Tag: Wilton Speight

Ford Field Open Practice: Offense, Injuries, Walk-ons

Wilton Speight

Happy Easter Sunday, everybody! Along with a few thousand other fans, I made my way to Ford Field on Saturday. I sat in the stands, ate a hot dog, and watched Captain Khaki run practice. I chose not to live tweet it because, well, it was nice to sit back, relax, and watch a well run practice. Below are my thoughts on some roster news and the various positions:

ROSTER NEWS

• WR/CB Freddy Canteen is not on the roster and his status is unclear.
• WR Jehu Chesson was doing work on the sideline and on the bike, wearing a brace on his knee.
• RB Kingston Davis was in shorts without a helmet and running steps. Lots and lots of steps.
• OG David Dawson was wearing a sling on his left arm and did not participate.
• CB Reon Dawson and WR Jaron Dukes have left the football program and are exploring medical scholarships.
• DT Ryan Glasgow was in shorts and a helmet going through some non-contact drills, but then ran steps with Davis for a big chunk of practice.
• RB Karan Higdon was in street clothes. No injury was apparent.
• DE Shelton Johnson was not visible to me. I looked for him extensively and never saw him. Sam Webb tweeted that he was on the sideline in street clothes.

Hit the jump for a position-by-position breakdown of the offense.

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Spring Football Preview: Quarterbacks

John O’Korn

Projected starter: Redshirt junior John O’Korn. The buzz from last year suggested that O’Korn would have been starting over Jake Rudock if not for the fact that Rudock had the slight advantage of being eligible to play. The 6’4″, 220 lb. O’Korn is bigger, possesses a stronger arm, and is perhaps a little more athletic than Rudock. We have yet to see O’Korn do anything in a Michigan uniform, so this spring will be exciting.

Departures from last year: Rudock (64% completions, 3017 yards, 20 TDs, 9 INTs) started every game last season but graduated and is trying to slip into the NFL Draft. Redshirt freshman Zach Gentry is transitioning to tight end.

Backup battle: The battle to be #2 is wide-open. Last year’s primary backup was Wilton Speight, who will be a redshirt sophomore in the fall. Speight had one good series when he led the team to a game-winning touchdown against Minnesota, but otherwise, he did not instill observers with much confidence (36% completions, 1 TD, 1 INT altogether). The coaching staff openly admitted that they were trying to redshirt Shane Morris, but Jim Harbaugh also said that Speight legitimately passed up Morris on the depth chart a few weeks into the season. We have heard standard off-season rumblings about Morris improving, maturing, etc., but those stories rarely seem to come to fruition. Redshirt freshman Alex Malzone started for one of the spring game squads last April, but he’s not on the same level physically as Speight or Morris, and he’s less experienced. True freshman Brandon Peters enrolled early in January. He’s the highest touted recruit of the whole group, but he’s just a pup; the last time we saw him, he was going 4/16 in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He’s probably bound for a redshirt this year.

#1 thing to watch: If O’Korn isn’t the starter in the fall, it will be a major surprise. So I’m most interested to see who the #2 guy is coming out of the spring. Speight wasn’t very good as a backup last year, but Morris has been pretty lousy in more extended playing time during his career. At some point during the season, the backup typically has to come in during at least one important moment. If Morris is #3 on the depth chart after the spring, I would not be surprised to see him transfer, even though he said he wanted to remain at Michigan next year.

2015 Position Grades: Quarterback

Jake Rudock

STATS
Jake Rudock: 13 starts, 249/389 (64%), 3,017 yards, 20 TDs, 9 INTs, 141.5 PER
Wilton Speight: 0 starts, 9/25 (36%), 73 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 65.7 PER

STORY
Jake Rudock joined Michigan as a graduate transfer from Iowa in the summer of 2015. That meant that he missed all of the spring practice session, as well as a chance to do voluntary workouts over the summer with his future teammates. When he started Michigan’s season opener against Utah on September 3, he had only been in the system for approximately one month. Because of that, it was a bit of a rough start to the year. There’s a good chance that Michigan would have turned that 24-17 loss to Utah into a victory if Rudock was in late-season form, but that’s how football goes. His passer efficiency rating topped 120 only twice during the first seven games, and those two were contests when the run game carried the day (Rudock had 1 TD and 0 INTs vs. BYU and Northwestern). In the final six games, the running game bogged down, but his PER never dipped below 124. In the first seven games, he threw 5 TDs and 6 INTS; in the final six, he threw 16 TDs and 3 INTS. He finished second in the conference in passer rating, #3 in yards per attempt, and #4 in touchdowns. It was a fantastic turnaround when Michigan needed him most, and with the way he finished the season, people are now talking about his prospects as an NFL player.

Early in the year, Shane Morris was the second quarterback on the depth chart, but Michigan hoped to redshirt him and kept him off the field. As the season wore on, Jim Harbaugh reported that Wilton Speight passed Morris on the depth chart. Speight wasn’t needed for any important playing time until Rudock got hurt against Minnesota; Speight went 3/6 for 29 yards and the game-winning TD. He also stepped in against Ohio State for a stretch, but his non-Minnesota performances were subpar. The backup situation was concerning, but it never cost Michigan a game.

GRADE: B+

2016 DEPTH CHART BY CLASS: Shane Morris (RS Jr.), John O’Korn (RS Jr.), Wilton Speight (RS So.), Zach Gentry (RS Fr.), Alex Malzone (RS Fr.), Brandon Peters (Fr.)

Michigan 29, Minnesota 26

That was a great game for Minnesota. If the Gophers were facing almost anyone else, I would have been rooting for them to win. With the recent retirement of Jerry Kill, the frenzied crowd, the excited players, that was a fun game to watch. As a Michigan fan, player, or coach, you had to be wary of the emotions of the game. Some teams totally cave in that situation, and some play out of their minds. Minnesota did the latter. Unfortunately for them – but not for Michigan – I think head coach Tracy Claeys and his staff let the moment get a little too big for them at the end with some questionable game management.

I was closer to being right than I wanted to be. In my game preview (LINK), I predicted “Jake Rudock gets knocked out of the game, Wilton Speight can’t find his helmet, and Shane Morris burns his redshirt to come in and win the game.” Well, hot damn. Rudock did get knocked out of the game, and Shane Morris was warming up on the sideline, but it was Speight – helmet and all – who came in to throw the game-winning touchdown pass. Michigan seemed snake-bitten all game, and at one point late in the game, Michigan was without its starting QB, its starting RB, and its starting TE. I had started to think that it just wasn’t meant to be for the Wolverines on Saturday night.

Hit the jump for the remainder of the recap.

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Michigan 35, Oregon State 7

De’Veon Smith

Oregon State is bad. This was the first thing that stuck out to me after watching the full game. I hate to burst the bubble of anyone hoping that Michigan improved greatly from week one to week two, but I’m not sure that this game is evidence of a ton of Michigan improvement. Oregon State had two bad snaps on punts, dropped a kickoff, consistently allowed Michigan’s defensive line to get penetration, and couldn’t bring down De’Veon Smith, who other teams haven’t struggled that much with in his first two-plus seasons. The Beavers also didn’t have a dangerous passing game, even after top cornerback Jourdan Lewis left the game early with what looked like a possible concussion. I like Gary Andersen as a coach, but he has a young team with lots of holes right now.

Hit the jump for some more thoughts on Michigan’s win over Oregon State.

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