Kornacki: Speight, 'The Calmest Dude,' Stars in Victory
9/10/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 10, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Go down the checklist of what makes for an ideal quarterback: leadership, strong arm, precise release, quickness, agility, enough speed, toughness. Almost never mentioned is calm. Yet, without it, all the other great abilities can be wasted much of the time.
That's because the entire team takes its cue from the quarterback. If they see calm in his eyes, realize that he's composed in the pocket and sense that this guy is going to lead them through the storm, then the quarterback can take them where they want to go.
University of Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight is proving that he's nothing if not calm, and the offense is feeding off that. Central Florida focused on stopping the running game, and Speight looked them in the eye and trashed them through the air.
He threw for 312 yards and four touchdowns with nary an interception and led the No. 5 Wolverines to a 51-14 win Saturday afternoon (Sept. 10) over the Knights from Orlando.
"Wilton is the calmest dude in the huddle," said fullback Khalid Hill, who scored a pair of touchdowns. "To see that out of your QB relaxes you to a point where everything is in slow motion.
"If your QBs talking to you and letting you know everything is cool, he's encouraging us at the same time. It's great to see that from your quarterback. You don't have a quarterback who is nervous and messing up the play calls."
Hill noted that if the game slows down for the quarterback, "it slows down for you even more."
When Speight led Michigan to a comeback win last year by filling in for injured Jake Rudock at Minnesota, Hill said the team knew Speight was capable of what he's showing now.
"That really opened our eyes," said Hill.
-- Khalid Hill on QB Wilton Speight
Wide receiver Amara Darboh, who caught five passes for a game-high 111 yards and two touchdowns, agreed.
"He takes control of the huddle and also does a good job of reading the defenses," said Darboh. "He knows where to go and doesn't hesitate."
Tight end Jake Butt says Speight even shows calm in pre-game moments, when many are bouncing around, anxious and fiery.
"I always go up to (Speight) and talk to him before the game," said Butt. "I wish him good luck, and he's very calm and very collected. You can feel how confident he is, and it comes from how he prepares during the week.
"We go where he goes and had another great game today. It really helped our offense."
The calm Speight expresses verbally and in demeanor is one thing, but the calm feet and actions he displays under fire is another.
Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh said: "That's something he's been adding to his game -- moving in the pocket and getting to the quiet spot in the pocket and evading rushes, and he made some really good throws on the run, good decisions out of the pocket today.
"That's the thing he's been working on the last couple weeks -- making those subtle moves in the pocket to get to the quieter spot. Two weeks ago, he started getting some nice lofts on the screens and the flares out of the backfield. So, it's coming together, and when he focuses on something to get better at, he goes right to work on it and gets better every day."
Last week, the running game carried the load with 306 yards in a 63-3 win over Hawaii.
This time, with UCF gearing up for the run, the passing game told the story.
"The quarterback throws for four touchdowns and over 300 yards, and that's a great performance," said Harbaugh. "I would not be going out on a limb to say he'll probably be our offensive player of the week.
"He had some good courage plays where he had to stay in the pocket and knew the blitz or a rusher was coming and even made an improv play, improvising and just kicking it out to (Henry) Poggi in the flat. That was a smart play, and he hit two post routes -- the hardest routes to hit, in my opinion, having played the position and watching it all my life -- it's a hard route to hit. Both (Jehu) Chesson and Darboh made a great catch, [too]."
Speight (6-foot-6, 243 pounds) was going down under pressure when he unloaded a pass to tight end Poggi, a safety valve wide open in the left flat. Poggi caught it and rambled eight yards for a first down.
That is a quarterback finding a way to make a play, a way to win.
However, he also has perhaps the three finest receivers the Wolverines have ever put in one starting lineup. Butt, Chesson and Darboh became the first Michigan trio to surpass 600 yards receiving apiece in 2015 and are a handful for defenses.
"That is a big thing we all talk about as receivers," said Darboh. "The quarterback is going to give us a chance, and it's our job to make the play. On 50-50 balls, we're thinking it's more in our favor, 70-30 or 60-40."
Butt recalled a conversation he had with wide receiver Chesson after Darboh scored a 45-yard touchdown on a post route to make it 21-0 with two minutes still remaining in the first quarter.
"They double-teamed me on Darboh's post route," said Butt, "and I said, 'Look, if they double-team team me, that means they have one-on-one with you guys. If they double-team one of you guys, they go one-on-one with us.'
"We know we've got to go out and make plays, and if there's one person on us, we can't get covered."
Butt made seven catches for 86 yards in the first two-touchdown game of his career, and Chesson had four catches for 84 yards.
The three-headed monster of Butt, Darboh and Chesson combined for 16 catches for 281 yards and four touchdowns. That was 90-percent of Speight's passing yards and all of the pass scoring.
They made the Knights pay.
"There were a lot of run blitzes to stop the running game, and we took advantage of it with the play-action pass," said Harbaugh. "It worked well for us today."
Speight said, "We went into the game knowing we'd be able to take some shots, and I was real excited about that. The defense came out with the looks we were expecting and let me air it out a little bit. We knew we were going to rely on the play-action and deep shots a lot more this week than the run game, and so it's really nothing to worry about."
He credited passing game coordinator Jedd Fisch with "dialing up some incredible plays all week" that worked in the game.
Speight threw 10 times for 133 yards in the first quarter -- including touchdowns on a three-yard toss to Butt and a 45-yard post route to Darboh. That other post route Harbaugh credited Speight with completing came to Chesson for 35 yards on third-and-eight to keep the first scoring drive alive.
The quick-strike offense provided all the points needed to win before the second quarter began and continued tacking on more.
The Knights sacked Speight twice, put him under regular pressure, and he never cracked. He stayed composed, in control and pointed toward pay dirt. Calm for 60 minutes.
