At least he was. A very good one. And, as it happens, Michigan's only real productive quarterback over the past seven years (Denard Robinson) had trouble throwing the football.
Robinson was the only answer at quarterback under Brady Hoke, even if the staff did everything it could to shove him into a system that didn't work for him. There was no development. There was no progression. And entering 2015 spring practice, there is no starter.
Enter Harbaugh.
Michigan's head coach has preached competition since -- well, probably since he was born. And his quarterback situation at Michigan is no different. He signed two freshmen (Alex Malzone and Zach Gentry) and added a transfer (John O'Korn, who will have to sit this season). On top of that, he's already targeted several of the country's top passers in the 2016 recruiting class.
But for now, next week, he'll start working with three scholarship passers: Malzone, junior Shane Morris and redshirt freshman Wilton Speight. One of those three could very well close this 15-week period with a serious leg-up on the starter job headed into the fall, when Gentry will join the battle.
But how will that be accomplished? What is Harbaugh looking for in a quarterback?
In terms of physical ability, he's coached all different types of players -- and pushed them all to success in one way or another. San Diego's Josh Johnson was very different from Stanford's Andrew Luck. But they both set records.
Mentally, though, there's a constant. Mentally, Harbaugh's looking for himself.
This might be best explained by recalling a recent conversation I had with former Michigan running back Jamie Morris -- a teammate of Harbaugh's -- on his radio show.
"When he was in the huddle, I was confident we were going to win, no matter what," Morris said. "Didn't matter what we were playing, or who we were playing. The No. 1 defense in the Big Ten or the No. 1 team in the country.
"I felt we were going to win (when he was our quarterback)."
Between the ears, he's looking for a leader of men. A player who might not be make every play 100 percent of the time, but one who is mentally prepared to do so every time.
The Skinny
Michigan's quarterback competition will technically begin Tuesday, but in reality, it started the day Harbaugh was hired. And it won't end until he says so. For the first time in a long time, the Wolverines will go through an honest-to-God quarterback battle. Which, in my opinion, is a good thing. It's needed.
Each player in question this spring -- Morris, Speight and Malzone -- will have different challenges individually, but they'll also share the same task from wire-to-wire: How hard are you willing to work, and how far are you willing to push yourself mentally? Because Harbaugh's going to find out.
Harbaugh didn't spent much of the past two months watching game tape of these three, he wants to see it all with fresh eyes. Which means, if Shane Morris' hand placement -- the same hand placement he's been using since he was a kid -- looks off to Harbaugh, he's going to change it. And Morris -- or any other player, for that matter -- is going to have to roll with it. He'll demand full mental focus, as much extra play study and film work as possible and maximum effort.
No other players on the field will be challenged more than these three this spring. They'll be tossed into the cauldron, and Harbaugh will crank the heat as high as it can go.
For Morris, almost everything at this point is upstairs. Physically, he has everything he needs to be a solid quarterback in the Big Ten. He has the big arm, he has foot speed. He's continued to add weight to his 6-foot-3 frame. But the little things -- the footwork, the pocket awareness, the ability to be precise with touch throws and deep tosses -- are now standing in the way. He'll have to learn a new offense for the third time in three seasons, but he's also a junior now and he should be mature enough to handle it.
If Morris can mentally handle the challenge Harbaugh's throwing down, and find a way to create consistency this spring, then he'll enter fall camp as the front-runner for the job.
Speight has a year (plus a spring) under his belt, and knows the basics of how fast things go at the college level. But at the same time, he's never seen a live bullet during a game. The good news, though, is that he gets a clean slate like everyone else. He's a student of the game, he prides himself on play study and work ethic when no one's looking. He, like Morris, has a big arm and the frame to fit this offense. But, again, mentally, can he take the next step?
The 6-foot-6, 234-pounder also had the benefit of something Morris never really did. He got to sit out last season and really observe everything. The struggles. The positives. Everything. He wasn't asked to play, so he had the chance to just absorb everything about the college game. Beginning Tuesday, he'll have the chance to show Harbaugh what he has and how much he's learned.
Malzone is the player the most behind the 8-ball here, and the one who can't afford many mistakes if he wants to be a serious contender for this job. He's only 6-foot-2, his arm strength is nowhere near the level of Morris and Speight and he's never been through a college practice.
But, at the same time, Harbaugh's not entering spring ball with any preconceived impressions.
"There are five quarterbacks here now (including walk-ons), they're all training, they're all lifting, they're all getting ready for spring football, and it will be a lot of fun," Harbaugh said. "Guys will compete. There will be scrimmages, there will be 7-on-7, there will be team drills and 11-on-11 football will be the most important.
"Who moves the team the best, who avoids turnovers, who takes care of the football, who can rally his team. All that will be played out on the football field. It will be a meritocracy at its best."
Michigan will be happy if:
Morris leads the way this spring, and exits the spring game as the clear front-runner for the job.
He's the junior, the guy who has been thrown into the fire on the field. No one else on the roster can say this. He has more tools, right now, than anyone else and he should be expected to play that way. This spring has to be a major growth period for Morris, and if he leaves with the look of a comfortable, confident player, then Michigan's in pretty good shape.
This doesn't necessarily mean Morris is the only answer for Michigan, but in reality, he should be. If spring ball ends, and Alex Malzone looks as comfortable as Shane Morris -- then you've got some issues.
There's enough time over the next five weeks for every player to make strides. In my opinion, Michigan's best-case scenario prior to the summer is to have Morris take the lead, with Speight hot on his heels and Malzone not lagging far behind.
If this happens, then you enter fall with the competition still pretty hot, and you see who survives then.
Michigan will be bummed if:
Its quarterbacks perform the way they did at the end of last spring. Which, looking back, was an erratic mess.
Morris, Devin Gardner and Wilton Speight all looked shaky after one spring with Doug Nussmeier. None of them seemed to have a grasp on the offense, and fundamentally, everything was inconsistent. The spring can't be a waste this year. Someone has to take a leap here and start to create some space, even if it's not by a wide margin.
Again, if Malzone -- a true freshman -- leaves camp looking as comfortable as Morris and Speight, then that could be an issue.
Numbers
0 -- number of college touchdown passes thrown by a quarterback on this roster
33-1 -- Alex Malzone's record as a starting quarterback at Birmingham Brother Rice. He won 33 straight games.
4.73 -- Wilton Speight's 40-yard dash time in high school as a 6-foot-6, 234-pounder.
2,790 -- 23 -- 8: The average number of yards, touchdowns and interceptions thrown by a Harbaugh-coached starting quarterback during his seven seasons as a college coach.
