Michigan Football vs Maryland: Game Balls

Wilton Speight

So, Wilton Speight is a top tier quarterback right now. His Total QBR is 85.5, good for fifth in the country, his TD/INT ratio is 15/3. He’s been up and down all season, but it looks like he’s starting to put it all together. After a good game against MSU, Speight went 19/24 for 362 yards and 3 total touchdowns on Saturday and he didn’t play much of the second half.

I don’t recall one bad throw, which is something I couldn’t say last week or even against UCF. Maryland’s pass defense is borderline terrible, but even against worse opponents Speight would sail a few throws and leave a few short, so it seems significant that he was on target all day.

Darboh and Chesson in particular were able to get behind defenders consistently, so maybe it shouldn’t have been too surprising how often Speight was flinging it fifteen or more yards downfield, but still, he looked like a different quarterback on deep balls:

That’s a throw that he’s left short a few times this year. Darboh was open on that play, but he was hitting receivers downfield in traffic and (including a forty yard dime to Drake Harris that got called back on a questionable pass interference call) going to second or third options that weren’t checkdowns.

Also helping matters was the fact that he and Chesson were on the same page. If Speight can get it clicking with Darboh, Chesson, and Butt, this offense is going to be dynamic. I was sure that if Speight ever got to this level it would have been in the bowl game after an extra month of practices, but here we are.

Oh, and he also got his first career rushing touchdown in style:

Dunk on ’em, Wilton.