ANN ARBOR, MICH. -- This obviously was not the first impression that Wilton Speight wanted to make.

A junior for Michigan who won the starting quarterback in August camp job going into Saturday's season opener at home against Hawaii, Speight rolled out to throw a pass on his team's first offensive play of the season, and promptly started off the year by throwing an interception right into the hands of Hawaii senior defensive back Damien Packer.

After that initial interception, Speight was nearly flawless, completing 10-of-13 passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns to help lead No. 7 Michigan to a 63-3 rout of Hawai'i at Michigan Stadium.

It was Michigan's largest margin of victory since beating Northwestern, 69-0, in 1975.

Following Packer's interception, Michigan's defense forced a punt and Speight started to take off from there.

One who was not too upset with that first interception was Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who greeted Speight with a grin and encouraging words when he came off of the field.

"I wanted to see what he did on the next series," Harbaugh said. "It's very difficult for someone to throw an interception on a series and lead a touchdown drive on the next series. It's something I have always been fascinated with watching quarterbacks."

Harbaugh had reason to be beaming about Speight's resolve as a result, because not only did he lead the Wolverines to a touchdown on their next drive, but he did so on Michigan's next three possessions.

The first of his three touchdown passes was a 12-yard strike into the end zone to sophomore wideout Grant Perry that gave Michigan a 7-0 lead with 7:29 left in the first quarter and capped off an 11-play, 98-yard drive.

Speight hit senior and returning All-American tight end Jake Butt on a 19-yard touchdown pass with 1:25 left in the first quarter and then hit senior wideout Amara Darboh on a 5-yard touchdown pass with 11:21 remaining in the first half to give the Wolverines a 21-0 lead.

"There was never really a time heading into the game or after that first interception where I was looking over my shoulder," said Speight, who beat out fellow juniors John O'Korn and Shane Morris to win the starters' job. "Coach has played the position and knows the quarterback has to play at a high level and can't be worried about being replaced after one bad play. I knew he was going to be cool about it. He had a big smile on his face, which gave me more confidence."

The way the Michigan defense dominated, that was more than enough points provided by Speight and the offense.

Not only did the Michigan defense hold Hawaii to just three points, but it also scored two touchdowns of its own.

Senior Delano Hill returned a touchdown 27 yards with 10:36 left in the first half to give Michigan a 28-0 lead, and then senior Channing Stribling returned an interception 51 yards for a touchdown with 10:51 left in the third quarter to give Michigan a 49-0 lead.

Freshman running back Chris Evans ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries for Michigan, which ran for 305 yards and had 511 yards of total offense.

"He's a special player," Harbaugh said of Evans. "What you saw today is what we have been seeing in practice over the last month. He's special."

Hawaii was playing its second game of the season a little less than 9,500 miles from where it played its first after the Rainbow Warriors lost to California, 51-31, on Aug. 27 in Sydney, Australia.

"That's the hand we were dealt and we had to look at it as an opportunity," first-year Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich said. "It wasn't easy and I told them I didn't want to hear anything about it, but they didn't whine about it. We tried to help them get to sleep and just be conscious about it without using it as an excuse. But the travel didn't beat us today. That Michigan team beat us today."

The only points for the Rainbow Warriors came courtesy of senior kicker Rigoberto Sanchez, who drilled a 55-yard field goal with 12:30 remaining in the game.

"That defense played really good and if we got a moral victory today, it was Rigo with a 55-yarder," Rolovich said. "You heard it when he hit it. He's a bright spot for us. We have to flush it and we can't let Michigan beat us twice. We have to get home and play in front of our home crowd finally."

Hawaii will play its home opener on Saturday against UT Martin. Michigan will next host Central Florida on Saturday.

NOTES: It was a star-studded affair before the game for Michigan, with former NBA great Michael Jordan serving as honorary captain and former New York Yankees infielder Derek Jeter also in attendance chatting with Harbaugh near midfield. ... This was the third meeting all-time between the schools, but the first one in Ann Arbor. Michigan won games at Honolulu in 1986 (27-10) and 1998 (48-17). ... This was the first of five consecutive home games Michigan has to start the season. The Wolverines will not play on the road until Oct. 8 at Rutgers. ... As Hawai'i had its field-goal unit on the field to kick a 26-yard field goal with two seconds left in the first half, officials threw a flag and determined on the previous play it was intentional grounding on Hawai'i quarterback Ikaika Woolsey when he threw the ball out of bounds in the pocket to escape a sack. Since it was a 10-second runoff on the clock for an illegal pass in the final minute, the half ended and Hawai'i never attempted the field goal. ... All three of Michigan's quarterbacks that played in the game, Speight, junior John O'Korn and junior Shane Morris, led drives that ended in touchdowns.