The Michigan Wolverines almost choked away a game in hand, but fought back to upend a Florida Gators team dealing with a litany of suspensions
Coming out of the gate on Saturday at Jerry World, it appeared that the short-handed Florida Gators (10 players suspended for this game) were just outclassed by the Michigan Wolverines. Save for one big pass play, the Gators offense couldn’t get much going and put only a field goal up on the board. Meanwhile, the Wilton Speight led Wolverines offense seemed to move the ball at will.
On Michigan’s first offensive drive, they drove the length of the field and seemed to score, but an incorrect penalty call negated the touchdown. They settled for tying field goal. After stopping the Gators, though, they connected on a long touchdown pass from Speight to freshman Tarik Black.
From there, it seemed that it would be a cakewalk, but then Speight’s past demons seemed to resurface. On back-to-back Michigan drives, the quarterback threw interceptions. Even worse, both were pick-sixes to give Florida the 17-10 lead.
That seemed to change the momentum of the game, but the Gators did a poor job of maintaining. Quarterback Feleipe Franks struggled without his No. 1 receiver and running back. Countered also with a stout Michigan defense, they just couldn’t get anything going. Even with a late change to transfer Malik Zaire, the offense still struggled to contend with the Wolverines defense.
Meanwhile, Jim Harbaugh’s team continued to wear down the Florida offense. They scored another touchdown, this one on the ground. What’s more, the Wolverines drove and saw a tremendous effort from kicker Quinn Nordin, who nailed two field goals from 50-or-more yards.
With the defense remaining stout, including an exclamation-point sack-fumble touchdown, Michigan was simply too much for the Gators without 10 players available. They outlasted them and overcame the pair of pick-sixes to pick up the big season-opening win.
Let’s take a look at the takeaways from the game:
3. Wilton Speight is Michigan’s quarterback
Following the consecutive pick-sixes, Harbaugh didn’t hesitate to pull Speight from the game. The junior was in a battle this offseason with John O’Korn, and ultimately won out. However, with his early struggles, O’Korn took over. And he made it abundantly clear as to why Speight won the quarterback battle in the first place.
O’Korn, to put it lightly, was abysmal. He seemed uncomfortable at the helm of the offense and couldn’t move the ball down the field in any manner. That’s why Harbaugh ultimately went back to Plan A after only a few drives as Speight was clearly the better option.
By this point, no one is going to mistake Speight for a superstar. He’s a player with obvious and known flaws. However, he’s also a player that feels much more comfortable in the limelight than O’Korn. It appears 100 percent that Harbaugh and his staff know who their guy is moving forward.
2. Florida’s offense has familiar problems
Before we get into this, it’s important to note the situation. For one, the suspensions have to be mentioned. Without running back Jordan Scarlett and wide receiver Antonio Callaway, whoever was under center for the Gators was going to be up against it. Moreover, playing one of the best defenses in the country doesn’t make life any easier. That all has to be said.
Even still, it would appear that Florida will once again be plagued by issues at quarterback. Franks made his first-ever start and the redshirt freshman looked like it. Between poor ball security, no real plays being made and just generally looking overwhelmed, he wasn’t ready for the moment. Zaire didn’t look much better, however. He seemed to hold onto the ball too long, made some quite abysmal throws and ate the sack while fumbling in the end zone to seal the loss for the Gators.
Maybe the team will look to Luke Del Rio moving forward, but even then it’s still a group that seems wholly imperfect. Since Tim Tebow, the Gators have been looking for the right guy at quarterback. Though the circumstances were far less than favorable, it appears they’re still searching.
1. Michigan may be better than last year
One of the most fascinating things about this Michigan team coming into 2017 was that they returned only five starters from last season at the top of the depth chart. Because of that, there were plenty who doubted this Wolverines team in light of the turnover on the roster. That appears to be a mistake as they may be even better than before.
Against this Florida team, the defense for the Wolverines looked just as dominant as it was for much of last year — particularly up front. Maurice Hurst and Rashan Gary are going to be a terror for every opponent this season and put that fully on display in this game.
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Perhaps the most overlooked part, though, is that Michigan has a much better group of skill position players. With Tarik Black and Kekoa Crawford at receiver and the combo of Ty Isaac and Chris Evans at running back, the talent around Speight is far superior to what he had a year ago. They may not be ranked as high, but this is a better Michigan team than the one we saw in 2016.