Wilton Speight (2014 QB commit) highly praised
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
March 10th, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 10:20 AM ^
March 10th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
VA is more Midwest than South Bend is Atlantic Coast
March 10th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 11:42 AM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ^
Good to hear about his arm. From what I remember, that was at least a little bit of a concern.
March 10th, 2013 at 10:38 AM ^
March 10th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^
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!
is that Wilt's doctor told him he had the penis of a 150 year old man.
poster who said Wilt Chamberlain slept with 2000 women?
March 10th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 11:38 AM ^
How does one 'trust the coaches'?
March 10th, 2013 at 11:51 AM ^
he is saying that he will not question the coach's judgement.
March 10th, 2013 at 12:10 PM ^
I'm not going to do it. The hell I'm not!
March 10th, 2013 at 10:44 AM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ^
March 10th, 2013 at 11:38 AM ^
Wilson was a 2-star recruit to Rivals.
March 10th, 2013 at 11:52 AM ^
a feeling that we have another Tom Brady on our hands.
March 10th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
..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.
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^
Richmond and the Tidewater definitely are football crazy, however.
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 10:49 AM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 11:57 AM ^
March 10th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^
March 10th, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^
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 bulls**t me. Is the cat dead or is it alive?
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?
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 Bellomy was a capable #2.
I'm just sayin'...
March 10th, 2013 at 12:42 PM ^
If we can combine Shane's Arm strength with Wilton's touch, Michigan would have the best Qb on the Planet.
March 10th, 2013 at 12:56 PM ^
That was Tongue-in-cheeck.
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."
March 10th, 2013 at 11:35 AM ^
March 10th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
March 10th, 2013 at 11:56 AM ^
I don't feel like Harris is too worried about having someone good enough to throw him the ball.
March 10th, 2013 at 12:14 PM ^
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.
March 10th, 2013 at 12:19 PM ^
cause a spate of top-tier receiver recruits to be highly interested in catching passes from Speight (and/or Gardner and Morris) at Michigan.
March 10th, 2013 at 12:30 PM ^