Jim Harbaugh announced that Wilton Speight will be out for multiple weeks (LINK). Word is that he has a broken vertebra and will be out for the rest of the season. This came after a Purdue defensive lineman jumped on Speight’s head/neck area as he was going down to the ground. Purdue’s coach thought it was a clean hit.
Hit the jump for some pictures of Nicky Gile.
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Terrible news. Hope WS a speedy recovery.
On the hit, I have watched this ‘hit’ or tackle. I am trying to be fair and want to look at it from the defenders point of view. It was a dirty play. I don’t want to say that because it’s too easy to say that from a UM perspective.
Why do I believe this? If you watch the play the defender knew Speight was down and you could reasonably argue that it was an accidental late hit. The problem isn’t so much it was a little late but the fact that the defender went after his head and neck. It looked like the player was really hyped up.
I will say this. I would give the defender a 5% margin of benefit but something tells me that defender was trying knew what he was doing which was to play rough.
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I just watched it for the 20th time. I finally saw it. Finally. It was a dirty hit. Here is what happened as Adrian Monk would say.
Speight got sacked but the next defender was still pursuing the tackle. If you look, it’s not necessarily that he was trying to tackle the guy it was that he was spearing Speight. He was positioned to spear Speight at a different angle but Speight crunched up in the fetal position where the defender was going to aim his helmet into the Speight torso if he had fallen normally. Check it out and see if you see the same thing I finally did.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsCW1skYTA8
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I watched this youtube video half a dozen times Michy and came to one conclusion, it was a late hit and IMO a flag should have been thrown.
I do not because I am a Michigan fan and sympathetic to Speight attribute some extra dirty play or individual malice to the defensive player on this specific play.
On the other hand throughout the game their defense played with an aggressive attitude as coached and bordered on dirty play several times. Chop blocks, spearing, targeting etc will result in injury and coaches that encourage this needs to be removed from the game.
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Great post GK. I’ll add that opposing teams will say the same about UM defenders, especially Bush
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Of course they will JE.
On any given play with aggressive pursuit there is a fine line between hell of a hit and a flag. Modern coaches are much better at coaching tackling/blocking techniques that can be effective and safer.
I am glad that your boys and other kids out there playing this game today are protected better to some degree by rule and by training. It is common sense if we expect football to survive.
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Would Speight be eligible for a Medical Redshirt and get a 6th year?
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