8A — Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
T E A M S T A T S
MICH
OPP
Points/Game
48.0
10.7
First Downs/Game
24.7
12.9
Rush Yards/Game
251.7
107.4
Yards/Rush
5.5
3.1
Rushing TDs
36
3
Passing Yards/Game
245.8
138.9
Completion %
65.4%
44.1%
Yards/Pass
8.7
5.7
Passing TDs
17
8
Interceptions
3
10
Offensive Plays/Game
73.8
59.0
Total Offense
497.4
246.3
3rd-down Conversions
48.2%
19.0%
4th-down Conversions
61.5%
30.0%
Sacks/Game
3.3
1.3
Kick return average
17.6
21.3
Punt return average
17.9
8.8
Punting average
36.0
31.9
Field Goals-Attempts
10-15
4-9
Fumbles/Lost
8/3
12/5
Penalty Yards/Game
45.4
46.0
Time of Poss
33:37
26:23
I N D I V I D U A L S T A T S
PASSING
Player
Cmp
Att
Yds
TD
INT
Speight
149
231
2053
15
3
O’Korn
13
18
114
2
0
Morris
4
5
45
0
0
TOTALS
166
254
2212
17
3
RUSHING
Player
Att
Yds
Avg
Lg
TD
Smith, D.
109
564
5.2
42
8
Evans
57
456
8.0
57
3
Higdon
58
418
7.2
45
6
Isaac
68
404
5.9
53
4
Peppers
17
150
11.5
63
3
McDoom
13
150
11.5
33
0
Chesson
9
47
5.2
17
1
Henderson
5
37
7.4
13
1
Hill, K.
21
34
1.6
4
9
Morris
3
19
6.3
14
0
Davis
2
17
8.5
10
0
Crawford
3
15
5.0
11
0
O’Korn
6
12
2.0
3
0
Hirsch
1
2
2.0
2
0
Wilson
1
1
1.0
1
0
Beneducci
1
1
1.0
1
0
Hewlett
2
-1
-0.5
0
0
Gedeon
1
-2
-2.0
0
0
Allen
1
-11
-11.0
0
0
TEAM
10
-15
-1.5
0
0
Speight
22
-33
-1.5
10
1
TOTALS
410
2265
5.5
63
36
RECEIVING
Player
No.
Yds
Avg
Lg
TD
Darboh
42
741
17.6
46
6
Butt
34
421
12.4
37
4
Chesson
25
416
16.6
40
2
Perry
6
114
19.0
54
1
Hill
12
93
7.8
15
1
Evans
5
84
16.8
56
0
McDoom
5
59
11.8
33
0
Crawford
3
43
14.3
18
1
Smith, D.
11
38
3.5
17
0
Poggi
5
33
6.6
15
0
Wheatley
2
27
13.5
21
1
Ways
2
24
12.0
22
0
Henderson
1
23
23.0
23
0
Isaac
1
21
21.0
21
0
Asiasi
2
18
9.0
15
1
Hirsch
1
15
15.0
15
0
Jocz
1
12
12.0
12
0
McKeon
2
10
5.0
5
0
Harris
1
7
7.0
7
0
Bunting
2
6
3.0
4
0
Johnson, N.
1
4
4.0
4
0
Peppers
2
3
1.5
5
0
TOTALS
166
2212
13.3
56
17
PUNT RETURNS
Player
No.
Yds
Avg. Long
TD
Peppers
15
257
17.1
54
1
Jocz
1
27
27.0
0
0
Evans
1
15
15.0
15
0
Perry
0
6
--
6
1
TOTALS
17
305
17.9
54
2
INTERCEPTION RETURNS
Player
No.
Yds
Avg. Long
TD
Stribling
3
60
20.0
51
1
Hill, D.
3
36
12.0
27
1
McCray
1
22
22.0
22
0
Thomas
1
4
4.0
4
0
Lewis
2
0
0.0
0
0
TOTALS
10
122
12.2
51
2
FUMBLE RETURNS
Player
No.
Yds
Avg. Long
TD
Hill, L.
1
9
9.0
9
0
TOTALS
1
9
9.0
9
0
KICKOFF RETURNS
Player
No.
Yds
Avg. Long
TD
Peppers
7
182
26.0
55
0
Lewis
3
34
11.3
18
0
Henderson
2
28
14.0
15
0
Evans
1
26
26.0
26
0
Hudson
1
6
6.0
6
0
Hill, K.
2
5
2.5
5
0
TOTALS
16
281
17.6
55
0
KICKOFFS
Player
No.
Yds
Avg.
TB
Allen
63
4038
64.1
35
Foug
8
460
57.5
2
Tice
3
189
63.0
0
TOTALS
64
4041
63.1
30
PUNTING
Player
No.
Yds
Avg.
Lg
Allen
27
1138
42.1
56
TOTALS
27
1138
42.1
56
FIELD GOALS
Player
FG
Pct.
1-19 20-29 30-3940-49 50+ Lg
Allen
10-14 71.4% 0-0 6-6 3-5
1-3 0-0 45
Tice
0-1 0.0% 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-0 0
LEADING TACKLERS
Player
Solo Ast
Tot
TFL
SK
PBU
Gedeon
27
47
74
11.5
3.5
2
Peppers
33
20
53
13.5
3.5
-
McCray
23
26
49
10.0
3.5
4
Thomas
22
17
39
-
-
6
Hill, D.
26
10
36
2.5
-
2
Winovich
8
23
31
6.5
3.0
-
Glasgow, R.
6
22
28
5.0
2.0
1
Wormley
10
14
24
5.5
4.0
-
Hurst
12
11
23
8.5
3.0
-
Gary
8
15
23
5.0
1.0
-
Godin
8
13
21
2.0
1.0
-
Charlton
7
13
20
5.0
4.5
-
Lewis
11
5
16
2.5
-
7
Stribling
7
8
15
1.0
-
9
Kinnel
9
4
13
1.0
-
-
Watson
6
5
11
-
-
-
Bush
6
5
11
0.5
-
-
Clark
6
4
10
-
-
3
Glasgow, J.
5
4
9
-
-
-
Metellus
6
2
8
1.0
1.0
-
Hudson
3
5
8
0.5
-
1
Furbush
3
4
7
1.0
-
-
Pearson
2
5
7
-
-
-
TOTALS
275 306 581
84
30
36
2016 SCHEDULE
HAWAII (4-6)
W, 63-3 (1-0)
UCF (5-4)
COLORADO (7-2)
PENN ST. (7-2)
WISCONSIN (7-2) at RUTGERS (2-7)
ILLINOIS (3-6)
at MICH. ST. (2-7) MARYLAND (5-4)
at IOWA (5-4)
8 p.m., Iowa City, Iowa
INDIANA (5-4)
Michigan Stadium
at OHIO ST. (8-1)
Noon, Columbus, Ohio
9/3
9/10
9/17
9/24
10/1
10/8
10/22
10/29
11/5
11/12
11/19
11/26
W, 51-14 (2-0) W, 45-28 (3-0) W, 49-10 (4-0) W, 14-7 (5-0) W, 78-0 (6-0) W, 41-8 (7-0) W, 32-23 (8-0) W, 59-3 (9-0)
Calmer Speight wins Harbaugh over
Coming into fall camp a year
ago, Wilton Speight was pretty
sure he was never going to be
Jim Harbaugh’s quarterback —
and it wasn’t just because he’s
allergic to milk.
In the new coach’s first spring
camp in 2015, Speight struggled
through four-hour practices,
took
expletive-filled
tongue-
lashings from Harbaugh and
found himself buried on the
depth chart. Heading into the
fall, the then-redshirt freshman
had had enough.
“I was on the phone with my
parents, basically saying, ‘OK,
I’m out. Let’s find a different
school,’ ” Speight said.
Speight had his parents reach
out to other colleges — North
Carolina State emerged as an
early favorite because of some
family ties there — and he was
dead-set on leaving Ann Arbor.
He told some of his teammates
he was leaving, including his
camp roommate, then-redshirt
freshman
receiver
Drake
Harris, and he planned to go to
Harbaugh’s office the first week
of camp and tell him the same.
On the morning Speight woke
up to do it, though, Harris asked
him, “Are you sure?”
Speight wasn’t. He never
made it to Harbaugh’s office, and
he ended up playing through the
rest of camp.
He
ultimately
won
the
second-string job, and the rest
is history. A season later, he is
the starting quarterback for the
third-ranked, 9-0 Wolverines
and has thrown 15 touchdowns
and just three interceptions.
If there was any lingering
doubt
about
Speight
from
Harbaugh,
the
second-year
coach shattered it in a press
conference
the
Monday
following Michigan’s win over
Michigan State last week.
“I think we’re looking at a
budding — really good player,”
Harbaugh said. “I almost said
‘budding star.’ I mean, it’s
really close to that. He’s doing
so many good things, and he’s
been almost flawless, really,
when he has time and space to
see things.”
Now, Speight can look back
at the exhausting practices
and tough-love coaching and
realize that he was getting
tougher and stronger the whole
time. That realization didn’t
come to him until this spring,
when he emerged as the clear
frontrunner for the starting
job over redshirt juniors John
O’Korn and Shane Morris.
More
importantly,
he’s
appeared calm on the field all
season, which is a feat that
hasn’t always come easy for
him. Speight said he’s the type
of person to break a paddle if he
loses a ping-pong game. When
he was younger, he would stop
speaking to his mom if she beat
him in a game
of “HORSE” in
their backyard.
But thanks to
his high school
basketball
coach,
who
doubles
as
a
“mindfulness
teacher,” Speight
has found a way
to
maintain
a
level head when
he’s under center.
“I practiced a ton with him,
almost like a meditation-type
thing,”
Speight
said.
“We
figured out whenever I click my
buckle in my helmet or lick my
fingers before a snap, that kind
of brings me back to this chill
mode. In football, I feel like I’ve
kind of mastered
it, but I’m still
working on the
other stuff.”
That
calmness
has
helped
him
improve
every
week.
Multiple
teammates,
including fifth-
year
senior
offensive
lineman Ben Braden on Tuesday
night, have compared Speight’s
trajectory to last year’s starter,
Jake Rudock, who rode his late-
season success to become an
NFL draft pick.
And
finally,
Speight
has
earned
the
endorsement
of
Harbaugh,
who
speculated
that it might be time “to throw
(Speight’s) hat in the ring” for
Heisman Trophy consideration.
As for Speight’s milk allergy
— which often forced his family
to buy raw milk in a Whole
Foods parking lot (“The cow’s
name was Apple, if you guys
were wondering,” he said) — he
hasn’t told Harbaugh yet. After
all, it was a long road to get on
his coach’s good side.
“He just gets so into his milk
brand and his whole milk and
stuff,” Speight said. “I’ll let him
have his whole milk.”
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Wilton Speight was once a long way from running the show, but he stuck around and became one of Michigan’s leaders.
JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan’s defense facing struggles on edge
There’s
not
much
the
Michigan football team doesn’t
do well on defense.
By
now,
the
statistics
have been well covered. The
Wolverines are the best in the
country in scoring defense,
passing
defense
and
total
defense.
They
rarely
allow
teams to extend drives, much
less score touchdowns.
So it was a bit of a surprise
Saturday when Maryland was
able to repeatedly exploit the
same apparent weakness in the
Wolverines’ defense.
“(Maryland
coach
DJ)
Durkin, he was our (defensive
coordinator) last year, and when
he was here he felt as though we
struggled with tempo and on the
edges,” said redshirt sophomore
linebacker Jabrill Peppers. “So
we kind of thought that we were
going to get a game plan similar to
that. We didn’t know how much
spread it was going to be and how
open they were going to have us.”
Throughout
the
game,
Maryland
continuously
attacked the edges when it
needed a play. Sometimes it was
on an outside rush. Other times
it was a tunnel screen. Usually,
it was effective — at least as
effective as an offense can be
while scoring just three points.
But the low point total wasn’t
necessarily indicative of how
effective they were when using
the screen game.
On the final play before
halftime, wide receiver D.J.
Moore took a screen 47 yards
and looked bound for the end
zone. But at the 1-yard line,
redshirt junior linebacker Mike
McCray was able to stop him
short and preserve the shutout.
“Great effort can cancel out
a lot of those things,” said fifth-
year senior defensive tackle Ryan
Glasgow. “Clock ran out. That was
a really big play for our defense,
big stop by Mike and (senior
safety) Dymonte (Thomas).”
The screen was the main factor
that led the Wolverines to allow
more passing yards (289) against
the Terrapins than they had all
season. Michigan’s vaunted pass
defense was still highly effective
in coverage, as evidenced by its
six pass breakups and three sacks,
but on screens, the dynamic was
different.
The quarterback gets the
ball out fast to avoid some of
the pressure from the defensive
line, and the cornerbacks are
rarely close enough to break
up the pass. That leaves the
play’s outcome up to pursuit
from defenders and blocking
by the offense. And when it
came to screens on Saturday,
Maryland’s offense appeared to
have the edge.
Peppers said the effectiveness
of
the
screen
was
more
about good play-calling from
Maryland than it was any
specific challenge inherent to
the play. (“It’s not really tough
to tackle,” he said.)
Glasgow even offered an
antidote to the problem, simple
as it may be.
“It’s just smelling a rat,”
Glasgow said. “Someone getting
in the way, causing a cutback
and people hustling to the ball.
That’s basically all. It comes
down to effort.”
It’s a concept Michigan may
be tested on soon. Even while the
Wolverines run up blowout wins
over Maryland, Rutgers and
other Big Ten non-contenders,
there are real threats still out
there. Ohio State is plenty
capable of running the same
types of plays, and the Buckeyes
would do so with significantly
better talent.
There’s no reason to believe
Michigan
can’t
correct
the
issue — earlier in the year, it
had trouble in contain, but it
worked out those kinks rather
quickly. But still, the members
of the Wolverines’ defense are
cognizant of the urgency.
“We
didn’t
make
the
adjustment we needed to, and
I feel like (we will) learn from
that right now,” McCray said.
“We’re going to improve on
this game because we know
they’re probably going to try
to do the same thing. So we’re
ready for it.”
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Michigan’s defense had issues setting the edge Saturday against Maryland, giving up a season-high 289 passing yards even in an otherwise dominant performance.
MAX BULTMAN
Managing Sports Editor
“I was ... basically
saying, ‘OK, I’m
out. Let’s find a
different school.’ ”