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CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: FLORIDA STATE VS MICHIGAN

December 27, 2016

Wilton Speight

Miami Gardens, Florida

Q. What are your thoughts on being here and how are preparations going?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah, it's awesome. Miami is a great bowl location, and I remember one of the coach's first things that he said last football season is that he wanted to play anywhere around a beach, so that was his goal every year, and that's what we're doing. And yeah, the bowl prep started yesterday in terms of being here and first practice was a good one. Try and make it two today.

Q. Talk about this process and the time that you had to kind of get better and stronger since you were hurt.
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah. A couple weeks off really helped the body recover, and having more than just three or four or five days to prepare for this opponent I think has helped, not just myself but the whole team.

Q. Do you think the offense is in better shape overall maybe than it was at the end of the regular season?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah, I think guys are definitely getting healthier, which is always a plus.

Q. Do you have any expectations?
WILTON SPEIGHT: I obviously believed in myself and thought I was going to do well, but yeah, I mean, every game I just -- my goal was to get better and better, and there was a point in the season where the trajectory was on a very upward trend. Didn't play that well in Iowa and we got banged up, and then did all I could versus Ohio State, and I think we performed well as an offense as a whole. But yeah, now it's basically year two as a starter. This bowl prep has in my mind been the start of my year two. That's where I really need to take the biggest leap.

Q. How differently are you looked at by teammates on the offense say now than at the beginning of say the fall when you were still fighting for --
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah. I think guys kind of look at me as the leader of the offense, and because of the 11 games that I was able to play in this year and start in. That's obviously good, but I've got to continue to do more and prove myself as their leader.

Q. Given that standing, do you embrace the role of getting after guys?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah, when it needs to be done. I'm not the type of guy that does it just to do it, but if I see a window that needs to be addressed, then I will. But I like to just lead by example typically.

Q. What are the areas you want to improve the most in year two?
WILTON SPEIGHT: I think decision making at all times. I think it was sharp most of the year, but there was some mental errors that were easily avoidable on interceptions where I just could have gone somewhere else with the ball or not forced the ball into a tight window. And then I think I was okay at going through my progressions this year, but I definitely want to get even better at that. I watched so much Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, film with Coach Fisch and those guys just go through all five progressions almost every play. I want to do that, too.

Q. Did you say that after a bye you had gone through and looked at every single --
WILTON SPEIGHT: Uh-huh.

Q. Did you do that during this time off?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah, in that first week.

Q. What all did you do?
WILTON SPEIGHT: That week after the Ohio State game, I watched the Ohio State game a couple of times, and then went through from the bye week to the end of the season and watched every rep and just kind of figured out the areas that I made a point of emphasis to improve on during that bye week. Could I check that off? Some I could, some I couldn't, and I need to focus on the ones that I did check off just as well as the ones I didn't check off.

Q. What were you happy about?
WILTON SPEIGHT: You know, I started driving the ball a lot more after that Rutgers game. I think Coach made that point to me, Coach Harbaugh and Coach Fisch, and I was able to do that. And just not second-guessing any throws, being able to go through the progression as soon as I see it, just let it rip.

Q. How tough is it to sit down for a game where you know that the result isn't going to be what you want, it's going to be painful to watch?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's a bummer to sit there and watch film. It's tough, yeah. I watched that Ohio State game a couple times that week, and then about two weeks ago I watched it again just in terms of finding little things that you maybe didn't see before going through the film, just fine-tuning. But yeah, it's a little pit in your stomach when you watch it.

Q. Can you look at it analytically without getting caught up in the result?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah, I'm not watching the TV copy where -- that's where you get caught up, but I'm just watching it on our film system where it's just cut-up after cut-up.

Q. Does that make this game all the more important to not --
WILTON SPEIGHT: I just think it's a very important game because it's the next game. It's been our mindset all year. Every week is a championship week, and this isn't the playoffs, but it's one of the closest bowls to it. That's our mindset, and that's why it's vital for us to get this win.

Q. How tough was it maybe to avoid that sense of what might have been or any lingering from that?
WILTON SPEIGHT: It was a bummer not making the playoff, but we put ourselves in that position. We put the ball in other people's court to determine if we were going or not, and you never want to do that in anything with life. But we were quickly happy, moving on to the Orange Bowl, and playing an unbelievable opponent.

Q. The way that FSU does things defensively, does that compare to anybody that you've seen? Is it similar in respects to --
WILTON SPEIGHT: Probably similar in terms of athleticism and players, probably like Ohio State. They've got fast defensive backs, a solid defensive front, and some really talented linebackers, and you look at guys like Raekwon McMillan and Bosa and Hubbard and Webb, Damon Webb at Ohio State, that's comparable to a lot of guys at Florida State.

Q. How hard is it to play from your left side?
WILTON SPEIGHT: I mean, any time you're banged up, whether it's your non-throwing shoulder or throwing shoulder, ankle, knee, playing through an injury is not easy, but that happens. It's football, and everyone does. Everyone plays through injury. You know, I can't really probably speak on how tough it is, but it's just part of the game.

Q. Does it limit like the rotation or any part of your throw?
WILTON SPEIGHT: I don't know, I try not to think about that when I was throwing, just wanted to focus on kind of throwing unconsciously, as weird as that is to say. Maybe consciously think about being unconscious when I'm in the pocket.

Q. Does adrenaline come into play?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Oh, for sure, yeah. Adrenaline helps with anything. But yeah, I think that's probably the best medicine.

Q. Can you offer a percentage of where you are health-wise?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Still no percentage, but I'm getting better every day.

Q. Were you told to say that?
WILTON SPEIGHT: I don't know. I'm just giving you the God-honest truth.

Q. What have you seen from the defensive front?
WILTON SPEIGHT: Yeah, No. 44 is I think one of the better defensive linemen in the country. He'd fit right in with our defensive line. But yeah, they've got speed, they've got anticipation of the snap count, and they just have a motor that doesn't really give up. You see a lot of times on film that a play looks like it might be dead or the quarterback might be getting it out of his hands, but they keep fighting, and it's going to be huge, a huge test for our offensive line in terms of blocking through the whistle.

Q. (Inaudible.)
WILTON SPEIGHT: That probably just goes with the flow of the game, adjusting to how they're getting to the backfield and stuff. But no, it shouldn't change our game plan at all, we should just go through our normal progressions at our normal speed and kind of adjust on the fly.

Q. How have the younger skill guys looked?
WILTON SPEIGHT: They look great. I know a lot of the wide receivers know that it's now their time to step up because Darboh and JU are gone. The younger tight ends, led by Ian Bunting down the board are stepping up, too, with Jake being gone next year, and Coach Drevno has got the offensive line stepping up. But Brandon Peters has looked good this bowl prep, and yeah, the guys really use this as truly a Christmas camp to get better.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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