Might Be Time To Start Talking About Wilton Speight As A Heisman Candidate, Harbaugh Says
By: Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
Remember when?
Remember when Wilton Speight was picked off on his very first throw of the season?
Remember when he was little more than a check-down, quick-slant passer?
Remember when he was seen as an ancillary piece on this star-studded team, a game-manager, a steady but replaceable presence under center?
You'd be forgiven if you forgot.
With yet another fantastic performance in No. 3 Michigan's 59-3 dismantling of Maryland on Saturday, Speight furthered his reputation as one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten, possibly in the country. He proved (once again) that he's capable of far more than what he showed in the season's early going, hurling the ball down the field with ambition and precision.
And whenever things broke down around him, Speight flashed his elusiveness in the pocket and his willingness to take a hit to make a play.
On a team with NFL-ready talent in Jabrill Peppers, Amara Darboh and Jake Butt (to name a few), it's Speight who's emerging as the MVP with three games to go.
What a transformation.
"He just keeps coming through for us when we need him most," said Jake Butt, who broke the Michigan record for career receiving yards by a tight end on Saturday. "Extending plays, breaking tackles and then finding guys downfield, he's doing a hell of a job for us. It's great to see because you need a great quarterback to succeed and Wilton's doing a great job for us."
Speight threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday, racking up a passer rating of 311.45 -- yes, 311.45. He hurled a perfect 34-yard bomb to Darboh for the Wolverines' first score and a scrambling 33-yard rainbow to Jehu Chesson for their fifth. He also galloped into the end zone from ten yards out for their third.
Oh, and that was just in the first half.
"Statistically (speaking) and just the eyeball measure, that was the best half of football I've ever seen a Michigan quarterback play," said Jim Harbaugh, a former Michigan quarterback himself.
Speight downplayed his first-half performance.
"Maybe three incompletions, so obviously we'd like to have those back," he said. "But I thought I played well. But that speaks volumes for how the offensive line played. They gave me so much time in that first half and the receivers were just getting open so we were firing on all cylinders.
"We made it a huge focus from an offensive standpoint to come out and be sharp and be efficient. That's what we were able to do."
When it was all said and done, Speight had compiled a career-high 362 passing yards, topping his previous high of 312 about five minutes into the second half. His 233.1 passer rating was a career-best mark, as well. He threw just five incompletions on 24 attempts and boosted his 2016 interception-to-touchdown ratio to 15-to-3.
"I don't know how you play better than Wilton did," Harbaugh said. "I think there was one throw that wasn't a great throw. Other than that, it was a perfect game as a quarterback and that's really tough to do."
Each game, it seems, Speight is better than the last. After Michigan's win over Illinois on Oct. 22, Harbaugh said Speight put forth his best performance to date. The coach said the same thing last week after the Wolverines' triumph at Michigan State.
This week, the numbers said it for him. Speight's 292 first-half passing yards were the most by any Michigan quarterback in the program's 139-year history. His 99.4 total quarterbacking rating was the highest mark of his career, and the third highest single-game mark for any college quarterback this season.
Game-manager? Hardly.
Speight's emergence continues to raise the bar for this Michigan team. Early on this season, and as recently as last month, it seemed like the Wolverines were going to travel only as far as their defense could take them. Now, with Speight slinging the ball like a pro, their offense looks just as capable of carrying the load.
If Michigan does end up in a shootout somewhere down the line, which still seems impossible, it will be the quarterback who gives the team a chance. That notion would have drawn laughter when the season began.
"He's growing. He's going to keep growing. I think the sky's the limit for Wilton Speight," said Khalid Hill, who plunged in for his ninth touchdown of the year on Saturday. "He has so much to offer as a quarterback. To be calm in the huddle and to escape rushers. He's able to step back, make a guy miss, throw the ball downfield while he's getting he's tackled. That's something you ask a lot of QBs to do that they can't do. But he does it."
Speight was lethal with the deep ball against Maryland. His best one came on a trick play midway through the first quarter, when Speight handed the ball off to Peppers, who quickly threw a lateral back to him. Then, with a defender bearing down on him, Speight unleashed a picture-perfect pass to Chesson, who caught it in stride for a 40-yard gain.
"That's a money ball," Hill said. "Off balance, with a dude pressuring you. All the passes that he's thrown downfield have been on the money. A lot of quarterbacks don't have the accuracy to put the ball in the position where only the receiver can catch it, and he does it a lot."
Speight, again, deflected the praise.
"Guys are making plays. When you've got Amara and Jehu and then the young receivers that are coming along…I feel that I'm accurate enough to put it in the right spot and if I get it close to them they'll make the play," said Speight.
In the three games since Michigan's bye week, Speight has completed 71 percent of his passes for 286 yards per game. He has thrown four touchdowns to just one interception, while chipping in a rushing touchdown for good measure.
His passer rating during this span is 187.36; the NCAA-leader in passer rating is Washington's Jake Browning at 195.6. And his total quarterback rating during this span is 97.8; the NCAA-leader is Louisville's Lamar Jackson at 94.8.
So Speight has been a better all-around quarterback in the past three weeks than the Heisman Trophy front-runner has been over the course of this season. Maybe, for all the adulation thrust in the direction of Peppers, Michigan's true Heisman candidate is Speight.
"You might want to look at the quarterback, too," Harbaugh said. "Where does he rank? The way he's been playing all season, maybe it's time to throw his hat in the ring."
"I would say the same thing," Hill agreed.
Speight was honored to receive such an endorsement.
"That's pretty cool, that's pretty cool to hear. But that doesn't happen unless you go undefeated in November. The fans and the voters remember what goes on in November so this was a good first step, but there's a lot left in the journey," he said.
It's remarkable how far Speight has come, at least in terms of public perception, in the past two months. Viewed as an unknown – indeed, as a potential weakness – when the season began, he's become one of the most dangerous playmakers for the 9-0 Wolverines. It is no longer Michigan who needs to worry about Speight – it is Michigan's opponents.
"Once Wilton gets his rhythm, once he completes a pass or once he gets involved – you see him get hyped after touchdowns – that's when you know you're in trouble," Hill said. "Because when Wilton get's involved, it's not going to be something you want to see."
For the Wolverines, the view is splendid.
