Ty Butterfield

April 15th, 2017 at 4:27 PM ^

D looked good but if QB play doesn't somehow take a huge step forward this team will be lucky to go 8-4.

MichiganMAN47

April 15th, 2017 at 4:29 PM ^

Speight essentially played against the starting defense. Gary, Bush, Hurst, Kinnel, McCray, Mone were all on the other side. I'm thinking he will be fine.

SeattleWolverine

April 15th, 2017 at 4:46 PM ^

Not sure what that means. Speight's fine because he played kinda meh but it was against a quality D?

 

Sure, our defense figures to be excellent if guys stay healthy, even given the inexperience. But if the long term goal is to win the B1G and contend for national championships then you need a QB who can perform at least fairly well against a very good D. Maybe Speight can do that; but if so he still needs to prove it. 

MichiganMAN47

April 15th, 2017 at 5:49 PM ^

This either or logic makes no sense. So that Wisconsin wheel wasn't the defense's fault? Did Speight not throw a perfect ball to Darboh? Speight played well enough to beat them by two scores, but we missed three field goals. He can play well enough to beat them again.

AA Forever

April 16th, 2017 at 9:58 AM ^

I saw very few plays where he could be comfortable in the pocket and wait for things to develop.  He may have that trouble this year anyway, but he will have a better Oline group protecting him, and won't be facing a DL that good very often, if ever.

stephenrjking

April 15th, 2017 at 4:30 PM ^

As of right now I still expect Speight to start, but he didn't look good today from what I saw and Peters looked quite good. It's not just that Peters is "the other guy" now, people have seen him show up on the field.

This looks like a long-running QB controversy now, until one of them just locks up the job with great play. Which might not be possible in 2017.

JayMo4

April 15th, 2017 at 4:48 PM ^

No guarantees of course that the starter goes 12+ games and never gets dinged, especially given that our OL aren't world-beaters and Speight has been and may yet still be hurting.  He wasn't 100% against OSU (and quite possibly any game after Colorado,) and missed the Indiana game.  No reason to think something similar couldn't play out in 2017.

So even if Speight starts vs UF, I'm happy to see how good Peters looked, along with O'Korn seeming to have developed.  It looked like John's fundamentals have come a long way.  It's spring, but I also remember last spring and the Indiana game.  Seems like a better player today.  We have better options and probably two if not three guys (depending on whether you think O'Korn has improved) that could conceivably take the field this year and win a game for us.

At least we've seen Speight be productive so we know it's possible.  If Peters had looked bad, we'd have no idea.  Instead, there's reason for optimism now.

snarling wolverine

April 15th, 2017 at 4:38 PM ^

Run game looked great - but does that mean run D needs work? Passing game was iffy but there I attribute it to the DL/DBs looking really good, as well as the wind. Agree that it looks like a budding QB controversy.

Bodogblog

April 15th, 2017 at 5:20 PM ^

You're going to see our first team DL got worked on at least several plays.  Wasn't always the first team LBs and safeties, but our OL got the RB to the second level (unless the DL did their.jobs and the busts were on the LBs).  I'm hoping that means the OL was bad most of the game but has some potential to grow.  At least in the run game.  Pass pro was abysmal.  Hopefully Evans has gotten better at that or he's going to be off the field on a lot of passing downs, eliminating his ability to actually catch some passes. 

StephenRKass

April 15th, 2017 at 4:38 PM ^

The amount of positive vibes here for Peters are significant. This definitely heightens the competition. Jim Harbaugh says "meritocracy," and I believe it. The best man plays.

I am encouraged because JH is not an idiot. If Peters truly has passed Speight, he will see the field. We will know soon enough. I do think that the quality of Michigan's defense, especially the starting DL, makes a huge difference. I also am very encouraged by the improvement of the LB corps, which has been somewhat meh for years.

I haven't seen any comments on Robo . . . did he play? I also am waiting to see more about DPJ.

The one downer for me is the OL. I still think we need another year or two before that unit is up to snuff. I'd like to be wrong though.

UMfan21

April 15th, 2017 at 8:40 PM ^

I think Speight will start vs Florida no matter what because he has earned Harbaugh' trust to manage a game. I don't think that's the kind of game you give a sophomore his first start.

I suspect we will see Peters in mop up duty vs Cincinnati and air force and from there a decision may be made based upon game performance.

I think it's going to be darn near impossible for Peters to jump Speight based only on practice.

Solecismic

April 15th, 2017 at 4:38 PM ^

It's too bad it was so windy. Don't know if we got a great assessment of what the offense can do. Given the built-in advantage of Brown's DL 2.0 featuring Supergary, it's rather easy to feel pessimistic about the offense right now. After a while, saying "take care of the damned football" over and over becomes pointless. They know.

Jamezz23

April 15th, 2017 at 4:52 PM ^

Speights performance was underwhelming, it's still his job to lose but no matter what anyone says chulk this one up for Peters. If this continues don't be surprised when it happens

Lil boy blue

April 15th, 2017 at 5:05 PM ^

It's no question Peters looked better. He was more mobile / athletic, decisive and precise. In Harbaugh I trust and if anyone doubts whether or not he will pull the trigger see Alex Smith / Colin Kaepernick.

Bodogblog

April 15th, 2017 at 5:31 PM ^

I'm irrationally excited that Glasgow is pushing and has pushed his way seemingly almost to a starting position.  Last year's buzz, the coaches' positive comments, and this game are not enough to make me feel as relatively optimistic about the safety position as I do now, but alas.  It is something at least, to go from Kinnel and Metellus and nothing to those two and another guy.   If his name were anything other than Glasgow I think I'd be panicking, which means I should probably be doing exactly that.  But again alas, this is my primary takeaway from the first viewing: we probably have 3 guys who can play safety, and survive with far enough into the season for them to gain experience enough to face the primary foes. 

ST3

April 15th, 2017 at 5:43 PM ^

Thomas in the #1 jersey with the Italian flag on his helmet was my favorite part of the game. (I'm half Italian and the T in ST3 stands for Thomas.)