USA TODAY International Edition
Michigan’s Speight thrilled to be following Brady’s lead
From the time he became Michigan’s starting quarterback, Wilton Speight kept his eyes on the same thing. New England Patriots star Tom Brady is the standard for quarterbacks across the country. And Speight got to meet him early this season, when Brady visited the Wolverines.
So it energized Speight when he heard Sunday that Michigan was Orange Bowl- bound, facing Florida State on Dec. 30.
“I saw the last Michigan team to go to the Orange Bowl was Tom Brady’s team that went to overtime with Alabama,” Speight said, referring to Brady’s 35- 34 win in which he threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns. “That was a cool piece of history I saw.”
That win changed the tenor of the season. Like this Michigan team, the 1999 team lost two close games — one by six points and one by three — keeping it short of the Big Ten title.
Speight is looking to make his own history at the end of the month.
“I’m sure we’ll talk, catch up over the offseason,” Speight said of Brady. “I feel like I talk to him every day because I watch an hour of film with coach ( Jedd) Fisch on him. It’s pretty cool.”
Still recovering from an undisclosed injury suffered against Iowa — the Detroit Free Press reported it was a broken collarbone — Speight hesitated to say how much it limited him in last month’s 30- 27 overtime loss to Ohio State.
“I tried not to focus on it,” he said. “With the exception of three plays ( two interceptions and a fumble), I was pleased with what I was able to do.”
He emphatically said, “I’m playing in the bowl game.”
Speight understands the value of this month of 15 practices and what it can do for his future. He watched Michigan quarterback Jake Rudock suffer a shoulder injury against Ohio State in 2015 but still play one of the best games of his career in a 41- 7 Citrus Bowl win against Florida last winter.
“We’ve got the best coaches in the country,” he said. “We finish school in a couple weeks, and we’ll have 21⁄2 to three weeks to focus on just football. It’s obviously a positive, and we’re not going to have any choice but to focus everything on Florida State.”
Speight already has been able to break down his season. He wants to work on his kryptonite, a short, flat throw to his left, as well as his stride length, footwork in the pocket and vision on different plays. And there’s pride in his voice when he discusses his thirdteam all- Big Ten season.
Speight expects Harbaugh to reopen the quarterback competition in the spring. The way for him to stay ahead is by working on details.
“The experience of going through ups and downs ... whether it be injuries, throwing an interception or having a fumble during a game, to be able to come back the next drive and focus on that and not dwell in the past,” he said, “it’s easier said than done. But the amount of practice I had this year, I thought I got pretty good at that.”
A redshirt sophomore, Speight is one of the few Michigan starters expected to return next year. Which makes the next month important to develop timing and deeper relationships with the younger players. A year ago, his mentality was to disprove doubters who figured he’d remain a backup. Now, it’s working to increase the separation between him and his backups.