The thing I’ve never understood about Speight is that he’s seemingly more accurate on the move vs getting his feet set. It defies all logic
O’Korn was incredibly dispiriting, I really thought the Indiana game was a good time for him to prove he could start: another guy with experience, but more of an athlete and gunslinger. He looked like he hadn’t been there before, even if the weather wasn’t ideal. Surprise, surprise, Harbaugh knew what he was doing when he picked Speight for the Hawaii game.
Peters is definitely more athletic than Speight, though McCaffrey looks to have the best legs of the bunch. Peters and McCaffrey seem, IMO, like the ideal Harbaugh QB’s and leaders. Luckily we know Harbaugh will use the spring to give Peters every chance to prove he’s worth a shot, regardless of the depth chart.
I noticed this too. On roll outs he was great at hitting the receivers in between the sideline and defender in the tight space where it’s not too hard to stay inbounds but they have no easy chance at an INT.
Holy cow. You really hate being wrong, don’t you?
Brian’s positive grade and Magnus’ C+ don’t fit your “struggled mightily” agenda and this is the spin you go with?
That accuracy paradox combined with him showing the ability to set his feet and deliver a beauty of a pass to any distance/throw a duck at any distance on the same drive makes me think it’s a mental issue. When he’s scrambling, he doesn’t have time to overthink his reads/release/touch. Hopefully another year of watching (his own) tape, and having Harbaugh in his corner, will help. I think Speight can be All-B1G, if he finds consistency.
His performance against Sparty this year was an example of what I think would be a plus starting QB. I might be thinking of the wrong game but I remember like 4 or 5 absolute beauties that he threw that were bullets, right on the money, and were delivered while being half swallowed by defensive linemen.
As a Jags fan, this also seems to be the case with Blake Bortles. In Blake’s case I think he becomes better when he doesn’t have to think about things.
His shotput release (similar to DG) will likely always preclude him from having Henne like accuracy but slight improvements could make him an upper tier B10 QB
Against UCF, Sparty, Illinois, and Maryland he was magic. And in quite a few other games he was perfectly serviceable. Unfortunately, our losses largely fell on him (also our inability to grind out 1st downs on the ground); he was terrible during Iowa, made a few key mistakes against OSU, and was pretty terrible against FSU for 3 quarters. But, in those big games, the run game was also non-existent and the O-line got exposed. I think he will still an upper 1/3 B1G from a season-long perspective.
Pretty sure fancy stats had him as a top 3-4 B1G QB this season, and with injury caveats I think he was easily a top 1/3 B1G QB. Barrett (who had his own throwing issues) and McSorely were a tier of their own, though. And Peters/McCaffery are clearly more capable of being that dominating QB who takes over games (like a Conor Cook/Barrett) from a talent standpoint.
What do you mean Magnus is grading on a curve?
This is true, but there’s the caveat that the Big Ten was almost impossibly bad at quarterback last year. I don’t know what happened but when Perry Hills has the second highest passer rating in the conference you know something odd is going on.
It’s sort of ridiculous to say, but other than the TOs Speight was next to flawless vs OSU. Iowa and FSU were a different story
FSU was bizarre. I was about to defend him because the OL was so insanely bad throughout the game, but thinking back on it he missed easy throws by 10+ yards at times. I have to think that’s the injury. I couldn’t watch Iowa (luckily) since I didn’t have electricity that weekend so I can’t offer anything on that.
The missed TD throw with Chesson wide open hurt bad. He overthrew it by nearly 10 yards.
I’m more bullish on Speight than most but FSU was pretty bad even considering the line.
That’s true. Armstrong, Lunt, and Leidner being mediocre hurt the conference’s QB depth. But, between the low quality of what’s returning and the unknown of the new faces, would you bet against Speight to again be a top 1/3 B1G QB? The only hangup, for me, is the entirely new receiving corps.
You’re probably right, that he was better than one would think. It’s hard to get passed the 3 TOs that resulted in a pick-six, lost fumble on the OSU goal-line, and pick that turned into a OSU TD 3 plays later (that’s essentially -21 points in 3 plays). The pick-six was hardly his fault, though. And he clearly wasn’t physically capable of throwing it deep, due to injury.
WRs lack experience but certainly more explosive/athletic in my view. Crawford is already a good blocker
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Hard to argue that with DPJ, and Wheatley/Asiasi getting more reps. But I think we had the best receiving corps in the conference, even with an under-performing Chesson, so regression is to be expected–even if it’s not certain. More catches for Evans/Isaac could also help the transition.
I expect DPJ to lead the team in receiving yards.