Wilton Speight: “I’ve never been hit like that before”, makes no excuses

The final score at Michigan Stadium read 45-28. Easy win? Not quite. The Wolverines and Wilton Speight faced their toughest test yet. Michigan was down early in the first quarter 14-0, after a long pass for a score by Colorado, then a fumble by Speight that was returned to the house.

On Speight’s fumble he was hit hard. After the game he had his shoulder wrapped in ice. Many speculated that Speight was really hurt. Although it didn’t feel good, the injury won’t linger on. Speight ices his throwing shoulder every single week. “Nothing major, just that hit I took, that fumble, the guy with his helmet kind of hit me in the sweet spot, so just being precautionary.”

There was nothing cautious about the hit he received however. It was the hardest one Speight has received. “I was just like wow, that hurt. I’ve never been hit like that before, it was completely blind, I didn’t see it. I had no idea.”

Banged up a bit, Speight didn’t use that as a talking point in regards to his performance. After the hit he missed some throws and it took a little while for the offense to find its legs. “Definitely hurt. I was trying with every hit, and every play to move on. Sore yeah, but it’s no excuse.”

Speight was able to find a silver lining in the fact Colorado came out and got a lead quick. He felt it tested to the teams resolve and showed they could face adversity as a game unfolds. “They came out fast, they hit us in the mouth quite a few times. But that was big, kind of have them come out swinging like that, we knew we took a few big blows but we were able to come and swing back.”

At the end of the first half, Speight connected with Amara Darboh on a screen pass that went for a touchdown, That helped Wilton get on the right track in the second half. “Definitely wasn’t playing my game the way I was expecting to and that screen pass to Darboh kind of brought me back. I was able to make more throws in the second half and bounce back.” Speight finished the day 16-30, 229 yards passing, and 1 touchdown.

Although Michigan showed they can bounce back, Speight said Harbaugh and the team do not want to be in situations where they have to. “Coach talked the best way to with adversity is to not have it, so we were hoping to come out and not have any adversity. Is that realistic or not? You put yourself as a good team, a great team, you want to avoid it as much as possible but today in the game we saw that adversity develop.”

Speight will look to improve upon this performance next week against Penn State.