Michigan Football: Bigger, Stronger Brandon Peters Had A Good Spring
Michigan got a shot in the arm many believed the Wolverines needed when junior Shea Patterson was ruled immediately eligible. The Ole Miss transfer is ‘a playmaker’ or ‘a gunslinger,’ depending on which teammate you ask, and is the heavy favorite to start this fall.
There’s only one quarterback on the roster, however, with any experience in a Michigan uniform. Redshirt sophomore Brandon Peters admitted he didn’t take handle it well when he didn’t win the job last year, the reason it took him so long to see the field over John O’Korn after Wilton Speight went down. He didn’t make that mistake again this year, battling each day in spring.
“I think I did pretty well,” Peters said. "I had really good practices, and other practices not too great. I've just got to learn to bounce back from them. But overall, it went pretty well."
Now a reported 220 pounds, Peters showed improvement in a number of areas in March and April’s 15 practices. He got through his reads faster and concentrated on getting the ball out quicker, and there were days he was probably the best of the four quarterbacks battling for the position.
He was better in one area in particular, he said — decision making.
"For sure,” he said. “That was a big emphasis, playing faster coming into spring ball. I've gotten really good at that. There's a lot of little stuff, as well."
And there’s still a long way to go.
Though he wasn’t helped by inconsistent play of a sometimes-porous offensive line (36 sacks allowed in 2018), Peters only completed 52.8 percent of his passes for 672 yards and four touchdowns. He missed half of the Wisconsin game after getting knocked out with a concussion and the entire Ohio State game, and he completed only 20 of 44 passes for 186 yards and two interceptions in an Outback Bowl loss to South Carolina.
"There were mistakes on my part, and the whole offense," Peters said. "We didn't execute the way we should have, but a good takeaway is to learn from our mistakes from that game and just build from that and learn from it."
Time will tell whether he’ll be the guy to try to redeem them this fall, but he’s got a task ahead of him. Patterson threw for or 2,259 yards and 17 touchdowns in seven games at Ole Miss last season before going down with a leg injury, and even folks in SEC country are calling the Wolverines a National Championship contender with the gunslinger at the helm.
“It is what it is," Peters said of Patterson’s addition to the quarterback room. "It happens everywhere. I didn't try to worry about that at all. I just want to get better myself.
"It's good to have someone to compete with, and all four of us can play. I'm always trying to strive to be the best I can be. Having someone there to push me keeps me on the right track, that's for sure."
It’s a step up from last year, and one of the reasons many believe the position is in much better shape beyond just Patterson’s addition.
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