Michigan Football: Brandon Peters improving during Outback Bowl prep
Michigan football is prepping for South Carolina and the Outback Bowl. And during that time, Brandon Peters seems to be taking his game to the next level.
Brandon Peters some showed positive signs this past season for Michigan football. But as the Wolverines get ready for South Carolina, he is getting plenty of compliments from teammates.
The redshirt freshman completed 57.4 percent of his passes and threw four touchdowns. He didn’t have an interception and had just one turnover, a fumble against Wisconsin.
Peters missed the Ohio State game with a concussion, but is healthy and poised to start for Michigan football in the Outback Bowl against South Carolina. The Wolverine.com, had some nice coverage of bowl practice and caught a couple different players talking about Peters progression.
Here’s what John O’Korn had to say about Peters:
"“It’s night and day from the time he got here,” O’Korn said. “He’s grown up so much throughout this season and has really taken control of the offense and locker room — it’s been cool to see. He was pretty quiet and soft spoken when he got here, and [former passing game coordinator] Jedd [Fisch] would always try to get him to speak up in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage.”"
Eddie McDoom also noted in the post that Peters seems more confident. After what the quarterback said last week, it’s not really surprising. With the addition of Shea Patterson, it’s clear that Peters recognizes the transfer is a threat to his job. So his development and play in this bowl game is important.
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If Peters plays really well and leads Michigan football to a victory, it’s going to make it harder to give the job to Patterson. And the fact that Peters is being somewhat defiant about it is a positive thing.
The fact is that if you want to play for Jim Harbaugh, you can’t be scared off by a little competition. Especially with the pressure that is now on the head coach to succeed. The best players will play and the ones that get their feelings hurt, should probably just go somewhere else.
A nice thing about playing in a bowl game is getting that extra practice time. It’s valuable for young players and even more so for Peters, who missed the last game and a half due to injury.
Now Harbaugh and his staff have a got a few extra weeks to work with Peters. They will also get a chance to see what he can do against a solid opponent, on New Year’s Day.
Whether or not Peters can beat out Patterson, who could still be ruled ineligible in 2018, is irrelevant right now. Michigan football needs to know if Peters can be a reliable starting quarterback.
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Right now, the Wolverines don’t know if they have any for next season. Peters seems to be taking a step in the right direction and hopefully, he will back that up on the field at the Outback Bowl.