Michigan @ Michigan, 1:15p, BTN, 3h Delay (Spring Game)

[Rocky Bleier]

Not surprised to see no progress from Speight. He is a MAC caliber talent who has gotten great coaching and is now at his hard ceiling. I have a lot of appreciation for the intangibles that he brings to the table but we're not going to prosper with a "game manager" this year. With our shaky OL this would be a great year to have a quick and athletic guy who can dodge traffic.

My biggest complaint is the bad decisions he makes under pressure. I don't trust him in big games. I'll wager he plays like shit at Penn State, especially if it's a night game.

[Rocky Bleier]

And it's official. UM @ PSU is a night game. Speight will throw a minimum of 2 INTs and probably fumble once while being sacked. Good game to wager on. Major payback for last year's beat down in Ann Arbor.

https://twitter.com/PennStateFball/s...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[Wild Hoss]

Did you guys win? Or did the fuckin' refs screw you again...

fuckin refs

[Jeff Buchanan]

If you like serious looks at the run game, this is for you. It's every running play B2B. A couple thoughts:

If I'm seeing it correctly, the biggest runs - and there were a lot of them - came when the OL was working against mostly the 2's on D. There wasn't a lot of rotation on the OL. Runyan played at RT because JBB was reportedly held out due to minor injury. Execution in the run game was significantly improved from 2016. Frey effect.

When you watch just the run plays, it's instructive. I saw plays run that were actually decent constraints to the McDoom sweeps, Power and RO. The D was getting sucked in big time; to my eye, constraints were rare in 2016 and if they were run execution was awful. That hurt the run game. The 2s getting trucked are probably representative of players on the defenses in the lower and mid tiers of the BIG. There should be no post game hand wringing over losses that M should never have to these teams if the run game actually shows out like this in the 2017 season.

Some of the young guys at RB are pretty damn good. I don't think there is any question that Evans is the starter and Deveon's hier apparent. Just like Smith last spring, Evans had just a couple of carries and then didn't play.

O'Korn ran a shit ton of RO and was damn good at it. He did take a huge hit trying to get across the goal line but shook it off. Peters runs play action to the run game well beyond his years and experience.

After watching just the run game, Peters and O'Korn bring another dimension to the offense that Speight just does not have. Their legs and quickness. Speight's PA game is worse than Peter's, no better than O'Korns. Just don't let O'Korn try to make big plays with his arm off the PA. Those are going to be high risk low return unless he has improved dramatically in that part of his game. I didn't see it.

If I'm Harbaugh, I'm dealing with a conundrum regarding my QBs. It's not a controversy. The right guy is going to start and there's going to be no guarantee that starter will finish the game unless he has a hot hand. I can see a quick hook for any starter if the offense isn't moving the chains and no hesitation whatsoever to put another QB in and then run plays that optimize that QBs skill set. Each of them is different in that way. Not a bad thing to have.

The run game is likely to suck with Wilton at QB; much more variable with either Peter's or O'Korn back there and it was obvious in the spring game tape overall. Maybe Wilton is a lot better in the pass game and command of the offense than he looked but what we saw cannot be encouraging.

[ame]https://youtu.be/qoTWpihVlYA[/ame]

[SeattleLionsFan]

Has Harbaugh ever had a quick hook for his QBs?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Has Harbaugh ever had a quick hook for his QBs?

Has he ever had 3 seemingly decent QBs with different but apparently useful skill sets to execute his playbook?

in 2016, I think he knew Speight, much to the surprise of all of us, was the best among those he had to choose from.

I don't think, from my perspective, it's that clear to him so far in 2017.

My view is that after Speight's injury mid-2016 (whatever it was), he wasn't progressing. The offense stalled after there was enough tape of what Speight did available for opposing teams.

Frankly, I thought the late 2016 offense mostly sucked; it was limited, lacked any kind of unpredictability, constraints were just about absent and it wasn't much better v. FSU...... after Speight was supposedly healed and the OL had a chance to mend.

Did he look improved like you would expect him to be in the Spring Game? Nope. He was his usual self under pressure, making bad throws and bad decisions. He's not going to burn opponents who blitz the shit out of him (what FSU did). I'm not sure Peters can do that, I'm pretty sure O'Korn can't do it reliably.

But, if I'm Harbaugh, I'm concerned about another predictable offense with Speight running it. His next biggest liability, after his response to pressure, might actually be in the run game, the run game he can't contribute to. Peters and O'Korn showed they could. O'Korn looked damn good running the RO and Peters, in particular, showed he's not going to kill drives with untimely INTs when he faces pressure.

[WM Wolverine]

OL couldn't block NFL caliber defensive lineman, Speight couldn't handle quick pressure; combination made for close losses to Iowa, OSU & Florida State...

Defense deserves a lot of credit for keeping M in those games.

[SeattleLionsFan]

He had Smith and Kaepernick at the same time. I don't think he platooned them did he?

I'm not saying you are wrong, I just think it might be contrary to his history.

[Jeff Buchanan]

No JH didn't platoon QBs at SF but designing and running offenses in the NFL is a bit different than at the college level. I think you can be a lot more innovative in college ball. He has certainly shown that willingness to innovate on offense.

I see it this way. JH's playbook is likely pretty expansive. We've heard most of the coaches on the offensive side of the ball say that at Michigan there's competition to start every day. Week to week, no one is assured a starting spot. We've also heard them say that the offense, including individual play calls, is designed to take advantage of the skill sets of the best players.

The RBs platoon and I think that has proven to be a means of expanding the offense and forcing defenses to plan for it pre-game and react to it in-game. Not saying it's going to happen but with Harbaugh, I can see him platooning the QBs to take advantage of the skill sets they have, all of them a bit different. Nightmare for opponents.

Clearly there are downsides to an approach like that but Harbaugh would be the kind of character that could mitigate them.