8 — Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Wilton Speight threw for 2,375 passing yards and 17 touchdowns in the regular season, his first as a starter for Michigan.
Season in Review: Quarterbacks
With the Michigan football
team’s 2016 regular season in the
books, the Daily looks back at the
performance of each unit this year
and looks ahead to the future in
2017. In this edition: quarterbacks.
With
2015
starting
quarterback
Jake
Rudock
departing after an impressive
single-season
leap
from
unproven graduate transfer to
NFL Draft pick, the Michigan
football
team
had
a
huge
question mark at quarterback at
the beginning of 2016.
It turned out that question
was all but answered in the
spring, and that answer might
be the key to the Wolverines’
offense for the next two seasons.
The year started with an
open
competition
between
redshirt
sophomore
Wilton
Speight and redshirt juniors
John O’Korn and Shane Morris,
but Speight emerged as the
frontrunner for the starting
job before the Spring Game in
April. He never relinquished
his lead, and he embarked on a
remarkable first starting season
that, in many ways, mirrored
his predecessor’s.
Despite
throwing
an
interception on his first pass
this season, Speight came back
to throw seven touchdowns
in his first two games, tying a
school record to start a season.
He overcame an elbow injury
to beat eventual Pac-12 runner-
up Colorado, put up 49 points
in a win over eventual Big
Ten champion Penn State and
uncorked a 45-yard touchdown
to
fifth-year
senior
wide
receiver Amara Darboh to seal
the deal against eventual Big
Ten West champion Wisconsin.
And that wasn’t even his best
three-game
stretch
of
the
season (more on that later).
If it wasn’t abundantly clear
that
Speight
deserved
the
starting job early on, a late-
season shoulder injury proved
it. Speight missed the Indiana
game on Nov. 19 after sustaining
an injury late in Michigan’s loss
to Iowa, and O’Korn turned in a
season-low 56 passing yards in
his place despite still picking up
the win.
Of course, Speight returned
for the Wolverines’ thrilling
regular-season finale against
Ohio State, throwing for two
touchdowns and leaving his
team just three points shy
of a chance at the Big Ten
Championship.
The
first-time
starter
finished
the
year
with
2,375
passing
yards
and
17
touchdowns
against
six
interceptions.
He
not
only
answered one of Michigan’s
more
pressing
preseason
questions, but he established
himself as a potential face of the
offense for years to come.
HIGH POINT: Over one
stretch starting in late October,
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
said in three straight postgame
press conferences that Speight
had just completed his best
game yet. During that run —
which included wins against
Illinois, Michigan State and
Maryland — Speight completed
70.8 percent of his passes for
859 yards and four touchdowns,
with his passer rating reaching
levels of well over 200 during
the games.
To cap it off, Speight added
his
first
career
rushing
touchdown against Maryland,
leaping over the goal line after
a 10-yard scramble — an image
now
immortalized
on
his
Twitter account as a parody of
the Jordan Brand’s Jumpman
logo. It was the icing on the cake
for a quarterback not known for
his running ability. (As fifth-
year senior defensive end Chris
Wormley once quipped, “You
see Wilton try and scramble
and it looks like it hurts.”)
LOW POINT: One could
argue
that
Speight’s
two
interceptions and the fumble on
the one-yard line against Ohio
State were his three biggest
mistakes of the season, but his
command of the offense still
put the Wolverines in position
to win that game. His true low
point came two weeks earlier
in Iowa City, when Michigan
mustered just one offensive
touchdown in a 14-13 upset loss
to the Hawkeyes.
Speight completed 11 of 26
passes for just 103 yards, finishing
with a season-worst 67.9 passer
rating, zero touchdowns and
an interception. His inability to
keep the offense on the field late
in the game proved fatal, as the
Wolverines went three and out
despite needing to kill less than
two minutes of game time in
the fourth quarter. A face-mask
penalty on the ensuing punt set up
Iowa’s game-winning field goal.
THE FUTURE: Harbaugh
does
love
his
quarterback
competitions
—
and
he’ll
have plenty of capable bodies
next season — but Speight’s
performance this season likely
cemented his place as the
starter going forward.
O’Korn and Morris each have
a year of eligibility remaining,
but Harbaugh has said that fifth
years aren’t guaranteed, and
if this year is any indication,
playing time should be hard to
come by for the two veterans.
The more intriguing name,
however, is Brandon Peters — a
soon-to-be
redshirt
freshman
who has enough talent to be
touted by some as Harbaugh’s
next Andrew Luck. And highly
coveted
2017
recruit
Dylan
McCaffrey will be on campus
next fall as well, making for a
gifted and crowded quarterback
room no matter who the starter is.
It seems likely that Speight
will hang onto his job, but
Michigan’s
quarterback
storyline will surely be heavily
scrutinized for years to come.
Wolverines ready for
up-tempo Longhorns
A week ago, the Michigan
men’s basketball team squared
off against a Virginia Tech
squad
that
head
coach
John
Beilein
said
would
“push
(the
ball) up the
floor
right
down
our
throat.”
The
Wolverines
(6-2) held serve
for most of the
game
against
the up-tempo
Hokies, but ultimately faltered
down the stretch, losing in
overtime, 73-70.
Michigan will get another
chance to face an up-tempo
team at home against Texas
(4-3) on Tuesday night, in the
front end of a home-and-home
series that matches the teams
up again next year in Austin,
Texas.
The two teams also met last
season in the Bahamas at the
Battle 4 Atlantis, where the
Wolverines
were victorious,
76-72.
Coached
by
Shaka
Smart,
the Longhorns
push the pace
of the game not
through
their
offense,
but
their
defense,
a strategy that
led to much of
Smart’s success
at
Virginia
Commonwealth
before
he
moved to Texas.
“Shaka has more than he
had last year, when we played
them, of the havoc full-court
defense,” Beilein said. “They’re
playing some zones, and they
have a lot of good action going
on, and our players will have to
play well.”
Because of Texas’ up-tempo
defense, the Wolverines will
have to work harder and rely
on bench players, especially
freshman
guard
Xavier
Simpson, who will have to give
senior guard Derrick Walton
Jr. a break.
“We’re
going
to
need
(Simpson) to help Derrick,”
Beilein said. “Not only to
beat the press or attack their
defense,
but
also
to
give
(Walton) a rest.”
Added Simpson: “I feel like I
can handle it. I’m being worked
on every day in practice and
getting better and just learning
the pace of the game.”
But besides the fact that
Michigan is about to face a
high-energy
team,
Tuesday
night’s bout will also be the
Wolverines’
third
game
in
seven days.
“(It’s) something we see a lot
of in the Big Ten, so it’s been
good for us to go through that
type of schedule this week,”
Beilein said.
Most
recently,
Michigan
is coming off an 82-55 win
over Kennesaw State that saw
sophomore
forward
Moritz
Wagner score a career-high 20
points and redshirt sophomore
DJ Wilson grab his second
career double-double with 15
points and 11 rebounds.
The duo, though, will have
a much tougher time trying
to repeat their feats against
Texas.
Inside, the Longhorns start
6-foot-11 forward Jarrett Allen
at the ‘5’ and athletic forward
Shaquille Cleare at the ‘4.’
Both will provide challenges
for Wagner and Wilson at both
ends of the court.
“They’re a great post-up
team,” Beilein said. “They’re
going to play out of the post like
crazy, so post
defense has to
be important.”
Texas
also
features guard
Tevin
Mack,
who leads the
Longhorns
in
scoring
with
14 points per
game
despite
starting in only
one game this
season thus far.
But
while
Michigan
understands
that
Texas will bring something
different to the table, the
Wolverines still want to play
their own game, which is
something they haven’t been
able to do in their two losses
this season.
“We just want to stick to
our style of play,” said senior
forward Zak Irvin. “We like
to get up and down, too.
We don’t want to do things
uncharacteristically.
The
turnovers we had, we want to
limit those.”
Michigan is looking to build
on its momentum from its win
over Kennesaw State. Another
win over a Texas team that has
bounced in and out of the top
25, would be a nice springboard
before the Wolverines play at
No. 2 UCLA on Saturday.
But
right
now,
the
Wolverines
aren’t
looking
ahead. They have to take care
of business on Tuesday first.
MINH DOAN
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan welcomes Texas to Crisler
for first year of home-and-home series
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Texas at
Michigan
Matchup:
Texas 4-3;
Michigan 6-2
When:
Tuesday 9 P.M.
Where: Crisler
Center
TV/Radio:
ESPN2
“We just
want to stick
to our style
of play.”
JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Editor