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.’ ”