Greg Biggins wrote a preview of SoCal Nike Camp, and had some very nice words to say about Wilton Speight:
Making the road trip from the Midwest is Michigan commit Wilton Speight. The Richmond (Va.) Collegiate School product is a big, strong quarterback with a powerful arm and he can make every throw on the field. He’s very solid mechanically, has made huge strides in the last year and has a very big upside to him.
Full article here:
http://michigan.scout.com/2/1273195.html
Someone needs to get Biggins
Most likely has a map
just needs to emBiggin for a better view of exactly where the Midwest is...
He was looking at the wrong Biggn's...
Jedidiah Springfield would be proud of your word choice
A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
VA is more Midwest than South
VA is more Midwest than South Bend is Atlantic Coast
(No subject)
Great Find
This kid seems like a great find for the coaching staff. He will continue to rise in the rankings all year. Provided Devin stays 2 more years, the QB battle between Shane Morris and Wilton Speight will be fun to watch. Whoever wins that battle will be very good.
I am become Tim Hardaway Jr. Destroyer of Worlds
I trust the coaches
I trust the coaches at UM that get paid millions of dollars to recruit and offer kids over some nerd that works for Rivals or Scout that probably never played football.
Good to hear about his arm.
Good to hear about his arm. From what I remember, that was at least a little bit of a concern.
Right?
I recall the feeling was arm strength was a weakness... something like he had the arm of a girlie-man.
I mean, "Wilton" is a girl's
I mean, "Wilton" is a girl's name right? His middle name is probably "fannypack."
But seriously, I took a quick glance at TTB and his Hello post here, and the gist seems to be something like "it's not a huge deal, but his arm isn't the strongest." TTB also suggested that his mechanics are kinda rough because of bad OLine play (e.g., lots of throwing off the back foot, can't follow through, etc). That would obviously limit the zip you can put on a ball.
Either way, it's always nice to hear good things about future Michigan players.
EDIT: It just occurred to me that Speight shares a name sake with Wilt Chamberlain. That guy slept with 20,000 women and fought Conan (the barbarian, not the talk show host). Expectations are rising fast!
Unconfirmed rumor
is that Wilt's doctor told him he had the penis of a 150 year old man.
"If fans don't come to the ballpark, you can't stop em."
This is trolling when I respond to a
poster who said Wilt Chamberlain slept with 2000 women?
"If fans don't come to the ballpark, you can't stop em."
Remember this from the article about Hecklinski's visit?
He tossed about 20 passes before Hecklinski, Michigan's receivers coach and recruiting coordinator, said that was enough.
I could have stopped you after five passes. Everything I'm seeing now is everything we've seen on film, Speight said
If we accept that, either we need the pundits for coaches, or our coaches evaluate players better than those folks.
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
trust the coaches?
How does one 'trust the coaches'?
We are the dead.
I think
he is saying that he will not question the coach's judgement.
I'm not going to do it,
I'm not going to do it. The hell I'm not!
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
FWIW
My family has friends who've lived in Richmond for awhile, and the locals say he might be better than Russell Wilson (played at Collegiate). I'm not saying I believe it, but it's always nice to hear your under the radar QB commit might be NFL quality one day.
YOU'RE LOOKING LIVE ON ME OPENING A BAG OF PEANUTS!
-Brent Musburger on an airplane
I don't know why it would be
I don't know why it would be so impossible to be better than Russel Wilson. He obviously wasn't that fantastic in high school or he would've probably been at a better school than NC State. Also he was undersized. I think I would trust the direct observations of the locals in a football crazy state more than the guys who have seen 5 minutes of highlights.
"Michigan Defense" is dominating everything, in every aspect of life. That's a rough definition.
-Craig Roh 10/29/2011
Wilson was a 2-star recruit
Wilson was a 2-star recruit to Rivals.
I have
a feeling that we have another Tom Brady on our hands.
Why?
Is Wilton also married to a supermodel and acts as a spokesman for the Dodge Dart (or is it the Dodge Dort)?
Errr..
..I live in Richmond right now. And I can tell you, although there are parts of the state that are 'football crazy', they're more centered in the VA Beach/Hampton Roads area. The Richmond area will produce a good football player every now and then (like Derrick Green), but they most often come from Hermitage, LC Bird, or Varina. The rest of this area, especially Speight's league, is...well...not so football crazy or talented.
Also, not that I doubt that the guy's relatives have heard that, but I remember hearing that one of my friend's classmates in HS (Blake DeChristopher) was going to be the best thing since Duane Brown, the all-pro left tackle from Hermitage (who at that time was being hyped up as a 1st round pick), that he was going to be better than Joe Thomas (who was the 3rd overall pick in the 2007 draft), etc. He ended up being a solid starter for VT, but nothing more. He was signed as an UDFA by the Cardinals and cut about 3 days later.
So I don't doubt that he heard that, but the point is locals will always tend to hype up their own. I'm not sure you can really use them as an objective standard.
Twitter // Recruiting Work// Email
I think you're
Selling Richmond short by saying "every now and then"
That's why...
I qualified my statement by saying I'm not sure I believe it. Of course you always take local word of mouth with a grain of salt, in the same way we take the local coach's praise with a grain of salt. It's a little opinion by people closer to the program to tide us over until we see him scouted better.
YOU'RE LOOKING LIVE ON ME OPENING A BAG OF PEANUTS!
-Brent Musburger on an airplane
Virginia isn't football crazy
Richmond and the Tidewater definitely are football crazy, however.
Beg to differ
We moved from Detroit to SWVA and football is ALL there is for that side of the state. I attended Richlands High school and we have won several state titles and when there is a home game the majority of the whole town is there. I played with Mike Compton who spent eight years with the Lions and current Steeler TE Heath Miller is from there as well. In addition Ahmad Bradshaw is from the area as well. The problem is population.......about 40k in the entire county area. I would argue that football is the only sport followed west of Roanoke.
Bradshaw wsnt that great in
Bradshaw wsnt that great in high school or college. he went to Marshall and was ok there. Virginia is a lot like southern ohio. everybody loves football here but the talent isnt great so anybody thats ok gets pumped up.
Vice.com
From the highlights...
From the highlights I have seen he like to throw the touch pass more often than just firing it around. That seems to be the biggest misconception about him.
"seems to like the touch pass"
But that's making the assumption that he can fire it in there, which is an awful big assumption to make, considering he doesn't really ever do so in his highlights.
Twitter // Recruiting Work// Email
Don't you think that maybe,
Don't you think that maybe, just maybe, throwing with some heat was part of his audition with Hecklinski? I'm sure our coaches wanted that question answered too, and they've probably seen more of Speight than any recruiting service.
The article says he
Has a powerful arm. People who say otherwise are basing it on a YouTube highlight reel and/or reading message boards.
"They're stuck with that quarterback (sophomore Braxton Miller) for the next two or three years, that's fine with me. He throws worse than (Tim) Tebow. - Steve Everitt
True
You can't assume he has a fastball if all he throws are change-ups. However, you also can't conclude he DOESN'T have a fastball. So while people probably can't just assume he has a big arm, you also can't totally disregard reports that he does have a big arm.
As the zen master said, we'll see.
Hey Dr. Schroedinger, don't
Hey Dr. Schroedinger, don't bulls**t me. Is the cat dead or is it alive?
Dead.
Also alive.
This has nothing to do with Michigan football.
Actually, he does throw a few
Actually, he does throw a few darts at the end of the highlights. Could it be that maybe throwing touch passes is a more effective way to move the ball in HS?
Thank you, Coach Hoke, for bringing Michigan back.
Arm strength.
Another thing to consider is that the WR's he's throwing to may not be able to catch the NFL passes or even college for that matter so he can't just chuck it in there.
If the coaches say he can make every throw then I think we can also say he can make every throw. Even though Rivals or Scout says he can't based off his film.
The coaches also said Russell
The coaches also said Russell Bellomy was a capable #2.
I'm just sayin'...
If we can combine Shane's
If we can combine Shane's Arm strength with Wilton's touch, Michigan would have the best Qb on the Planet.
This is Michigan
You are forgetting
what often distinguishes top QB's from the others has as much, or more, to do with what's between the ears as it does with their physical abilities. More guys have one or the other (physical or mental skill sets) than the gifted players who combine both.
Ryan Leaf anyone? (No, I am not suggesting we have a Leaf type persona on our hands)
go blue
That was Tongue-in-cheeck.
That was Tongue-in-cheeck.
This is Michigan
The Michigan Difference can make this happen
Ok, so here's the play:
We cut both Morris and Speight in half, vertically. We sew the opposing halves together, and put the left-hand-Morris-with-right-hand-Speight in as the starting QB. The left hand will be the cannon, the right hand will be the touch passer. As for the right-hand-Morris-with-left-hand-Speight...well, we'll just agree not to discuss that.
I call it the "Reverse Solomon."
No surprise
I will take the coaches landing the top prospect on their board over stars any day.
I'm more curious about
the reviews AFTER the camp.
Hopefully he exceeds Biggins preview and Wilton starts building some hype with the kids - which will strengthen his recruiting credibility with receiving guys like Drake and Marshon.
"Everybody wants to be a hero, so to speak. But it takes everybody." - Charles Woodson
Eh
I don't feel like Harris is too worried about having someone good enough to throw him the ball.
Twitter // Recruiting Work// Email
Someone tweeted that Harris
was headed for AA this morning - three weeks in a row now. I have a hard time seeing that as good news for the fellows up the road.
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
Indeed. In fact
it was an interesting comment that Devin's redshirt was a factor for Drake - he's not content to base a decision on Shane's potential.
My point wasn't for who throws the passes. My point is elite guys listen more to other elite guys than to a 2-star. Speight is supposedly working on Drake and Adoree - it would be great to see a bunch of playmakers look up to Wilton as a top QB since he is our O salesman.
"Everybody wants to be a hero, so to speak. But it takes everybody." - Charles Woodson
... which will, in turn,
cause a spate of top-tier receiver recruits to be highly interested in catching passes from Speight (and/or Gardner and Morris) at Michigan.
Reading the praise ge got
Reading the praise ge got from Scout got me thinking after looking at the Scout rankings for QBs, is it possible Speight winds up as top 5 QB?
"The goal, the expectation of this program is the Big Ten Championship"
Top ten
...pro style. He won't attend as many camps as Shane and won't be able to put up crazy numbers his senior year.
Someone needs to get Biggins a map. B1G expansion rumors aside, I didn't know Richmond is now considered part of the Midwest.
Nice little blurb btw.