Harbaugh: John O'Korn to remain starting QB against Rutgers.
John O'Korn will remain Michigan's starting QB vs. Rutgers, Jim Harbaugh says. Brandon Peters still backup.
— Aaron McMann (@AaronMcMann) October 23, 2017
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:41 PM ^
I had to google Anibal Sanchez.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:07 PM ^
In 5 years you'll have to google John O'Korn as well.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:37 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:47 PM ^
Soccer is my second favorite sport after football.
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:27 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
Wouldn't be surprised if Peters started prepping his transfer papers...
Kind of unbelievable that he still wouldn't get a shot now that the season is on life support.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:02 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 4:55 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 3:07 PM ^
If he doesn't get playing time this season, he should transfer because it shows where he stands with the coach.
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:37 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:42 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 4:14 AM ^
Isn't this the same argument when it was Speight vs O'Korn? or Gardner vs Morris? It's always the backup quarterback that's the next Messiah.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:06 PM ^
I think he's been reading the message boards and is like, I'll show them, I'm sticking with O'Korn all year to see how they like them apples!
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:58 PM ^
There's absolutely no way he will insert Peters if Michigan gets a halfway decent lead against Rutgers or any other team on the schedule this year. He simply does not want any anonymous message board posters to get a chance to say "I told you so" if Peters plays well.
I mean, Jim Harbaugh really cares a lot about what is said here and elsewhere. No way he will let Peters play in a favorable situation where he can build confidence and leadership skills for the future.
October 25th, 2017 at 8:31 PM ^
but if he doesn't it is not because Harbaugh is worried that Peters might play well. The offense has many more issues to solve than just at QB. The recievers need to run their routes better. The blocking needs to improve. The running backs need to perfect their timing and vision. In other words the starting offense playing with the starting QB need as many in game snaps as possible. Harbaugh is not going to squander game snaps his starting backup QB and offense need to take a flier on his formerly 3rd string now backup QB until that makes overall sense.
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:16 PM ^
I would be happy if Speight never took another snap. Not sure what games you watched this year, but Speight was horrible and honestly O'Korn has played better against tougher opponents.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:27 PM ^
is light years better than JOK. Speight's biggest issue is his footwork which affect his accuracy. It got worse this seaosn. Fix it and he's back to last season pre injury level which is good enough for 1st team All-B1G.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:54 PM ^
Speight's biggest problem is that he is not that talented physically. There is no fix for that.
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:20 PM ^
succeed in college and pro football. Speight's value lies in his abilty to throw WRs open, pocket presence and ability to make clutch throws.
Look at Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, physically wise, they're not talented but they're great at pre-snap reads and throw WRs open.
Jarmarcus Russell, Vince Young, RGIII are all physcially more talented than them yet are out of NFL.
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:55 PM ^
You must be watching a different Speight play or are in an alternate universe. I've never seen Speight throw a receiver open. He was not very clutch against Iowa or Ohio, so I'm not sure what clutch throws he has made either. I will give you pocket presence though.
October 23rd, 2017 at 5:42 PM ^
I've seen him throw receivers open...assuming they are 10 feet tall
October 23rd, 2017 at 5:50 PM ^
through last season. He throws receivers open and if you don't then it's on you. He throws to area where he expects his receivers to be open and they make the play and that's throwing them open.
Speight's real bad game was against Iowa. He was just okay against OSU. One of his INT wasn't his fault and the other was a result of a fantastic play by Baker. He played well against FSU but Bredeson/Kalis go wrecked by Demarcus Walker all game long.
October 23rd, 2017 at 6:18 PM ^
We are going to have to agree to disagree here. I've seen nothing out of him that leads me to believe he is anything but mediocre. I will be happy if he proves me wrong sometime though.
October 23rd, 2017 at 6:29 PM ^
WS was 21/38 (55% CMP%), 1 td, 1 int, for 163 yards against FSU. I'm not sure I'd say that was a great performance. For reference, he went 2 td, 2 int (one was a pick six), for 219 yeards with 63% CMP% against OSU. Iowa was worse than either, as you mention.
He struggled against better opponents, as one does - but he struggled a lot. And I thought he looked much better last year than this year. He did make some clutch throws, and I was really hopeful for this year, but it didn't come together. Will it next year?
I wish we would play Peters to find out if someone can push him.
October 23rd, 2017 at 7:33 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:27 PM ^
Not surprised. The hope is that we can get a big enough lead to get Peters some run in the 2nd half.
O'Korn looked better against PSU, but unless the OL can get better overnight (not likely), Peters will likely not do any better.
October 24th, 2017 at 5:27 AM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
But I no longer believe there isn't a rift or something of the sort going on. Or I guess he's simply just really bad. Neither scenario is remotely appealing. Transfer watch.
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:38 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:44 PM ^
It's time to start thinking about two things: OSU and next year. If Harbaugh doesn't think Peters is the best answer for either of those, then fine. That's not encouraging though.
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^
Harbaugh is not thinking about OSU right now. He is thinking about Rutgers. If he has the luxury of worrying about 4 games down the road, I'm sure he will. But, right now he doesn't have that luxury. Nor does he have the luxury of worrying about next year. I agree that it is not encouraging, but that's just where we are offensively. He needs to take advantage of right now and be a little better than they were yesterday. He will do that each day and hope it adds up over time.
October 23rd, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^
He does have that luxury. We should win the next 3 games punting on first down. I'm sure everyone is questioning the defense now, but we aren't going to see anyhing remotely close to the likes of PSU's offense until OSU.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:07 PM ^
And they just beat a common opponent in Purdue. Nothing is guaranteed at this point.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:11 PM ^
Rutgers lost to EMU and beat Purdue while getting doubled up in yardage. If you're remotely concerned about losing to Rutgers then I don't know what to say.
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:23 PM ^
I should be happy we don't have EMU on the schedule this year?
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:11 PM ^
To be fair with you, idk if Michigan should be guaranteed anything in terms of Ws against Minny, Rutgers or Maryland.
The offense is stale and predictable. Bad teams like Cincy and Air Force almost shut down the offense.
These next few games could very well be dog fights ala IU and Purdue.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:16 PM ^
I think we could win the next three games without throwing anything but a screen pass. Get it together fan base. That PSU team was very good and they played to their full potential. Rutgers, Maryland, and Minnesota are bad football teams.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:26 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:33 PM ^
For one thing, the run game has improved since then. Second, we would have probably done better in those two games throwing nothing more than a screen pass. I'll let the future play out at this point, but I'm not just not concerned about these three games.
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:58 PM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:19 PM ^
It's all right to be over confident and not concerned. Though you're not being realistic... you're just showing strong optimism. Our offense may score a lot of points against the next few teams and easily win those games.
Though realistically we have nothing to go on to feel very confident about that happening. We've looked really bad offensively. You're just being overly optimistic, and that's fine.
I mean, we're all hoping you'll be right.
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:26 PM ^
really man. The last relatively "bad" team we played was Purdue and we beat them 28-10 with relative ease. Indiana has a pretty good defense this year. That looked like a difficult game at the beginning of the year before Speight and Black went down. Not out of the ordinary for Indiana to be a difficult win on the road.
I expect Michigan to beat Rutgers, Minnesota, and Maryland each by a minimum of two touchdowns, possibly quite a bit more. I think the home games in particular could be very lopsided.
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^
is ranked 25th in FEI rankings. Minnetoa's defense is ranked 38th and Rutgers 43rd. So yeah, just based upon that they aren't as good as IU's defense, but they aren't tire fires either.
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:48 PM ^
The night game at Minny has me very nervous now. Minny has played okay throughout the season, and scared the hell out of MSU a few weeks ago. It'll be interesting to see how they do at Iowa this week.
October 23rd, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^
October 24th, 2017 at 5:30 AM ^
October 23rd, 2017 at 1:29 PM ^
I'm not expecting them to steamroll any of these 3 games. Rutgers and Minnesota actually have decent defenses according to FEI.