Michigan Football: What This Dwindling Quarterback Competition Means

First there were three; now there are two. Michigan football’s quarterback battle has once again come down to Wilton Speight and John O’Korn.

In a rare nod to transparency, Jim Harbaugh made clear on Friday night after Michigan football wrapped up its second week of practice that the quarterback competition is being narrowed.

At Big Ten media days, Harbaugh said it was a three-way tie between redshirt junior Wilton Speight, fifth-year senior John O’Korn, and redshirt freshman Brandon Peters. Now it’s Speight and O’Korn who have moved out ahead of Peters, creating a replica of last offseason’s competition, which was eventually won by Speight.

What does this mean for the Wolverines? There are a few things to consider.

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The most evident is that the previous experience that Speight and O’Korn brought with them into this competition isn’t just something to talk about; it’s paying off. For Speight, he has one year of backup duties and a full year (minus one game) as a starter.

O’Korn had his two years at Houston (one as a full-time starter) and spent 2016 as the primary backup. When Speight injured his shoulder against Iowa, it was O’Korn who had his number called the next week against Indiana.

Of course, they also have extensive experience in this exact situation, battling for a starting job.

Speight did it in 2015 and lost to Jake Rudock. Then he came back last year and beat out O’Korn. Having found himself on both the winning and losing ends of intense competitions is certainly doing him favors now.

As for O’Korn, there was of course last year, but he also won two competitions in 2013 and 2014 at Houston. He’s in the same boat as Speight, having overcome and fallen short.

This is new territory for Peters at the college level. He was redshirted last year and obviously then wasn’t jousting for the starting position. Now, here he is, a redshirt freshman, trying to move past two players who have extensive experience in this exact scenario.

This revelation also likely means that Speight is making progress in his ability to throw an accurate ball. Though it wasn’t a great worry last season, he did look shaky in the Wolverines’ spring game, even outside of the fact that he was clearly at a disadvantage with the offensive line not protecting him.

Harbaugh has always seemed to emphasize taking care of the football over just about everything else. The bottom line is your quarterback needs to be able to put the team in position to win, but the surest way to get there is to take care of the ball.

Additionally, this dwindling could also mean the coaching staff isn’t seeing the kind of vocal leadership and command of the offense from Peters that’s desirable in a starting quarterback. That was a bit of a concern during spring practice.

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Though he left no doubt that Speight and O’Korn are currently a step ahead of Peters, Harbaugh also made it clear that the redshirt freshman isn’t completely out of the race. After all, it’s only been two weeks since he was part of a three-way tie, and the Wolverines’ Sept. 2 opener against Florida is still three weeks away.

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