Interesting interview on Speight and reason for transfer
Brad Galli with a nice piece over on ABC on why Speight decided to transfer. Although Speight denies any hard feelings towards the staff, he does seem a little slighted by the fact that he was splitting reps with the other QB's in spring practice.
“There are certain things that are maybe hard to put into words. I have always been in quarterback competitions. At the bus last year, Coach Harbaugh said I’m gonna be a top quarterback in all of college football this season. Then the first spring practice happened and I was splitting reps,”
Interesting take and look into the program. Apparently a meritocracy indeed. Video in link.
LINK: http://www.wxyz.com/sports/speight-speaks-out-on-decision-to-leave-mich…
November 27th, 2017 at 7:38 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 7:45 PM ^
But it speculates as to what Speight, Harbaugh, et al, may or may not have been thinking.
November 28th, 2017 at 9:42 AM ^
squeezed as much out of Speight as they can. He was a 3* for a reason and I think he hit his ceiling last year. You have two young and very talented QB's who are still on the rise and have both probably already passed Speight. He knows it and if he wants playing time he needs to go elsewhere. It is best for everyone.
November 28th, 2017 at 10:17 PM ^
A lot of people liked to rip on anyone suggesting Speight had a limited ceiling before this season, turns out it was the truth. I look forward to cheering for Speight on his new team but can't wait to see what Peters/McCaffrey can do for us next season.
November 27th, 2017 at 6:54 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 7:35 PM ^
That's fine, but when you go the the NFL, there is somebody trying to take your job away every single week.
If they do, you're not splitting reps . . . you're unemployed.
November 27th, 2017 at 8:00 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 9:02 PM ^
He needs to get back to pre-injury 2016 Speight level where he was legitimately the best QB in the conference.
He'll get a shot as a late round QB draftee in 2019
November 28th, 2017 at 3:00 PM ^
an NFL caliber QB. There's no better way to show you're an NFL QB than by winning the job at Michigan and playing well...unless he doesn't think Michigan is a place next year where even the starter can show that.
I don't think the O line situation/coaching can be dismissed here. Especially since he talks about a "gut feeling" and considering it since the injury. Imagine what's going through his mind after the injury: this o line is a disaster, it's giving me no time, it's getting me hurt, and the one functional OT is gone next year. I gotta get outta here. I'm not saying all those things are true, but that's a more reasonable thing to be frustrated about than to watch what Peters did this year (not much) and think you can't win the job.
November 28th, 2017 at 3:39 PM ^
"But if Peters beats him out, it's because he's not an NFL caliber QB."
This is false. Speght may or may not be an NFL-caliber QB, but Peters can still be better.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:01 PM ^
in the NFL, it's the opposite. If you're an established starter, they do everything not to have competition because it could divide the locker room.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:19 PM ^
Yeah but you can't be in that position if you don't make it there. This is the right choice for him. In order to get to the NFL, it makes more sense to make sure you are not a backup to Peters. If you go somewhere and are guaranteed to be the starter, you at least have a chance to make a roster or get drafted. It's a business decision and one that is calculated for the risk/reward he wants.
November 27th, 2017 at 8:52 PM ^
Speight's got the size, arm strength, and enough elusiveness to get taken toward the end of the draft I think. A good 5th year could see him move up. Obviously he's not going to get that experience if he loses out to Peters
November 27th, 2017 at 10:26 PM ^
Except his accuracy is shit...he threw the ball out of bounds when he had a WIDE OPEN receiver on the sidelines who could have walked in for a TD against Florida. I mean...threw it way over his head and out of bounds like he was trying to throw it away? How does that happen?
November 28th, 2017 at 3:08 PM ^
Peters massively underthrows a wide open TE for a TD against Wisconsin. Because they're college QBs that miss some throws. One throw does not make a guys accuracy, man.
November 27th, 2017 at 6:58 PM ^
Reading between the lines, can we now infer that Speight and Pep had a less than desirable relationship?
- In this interview, Speight tells Galli that the posititon coaches probably knew that he would transfer, even though Harbaugh was surprised.
- Consider, how much we know about how close Speight and Jed Fisher were
- How much Pep has praised Peters' ascension and how we wants continuity at the QB position
- O'Korn praising Pep on improving his confidence (in the pre-season)
- Comments in Rome that Pep and Speight were working on becoming closer, but never becoming chummy.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:01 PM ^
Speight confidant Jed Fisher seems like a shadowy fellow that we should keep away from the program...
(but yes, Pep has long favored Peters)
November 28th, 2017 at 10:31 PM ^
I had no idea Pep favored Peters. Is there a story I can read more about this? Pep did say,
"One thing we recognized with Brandon is that he has tremendous poise. And it just took me a while to really get used to his demeanor," Hamilton said. "Sometimes I call him 'Forrest,' because his facial expressions won't change. He's very even-keeled. Which is really a great attribute for a quarterback."
Personally, I'd be pissed off if my coach nick-named me after a mentally retarded man based on my demeanor and facial expressions. I don't see this, or being 3rd string for most the year, as favoring.
November 30th, 2017 at 10:53 AM ^
Dude, why so insensitive? "Mentally retarded" is unacceptable ... unless you're talking about our safeties' play in pass coverage, at which point social mores are entirely irrelevant.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^
Wilton will find that it's true once he's in the work-a-day world as well. My criteria for taking (or keeping) a job has always been:
- Who am I going to be working for?
- What am I going to be doing?
- What will I learn?
- Will I make money?
For whom we work is important to our job satisfaction. Having a boss with whom we don't have a good relationship is reason enough to leave.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 11:20 PM ^
Heard something great about work the other week that I figured I might as well share here.
Essentially, everything career-wise boils down to 5 things:
- Compensation
- Enjoying What You Do and Who You Work With
- Path Forward/Career Growth/Learning
- Work-Life Balance
- Commute
That's it; all encompassing.
If you have all 5 meeting/exceeding your expectations, you're living your 100% dream job; only an extremely small number of people fall into this category.
If you have 4 of them, you're in fantastic shape; you wouldn't consider leaving for pretty much anything at this point in time besides your dream job.
If you have 3 of them, you're in good shape; you won't go out of your way to look for other options, but are open to other opportunities were they to come along.
If you have 2 of them, you're getting by but probably will/should be on the lookout for better options.
If you have 1 or less you're miserable/need to leave ASAP; very few people fall into this category either as any rationale person would not stay long.
Most people are either 3s or 2s, with 4s being the ideal/lofty, but attainable, goal.
November 28th, 2017 at 7:18 AM ^
I find this really interesting, thanks for making this post.
I have to imagine there is also huge variation in the degrees of importance particular people place on each of these factors. Taking myself as an example, I will only consider public interest/social justice type positions (the "what you do"), so that is undoubtedly my #1 factor (and, I suppose, probably says something about the limited value I place on compensation). I work a lot, so I guess I've implicitly decided that work/life balance is less important to me. I think for many, if not most, people, the opposite is probably true--the premium is on compensation and work/life balance while they are less interested, or even indifferent, about the work they are actually doing.
November 28th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^
Exactly; I look at it more as, they're all important, it's just what your expectations for each are. Because "having" a category means something different for everyone; it's all about your personal expectations for it at that point in time. In your case, your expectation for a work-life balance might be mostly work and you have really high expectations for Loving What You Do.
Also, the expectations for each definitely change over time. An easy example to illustrate: compensation that would meet/exceed your 23 year old self's expectations are not likely to do the same for your 40 year old self, for example. Or, as someone reaches their 50s, they may have lower expectations for Career Growth/A Path Forward. Or, when someone starts a new family, their expectations for work-life balance will probably rise.
November 27th, 2017 at 6:58 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 7:02 PM ^
Sam Webb has alluded to this. Speight played hurt at the end of last season, seemed pretty bad. He felt like he really sacrificed for his team, gutted it out, took some risk on himself going out there. Thought he proved it. When they came back for spring, he seemed a little hurt that he wasn't The Guy.
I'm ok with him feeling that way. But he's got to !earn that last year was last year, last week was last week. Harbaugh feels like he's got to earn it every day himself, he's going to expect that from his QB.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:07 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 10:20 PM ^
Good point, but remember, one was totally the receiver's fault.
In any case, he's not beating out Peters and/or DM even if he is chugging at his best. Good luck to him, but it's nice to start with a clean slate here, though my preference was that he would stay.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:25 PM ^
That is well put, I think.
Virtually every week, we have heard people ask Harbaugh about various positions - especially QB this year - and he says the same thing, that he'll play whoever gives the team the best chance to win. The thing that fans and maybe even players miss sometimes is the lack of exceptions to this statement, meaning that each week, that "player" might be a different player somewhere on the field and that there will always be competition.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:18 PM ^
I also feel this is well said.
In fact, I think Harbaugh's one big mistake this season was not going with Peters off the get go.
I am giving Speight a pass on this because it is still so fresh, but when you take the high road like he did on Instagram, you cannot just say it is the high road, you actually have to TAKE THE HIGH ROAD.
I think after a few weeks or months pass, you are going to hear a different tune from him. He'll actually be back on the high road.
But whatever, I never thought he would start a game he looked so bad, and he actually developed some and proved me wrong. The reality is though, that he would have been qb #3 when spring practice started. It would have been nice to retain him, but only with a JOK attitude. And you never know...he may have gotten his chance next year.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:09 PM ^
I think like all good coaches, they pretty much know who their starting QB is, but they keep everyone motivated and competing. They way it should be in my opinion.
I think Speight was the guy in 2017 and JOK or Peters would have had to have a GREAT fall camp to win the job.
Next year I think Speight would have to have a GREAT fall camp to beat out Peters.
The writing was on the wall as someone else said and Speight knew it.
Good luck to him!
November 27th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 7:05 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 7:16 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 8:23 PM ^
Most positions outside of QB and OL see enough rotation to keep multiple players happy per position.
Speight would be in his last year of eligibility possibly facing zero playing time. I don't blame him whatsoever.
November 27th, 2017 at 8:37 PM ^
That the players had a sense of entitlement? Not saying that's what happened here, but that was one of the comments after Hoke was fired.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:09 PM ^
If he didn't want to worry about splitting snaps, he probably should have upped his game this year. In fact, he actually regressed in actual game play.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:11 PM ^
And thus, the Brady Hokishness of Michigan's offense ebbs a little further into the past.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:12 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 7:12 PM ^
And you did not have the kind of game you needed to have to cement your spot. Sorry Wilt, hope next year he can find the same success Shane had this year - I️ love having a second team to cheer for.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^
Led not lead.
November 27th, 2017 at 7:15 PM ^
I think this is much ado about nothing. Speight is giving some insight into his mindset. He says no bad blood at all. Says it's just time to move on. Says he still has NFL hopes.
It tells me that there's a combination of a couple of things. First, and most obvious, is that Speight isn't a clear-cut #1 in Ann Arbor if he comes back. I think that tells me that Peters has been improving a lot behind the scenes (we only have one real quality drive and a couple of throws in other game to view on the field, behind the scenes is where the action is here) and that McCaffrey is impressive. Speight doesn't get a sniff at the NFL if he can't win the job here.
And it also suggests to me that Speight may need a change of environment to get in the right spot. Harbaugh did his best to support Speight as the starter, but Speight really seems to have gone through a bout of the yips. The guy that was airmailing fades out of the back of the endzone against Cincy and Air Force isn't the same guy that led the team well for most of 2016, or even the guy who came in and hit two clutch throws to help beat Minnesota off the bench in 2015.
Speight wasn't the only reason that Michigan lost to OSU last year (I blame the OL more than him) but there's no question that Speight's mistakes were huge factors in a game Michigan's defense otherwise dominated. And against Florida he looked confident and in control... except for a five-minute stretch where one bad break (Crawford's butterfingers) and one awful pass put Michigan in a position to lose a game it otherwise dominated.
I think it got in his head. I think Peters is taking root, and I think McCaffrey might even win the job next year.
And Speight would rather get a sure starting job in a place like Virginia or Minnesota than, potentially, backing up a couple of younger guys. I don't blame him. I was surprised, but I am not shocked.
November 27th, 2017 at 8:00 PM ^
November 27th, 2017 at 8:12 PM ^
Pretty much warm body is an improvement for Minnesota at this point, but I agree he's not the mobile guy Fleck's staff would prefer to work with. The larger profile is right, though--P5 school without a QB, low-pressure fanbase.
Might not know what the best candidate is until we learn where Fisch lands.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:41 PM ^
UVA may want someone a little different too. Toledo might work out well with so many returning to a good squad. If he had a good year and still had Harbaugh vouch for him he would have a chance I think.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:34 PM ^
Recognized he had a much tougher spring in front of him. Coming off a serious injury. Up against a very talented pair of JH recruited QB's...One of which with a few games under his belt with solid performance. If he came to the conclusion that he had a better chance to start elsewhere, he's probably right. Much respect to him though...He held his own through the majority of 2016 and early 2017.
November 27th, 2017 at 10:08 PM ^
I will say this---at least you are coming around to a reasonable way of looking at this.
Like Speight or not, and I have grown to admire him, when Spring starts he was going to be the third best qb on the field. It's really that simple.
I laud him for the OSU game. IMO, it was his best moment, though Minnesota comes close. He played hurt, and I can tell you that is tough. Nevertheless, he played great despite a couple of untimely mistakes. If Cole does not grab a facemask on a 40-yd screen, the interception never happens. And we scored from great field position after the fumble. It cost us some momemtum, but no points. Players make mistakes in every game. I thought he was fantastic in that game, and I will never forget it.
He was a great leader. It was just time for him to go. Wish him well, and thank him for his time here.
November 27th, 2017 at 11:36 PM ^
Not trying to be snarky here, what was my unreasonable way of looking at this before? I feel like I've been consistent, at least within the bounds of opining based upon information available to us.
I've generally be pro-Speight, but with the recognition that he has some limits. I suggested the yips pretty early on this year, a theory I think fits the facts.
One thing I can say is that the guy who posted a pretty thorough amount of inside info a few weeks ago, before Peters came out, has been proven totally correct. He actually predicted a Speight transfer, something I thought was unfounded and that he perhaps didn't have good info on. But he was right. A great kernel of insider stuff.
November 28th, 2017 at 2:48 AM ^
Perhaps the inference that your prior view was unreasonable was a bit harsh.
However, I distinctly got the impression that Speight's one drive against Minnesota was good enough for you to give him a pass on just about anything. That said, I do agree that you have been paying attention wrt Speight. For myself, I would not call it the yips. I would just say that he has been consistently inconsistent from day one. His best games were against inferior teams.
The guy has always had a ceiling and, for now, he's at it.
The prediction of a Speight transfer did not require inside information, just a willingness to make a critical comparison of a guy who was easy to like. Compared to qb's like Peters who can lead you to a championship, Speight dreadfully flunks the simple eye test. Cogitate all the stats you want about him and the team; the guy just does not measure up. He had some assets, and he did develop beyond my conceivable expectations, and as I have stated elsewhere, I will never forget his OSU performance, which was inspiring.
He is doing the right thing, and kudos to the guy who put it on record a few weeks ago.