Wilton Speight not going to Big Ten school, won't be at Michigan bowl

Former Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight won't be playing at a Big Ten school next fall, or any other team on the Wolverines' 2018 schedule.

Speight shared the details of his transfer via Twitter on Friday, explaining that per his "agreement" with Michigan, he won't take a graduate transfer year at any Big Ten school and will not play for any of the Wolverines' non-conference opponents either.

That means no Notre Dame, Western Michigan or Southern Methodist.

Once Speight's graduation is finalized, he'll be eligible to compete immediately for a Football Bowl Subdivision team next season. The Big Ten does require student-athletes who make intraconference transfers to complete one year of academic residence and lose one year of eligibility before being able to play. Graduate transfers in the past have received league waivers for immediate eligibility.

In addition, Speight plans to enroll at his new school in January, which means he will not be with the Wolverines for their upcoming bowl game. Michigan will find out its bowl destination Sunday.

Third-year quarterback Alex Malzone, who announced his plans to take a graduate transfer in the spring, told the Free Press earlier this week that he will remain with the team through the bowl game.

That means U-M should have four scholarship quarterbacks available for the bowl if redshirt freshman Brandon Peters is cleared of concussion protocol: Peters, fifth-year senior John O'Korn, Malzone and true freshman Dylan McCaffrey.

McCaffrey has spent the season redshirting. If he plays in the bowl, his redshirt will be lost.

Earlier this week, Speight told WXYZ-TV in Detroit that there are no hard feelings between he and Michigan.

“Initially (Harbaugh) asked me, ‘Was this something I did? Is this something between us that I can fix or we can talk through?' " Speight said in the interview. "I told him, 'I don’t want you to think this has anything to do with you or about our relationship,' because obviously you’re gonna butt heads with your coach — especially when he was so successful at this very position at Michigan.

"Yeah, we butted heads every once in a while, but it made our relationship stronger and he had my back through literally everything."

After winning the team's starting job in 2016, Speight won a second straight quarterback competition this offseason before losing his year to a vertebrae injury after a hit to the back/neck during a Week 4 win at Purdue.

Speight did not receive clearance to return to the field in a contact capacity during the regular season, but he is expected to be cleared for competition once he begins work at his new school.

"There's absolutely no bad blood," Speight said. "Certain things are maybe hard to put into words. I've always been in quarterback competitions. ... It wasn't that I'm not coming back because of the competition thing, I know that's what people might think, but I've done that. I've proven time and time again that I love competition. I came out on top two years in a row.

"But I've been here four years. It's just one of these feelings, I think, that it's time to move on."

Contact Nick Baumgardner: nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickBaumgardner. Download our Wolverines Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!