The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/751827
36 THE WOLVERINE DECEMBER 2016 T he stories of the standouts that al- most departed Michigan football early on — from Anthony Carter to Tom Brady and back — have grown by one. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Wilton Speight recently indicated he thought about moving on. Speight said his father checked into other venues, one of them North Caro- lina State, after Jim Harbaugh's arrival as head coach. The Nov. 7 Big Ten Co- Offensive Player of the Week hadn't begun his meteoric rise to the top of the U-M depth chart, and it wasn't anywhere in sight. "My redshirt year, I was like, 'Okay, I'll just redshirt,'" Speight said. "But when Coach Harbaugh came in, I got buried on the depth chart that spring. That redshirt freshman fall camp, I was on the phone with my parents — it ba- sically was, 'Okay, I'm out, let's find a different school.' They were on board. They obviously wanted me to stay here, but they were going to support my decision. "One morning I just woke up and was about to tell coach and I just didn't feel right. So I said I'll give it another week, and I started playing better and by the end of camp I was taking reps with the twos." Speight gives credit to a pair of teammates — former quarterback Jake Rudock and redshirt sophomore wide- out Drake Harris — for encouraging him to stay. They joke now about the infamous HBO special in which Harbaugh at one point told the QB: "If you want to look at me with that look, go [expletive] somewhere else." "Everyone saw the HBO special," Speight said. "That wasn't exactly the bubbly, 'Hey, stick around.' That was more, 'Please get out of my face and never come back.' Coach Harbaugh told me over the summer when we had our individual meetings, 'Hey, you're going to get a shot,' so I be- lieved him. I started to see the writing on the wall a little bit the first week of camp. I said screw it, I'm going to work as hard as I can." Fast-forward to the postgame pa- laver from Michigan's 59-3 win over Maryland — in which Speight went 19-of-24 passing for 362 yards with two touchdown tosses, along with a 10-yard TD run — and Harbaugh sounded properly impressed. He even said his rookie starting quarterback ought to be in the Heisman Trophy discussion. "Yeah, he's superseding the hopes," Harbaugh said. "He's gone past what we were hoping he would be in a big way. He's been outstanding. I'd be ly- ing if I said he hasn't more than ex- ceeded what we were even hoping he could be." "Wilton Speight is the best quar- terback in the Big Ten," insisted Big Ten Network college football analyst Marcus Ray, who also contributes to TheWolverine.com. "He is the straw that stirs that drink, offensively, for Michigan. He's getting better and play- ing at a high level. "I love his deep ball, his accuracy and poise. He's college football's ver- sion of [Pittsburgh Steelers quarter- back] Ben Roethlisberger … he's the reason they're 9-0. Yes, it's a team ef- fort, but it's a quarterback-driven game right now, I don't care what level of football it is. He's playing lights-out football. "There were plays he was able to extend earlier in the year with his legs. He's hard to tackle, and he's decep- tively athletic … I'm impressed with his ability to still look downfield and be able to throw the ball with guys in his face. He doesn't play scared." Former Michigan All-American linebacker Ron Simpkins, another analyst for TheWolverine.com, chuck- led when he heard Speight nearly left. He's seen a lot of success stories out of similar near departures. "From high school to Little League, I don't know any guy who has been through football and during two-a- days didn't say: 'I'm leaving. I don't know why I'm doing this,'" Simp- kins observed. "But then you look to the right and the left of you, and you see guys going through it. You think, 'Okay, if they can do it, I can do it.' Then it becomes one of those things where you're just determined to do it. That's where the individual pride comes into play, and the team pride. "When you stop worrying about your own self getting a starting posi- tion and those kinds of things, and start looking at the bigger picture, you're knowing there's more than your feelings involved in this. There are other players in the program, alumni and all of those things; that's when you become a real advocate for the team." And in this case, that's when you become one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten, and beyond. Speight appeared to injure his non- throwing shoulder in U-M's 14-13 loss at Iowa Nov. 12. A couple days later, Harbaugh acknowledged that Speight "could be" a game-time decision for the Wolverines' contest against Indi- ana Nov. 19. MICHIGAN FOOTBALL Wilton Speight Nearly Left Michigan Last Year 2016 MICHIGAN FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent Result/Time (ET) S Sept. 3 Hawai'i W, 63-3 Sept. 10 Central Florida W, 51-14 Sept. 17 Colorado W, 45-28 Sep. 24 Penn State W, 49-10 Oct. 1 Wisconsin W, 14-7 Oct. 8 at Rutgers W, 78-0 Oct. 22 Illinois W, 41-8 Oct. 29 at Michigan State W, 32-23 Nov. 5 Maryland W, 59-3 Nov. 12 at Iowa L, 13-14 Nov. 19 Indiana 3:30 p.m. Nov. 25 at Ohio State 12:00 p.m. Speight ranked third in the Big Ten with a 148.9 passer rating through Nov. 18. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL