UMBig11 Week 1 Practice Notes
UMBig11 posted some notes from fall camp going into week 2. I won't post them and take away hits from TTB but here's the link.
http://touch-the-banner.com/forum/topic/some-football-notes-heading-in-to-week-2/
(From the guy who's written "Kuglar" instead of "Kugler" three separate times!)
What's your favorite "Comment Viewing Options"?
I'll only begin to question Speight's starting status if multiple "insider" reports claim Peters is just plain better. Right now it feels like the coaches know it's Speight but they want to keep the pressure on him.
Anyone know if that offshore book is still offering odds on this race?
Johnny Manziel started as a frosh, didn't he?
Peters will start next year and be a "phenom". I'm calling it right now. And I'd like to add that if your the best quarterback for this team, experience doesn't matter. The best wil play, period. This isn't 1973 anymore.
August 7th, 2017 at 10:15 AM ^
"Again, this is an ideal"
I disagree - ideal is getting those phenoms that can win Heismans as red shirt freshmen over and over and having them around for a few years.
August 7th, 2017 at 11:09 AM ^
Love that Karan is stepping up. I think he'll be our best back, although he and Evans are both gamebreakers(shoutout to Gambreaker 98).
Higdon is my #1, Evans a close #2 then after that I'm hoping for a Samuels to step up. Looking like I may have been unfortunately correct on my instinct that Walker won't pan out. Not encouraging that he seems to not have developed at all physically from his HS days.
Go Blue!
August 7th, 2017 at 11:11 AM ^
Chad Henne first full season 2004 pure freshman:
240/399 60.2% 2743 yds 11.4 yds/completion 25 TDs/12 INTs
Brian Griese senior year 1997:
193/307 62.9% 2293 yds 11.9 yds/completion 17 TDs/6 INTs
John Navarre first full year 2001 sophomore:
207/385 53.8% 2435 yds 11.8 yds/completion 19 TDs/13 INTs
Wilton Speight first full year 2016 sophomore:
204/331 61.6% 2538 yds 12.4 yds/completion 18 TDs/7 INTs
I know that raw numbers by themselves don't give the fullest picture of how effective a QB is, but Speight's statistics are better than Navarre's, pretty equal with Griese's '97 numbers, and only lag Henne's in terms of attempts/completions totals and total yards.
This doesn't mean that Peters isn't more talented, but the notion that Speight falls notably short of recent UM standards is essentially bunk.
August 7th, 2017 at 11:30 AM ^
I think you have to take into account the changes in offensive football over that time.
Griese stats amounted to the #22 QB rate in the country in 1997, Speight was #40 last year.
In 1997 there was one guy over 160 QB rate, last year there were 9 .
1997 #1 was 166.0 (Cade McNown) last years was 196.4 (Baker Mayfield).
Plus those stats don't account for the nature of the wins. We obliterated the lesser opponents, which would inflate those statistics. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'd be interested to see how their adjusted stats would look when playing opposing defenses that were in the top 20 in the nation, for example.
Maybe Speight's stats would hold up under that scenario, but I think it's also possible that what you'd see is him fattening up on the weaker opponents in blowout games. IIRC, Harbaugh kind of kept Speight in some of those blowout games longer than what one might normally see for a regular starter.
That's not to say Speight can't get the job done this year--he might be able to do it. But I think before he gets compared to those other QBs, it'd be important to make sure we truly got an apples-to-apples comparison.
In a season where we played Colorado, Iowa and 4 top ten teams. All with a first year Qb and an offensive line we all agreed had "issues".
First world College football problems.
Once again, more generic descriptors that dodge real conversation about the offense.
Michigan scored more points against Rutgers and Penn State than OSU did. Does that make you happy?
Again, in Michigan's 3 losses and best 3 wins, Wilton Speight averaged double digit yards per completion in 2/6 games.
He threw for multiple touchdowns in 1/6 (the OSU game, where one of the TD throws was in Overtime).
This isn't "First world College football problems" to me. There is necessary improvement to be made along the OL and more visibly at the QB position. Personally, I think we're going to see first if that improvement can come in the form of an improved Wilton Speight from year 1 to year 2, others think it may come from the more talented Brandon Peters. We'll see.