Are we ruling out Speight for 2018?

Submitted by Real and Spectacular on
As this season isn't going the way I hoped, I've looked ahead to next year and often thought we should be really strong. The defense should be lethal so the offense remains the question. Getting all the receivers and tight ends back should help the passing game but the obvious concern is QB. I've seen a lot of people say Speight will never start another game here. Do we think a RS freshman in McCaffrey can lead this team next year? Speight played poorly before his injury but we've also seen him in control of the offense at times last year. Doesn't sound like his injury is career ending so I would assume there is a good shot he wins the job next year, or am I wrong in thinking this?
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JHumich

October 10th, 2017 at 2:53 PM ^

anyone for any season.

That said, I would love to think that with Peters's and McCaffrey's purported upsides, and the amount of time that they have had under tutelage, that even a returned Speight would be a trusty backup.

I don't mind the idea of him being Garoppolo next year. I just want one of those boys to be Brady.

That said, I continue to have confidence that Harbaugh having about a thousand times my football knowledge and literally infinitely more opportunity to observe them progressing in practice, he's got the whole "ruling out" a QB thing covered.

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DairyQueen

October 10th, 2017 at 5:29 PM ^

I think because of Harbaugh's "everyone is evaluated every week, every day, every rep", the whole "McCaffrey has passed Peters", is a little melodramatic. I'm sure, if Harbaugh really does his "every rep is a competition" like he did at Stanford, then they are swapping places nearly every week. QB is all about riding the ups and downs, weathering the storms, and finding consistency.

Also you can see how you can lose your QB in a flash. I'm sure either one of them sees how they can be thrust into a rivalry game, night game, when you're ranked, what AP #7, with just an extra week to prepare. 

Seems like a case of taking the 3rd-backup-versus-4th-backup-rumor-that-says-the-future-of-our-program-and-determines-whether-harbaugh-can-coach-or-not-from-the-submarine-of-gamesmanship-secrecy-which-harbaugh-employs-and-fans-extraploate-it-to-be-the-holy-grail-of-program-indicators.

As history shows, Speight spelled Rudock when he got a concussion against Minnesota, O'Korn played when Speight seperated his shoulder at Iowa, then Indiana, then pre-planned versus Florida, and now the starter.

So, it's likely we WILL see BOTH Peters and McCaffrey as starters in the eventual.

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Ecky Pting

October 10th, 2017 at 3:51 PM ^

How about Peters is second on the depth chart as of today? If he ends up getting any significant playing time between now and the end of this season, it will be his job to lose heading into 2018, regardless of Speight's condition (assuming he's out for this season, at least).

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copacetic

October 10th, 2017 at 4:07 PM ^

I saw the initial post back in the summer, and that seemed to be just for a brief period of time (maybe a practice or two?), and rumors of McCaffrey passing Peters were mostly exaggerated. 

Has there been anything recent or more substantial? It seems to be something that gets repeated around here enough that people take it to be true.

(totally possible I missed if UMBig11 had something more recent though, like on Magnus's site for example) 

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YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

October 11th, 2017 at 6:13 AM ^

with Peters. He is not a leader who energizes the guys around him. I suspect JH wants a guy who will create passion and intensity in the huddle and offseason workouts because JH is not in those settings. Peters calm demeanor may work well in tight games and high pressure moments, but 99.9% of football is embracing the grind and playing at full speed because its east to play at a little less than full speed. Peters has to demand the high intensity of each guy on offense.

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garde

October 10th, 2017 at 3:44 PM ^

All speculation on my part, but Peters seems like an introvert more than aloof. Check out the spring game interview..even the reporter at the end asked if he was uncomfotable doing the interview. (He seemed to fidget the entire time) Also, they said Speight says Peters calms him down because he's "such a chill guy." Nothing wrong with that, but also maybe not the best attriubute for a Harbaugh QB. Time will tell, but I suspect the rumors of lack of command of presence in the huddle is true.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GsWgdKTvNs

 

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Vengeful Barbarian

October 11th, 2017 at 10:40 AM ^

Yes we do have something against Peters. He is already 5 games into his Redshirt Freshman year and has not started yet. Obviously this means he is a bust. McCafrey on the other hand is 5 games into his Freshman year and has not played a single down. This means he is likely better than Peters obviously. 

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stephenrjking

October 10th, 2017 at 2:10 PM ^

I think Speight will be the early favorite for the job, but beatable if either Peters or McCaffrey puts things together. His ceiling downbounce this year has been bizarre; if it's just a blip and he improves for next year, he should be an efficient and smart QB that can move the team downfield. 

If.

 

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Gentleman Squirrels

October 10th, 2017 at 2:20 PM ^

It would be good to have Speight on the roster, if only for depth and veteran presence in a very inexperienced QB backfied. But in terms of looking to the future, I don't want him to be leading this team.

Obviously all of this is a moot point if the O-line is still in flux. While that is not something that can be changed too much this season, we can make sure that next season's starting 5 are ready to go. I'm rooting for Filiaga/Honingford-Bredeson-Ruiz-Onwenu-Steuber. If Newsome is healthy and able to then replace Filiaga/Honingford for Newsome. Steuber has already played some this year. I'd be interested to see if anyone can give an account of how he did in limited snaps and if it would be a good idea to give him a shot at RT right now.

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tpilews

October 10th, 2017 at 2:53 PM ^

I think, at this point, an optomistic outlook for Speight is to get healthy enough so he doesn't have perpetual pain going forward. Anything more than that would be icing on the cake. 

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Wolfman

October 10th, 2017 at 2:26 PM ^

unless he shows an ability to shake off whatever the hell has been bothering him since IA game of last year. I'm not in the anti-Speight camp, wanting Peters to start since the Spring game for some reason I could never fathom. After all, both were going against teammates and Brandon, I believe, was running with a lot of the more experienced receivers. 

However, Wilton has lost something - definitely confidence related - since last season. It is not all bad to not throw the ball into tight windows. Harbaugh preaches ball security and we all saw the reason Saturday night. However, Wilton is not throwing the ball away when his receivers are covered and he eithr has no internal clock or its seriously malfunctioning. He did throw it away early with those fade patterns everyone was bitching about as "overthrows' but most times they netted us three points and a couple of those would have been huge Saturday. 

I am just guessing, unless Harbaugh misevaluated both Dylan and Brandon, we'll see the first Harbaugh recruit under center next season. Unlike so many on the site though, I would have no problem with Wilton beating these players out if he would return to form of '16 with a reasonable growth predicated on his success of that season. 

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PurpleBeaverEater

October 10th, 2017 at 2:30 PM ^

I had been thinking about making this thread for a while, up until Speight broke his back. Had he progressed from last season to this season, I could see us begging for him to come back hoping for even more progression. However with his regression and inability to effectively command the offense, I don't see us bringing him back for a 5th Year. We are basically better off at this point starting Peters or McCaffrey and dealing with any insufficiencies that they may bring with them than we are trying to bring Speight back and hope and pray that he makes leaves from this year to next

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rob f

October 10th, 2017 at 3:27 PM ^

to make leaves? Are you implying that (because of his relative lack of mobility) he's like a tree? I highly doubt Speight knows how or even wants to produce a green substance known as chlorophyll, so I don't think the idea will work.

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Swazi

October 10th, 2017 at 3:26 PM ^

I wouldn’t say it’s any more brutal than this year. Only real test first six games is at Notre Dame, and the defense should be able to keep their offense in check like Georgia did.

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