BTN: Fun Takes from UM practice

Submitted by Wee-Bey Brice on
On the rise: Wilton Speight. The 6-6, 243 pound junior QB looked good for most of practice, showing just enough niftiness with his feet along with a strong arm.
Best drill: Wideouts were forced to sprint five yards, pickup a tennis ball, cut to the right and catch a ball. The ultimate test of dexterity and focus.
All eyes are on the QB spot, just like last season. There isn’t a lot of experience on the depth chart. But Houston transfer John O’Korn has starting experience. He is battling Wilton Speight and Shane Morris with O’Korn and Speight leading the way. In the end, I wouldn’t be shocked if Speight lands the job.

I also have a sneaky suspicion that Speight wins the job. I like O'Korn because he raises the ceiling of the offense but I just get a feeling Speight is the steady hand that'll win Harbaugh over.

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wahooverine

August 16th, 2016 at 6:05 PM ^

What evidence is there that OKorn has bad decision making? He threw 10 picks in 13 games as a freshman at Houston (and 28 tds) which was good for rookie of the year. That's pretty good especially for a FRESHMEN QB.

In his sophomore year, under a new coach and system, he threw 8 picks in 6 games before getting benched. Maybe he was a bad fit for the system, maybe the offense as a whole had a steep learning curve...who knows, we need a UFR to know for sure. The point is there is no evidence yet as to whether Speight or OKorn is the better decision maker.

I don't understand why some seem to think it's a given fact that Speight is the "steady, take care of the ball guy" and OKorn is the reckless gunslinger with athleticism. All we know for sure is that OKorn is more mobile and Speight is taller. That's it. Maybe OKorn has a stronger arm, but I wouldn't discount Speight's arm which is attached to a 6'6, 249 lb frame.

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wahooverine

August 16th, 2016 at 6:08 PM ^

Furthermore Harbaughs passing game is pretty systematic for the QB in terms of decision making. He likes to minimize risk of ints. Pretty sure Okorn won't have license to be a "cowboy" (assuming that is even a tendency he has) under this offense. Both QBs know they just need to run the offense efficiently and don't give the ball away to win games given the strength of the defense his year.

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Bb011

August 16th, 2016 at 5:17 PM ^

Up until last week I genuinely thought it was O'korns job and that all the "competition" talk was to be used as motivation. I am starting to think that they really are neck and neck though. I'm going to stick with my prediction of O'korn being the starter, but I don't think the competition talk is all that much of a ploy, and just that they both are very close.

Joined: 09/02/2010

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BlueinTC

August 16th, 2016 at 5:22 PM ^

Accuracy, reading the defense and  decision making are far more important. Whomever does that the best will be the QB. 

I realize Harbaugh wants one guy to take the reigns, but there is a scenario where I see him using both guys depending on the opponent. If the traits listed above are similar, I can see using JOK for games that the feet could come in handy, while Speight will be the guy for stand in the pocket and hand off to RBs. But I know squat about coaching.

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funkywolve

August 16th, 2016 at 5:51 PM ^

Urbz wasn't taking a healthy QB out of the starting role.  OSU's QB's got injured and it was next man up.  As far as I can remember there wasn't much discussion as to whether one of the other QB's should have been starting.  

The issue of who to start didn't materialize until spring ball and the summer when the QB's were healthy.

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Bo4President

August 16th, 2016 at 5:34 PM ^

I think Wilton wins because O Korn appears to take more risks. Not what Harbaugh likes unless they are calculated.

Seems like O Korn isn't the guy to throw a ball away for example



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MichiganTeacher

August 16th, 2016 at 8:39 PM ^

Gotta say it's a little bit amazing, this level of self-caricature. I mean, it's obnoxious, ridiculous, and stunning in its lack of self-awareness. But it's like that girl who makes sand-art as she sings or that guy who can groom poodles in 4.1 seconds. To do _anything_, no matter how dumb, to this level is kind of impressive. Kind of.

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Qmatic

August 16th, 2016 at 5:38 PM ^

BTN employs putrid analysts. For a station that has pretty damn good original content, they counter that with terrible on-air personalities. I'd rather listen to Galloway and Mowins give their insight than some of the clowns they have on BTN.



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Hammer of Thor

August 16th, 2016 at 5:42 PM ^

No one hates you when your mediocre. I like that this is the direction we are going in - let em hate. From the ground up the B10 network is a bush league organization. Who ever runs it has no pride of ownership or care for excellence. I love that HARBAUGH has basically blown them off the past two years.

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Richard75

August 16th, 2016 at 5:41 PM ^

O'Korn will prevail

Harbaugh likes QBs who can break the pocket. He was one himself. Alex Smith can move, but when presented with a more athletic option (Kaepernick), Harbaugh took it.

During the spring game, when O'Korn was repeatedly scrambling, Harbaugh was literally in his ear telling him to do that—standing behind the O and constantly telling him to take off. Given that he favors that ability so strongly, it seems like O'Korn would need to fail in a game situation before Speight took over.



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Sopwith

August 16th, 2016 at 6:07 PM ^

seems to be that Speight is your low-variance game manager, and O'Korn is your high-variance gunslinger. If that's true, Speight may very well win out. This team is loaded almost everywhere and might not need the higher-risk approach to maximize overall value consistently. Don't turn the ball over and with this defense, you're in great shape most of the time.

Craig Ross was on Michigan Insider about a week ago discussing some numbers on O'Korn from freshman year at Houston, and the gist of it was that O'Korn had some very high tipped ball numbers. That number usually correlates with interceptions but JOK came in with much fewer INTs than would be expected with the number of tips (he was 28/10 TD-INT, just FYI). The idea was that the tipped ball/INT correlation was basically luck, and it suggests that he was lucky to have only 10 picks on the year and not a significantly higher number.

The legs, tho... we've been on the wrong side of so many mobile to halfway-mobile QBs over the years, the PTSD from that collective trauma makes me always want the guy who can make some lemonade with his feet. And if Grant Newsome isn't working out, there's gonna be no shortage of lemons to deal with coming around the blind side on speed rushes.

Low-variance passing and "niftiness" of Speight in practice notwithstanding, he's not the dude you want back there unless the left tackle is low-variance himself. For that reason, if I had access to the Sub these days, I'd be watching Newsome just as much as the QBs themselves.

 

 

 

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SBo

August 16th, 2016 at 6:13 PM ^

Mike Hall is such an annoying little prick. Jourdan Lewis is much better than Desmond King. King is just a big corner in a favorable scheme for big corners, so he racks up big numbers.

 

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