College Football Injury Report: Which players are in jeopardy of missing Week 2?
QB Wilton Speight, UCLA
Speight suffered a back injury in Week 1 against Cincinnati, and backup quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson replaced him in the 26-17 loss for UCLA.
Speight transferred from Michigan and is a graduate transfer in his last year of eligibility. He started at Michigan as a sophomore and then began the 2017 season as a starter before suffering a vertebrae injury against Purdue, which was only the fourth game of the season. According to Nick Baumgardner, Speight seriously considered returning to Michigan before deciding to play at UCLA with head coach Chip Kelly.
At Michigan, Speight was 13-3 as a starter, and if he can stay healthy, he could help UCLA remain relevant after losing Josh Rosen. Even with Rosen, UCLA was only 6-7 in 2017.
Kelly will turn this program around over time and likely bring it to elite status like he did at Oregon. He may be without his starting quarterback again this week, but he will have more of an opportunity to develop Thompson-Robinson, who was a four-star recruit and ranked second among dual-threat quarterbacks in the 2018 class and 36th overall by 247sports.
Thompson-Robinson is the future of this UCLA program, so giving him more game experience will certainly not hurt a UCLA team that is currently rebuilding.