GBMWolverine: Coach's Corner -- Michigan Football -- Denard Robinson -- Spring Evaluations

Posted at 6:00am — 4/21/2011

GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — Denard Robinson — Spring Evaluations

GBMWolverine Football Spring Evaluations: Position by Position — Player Profile.

GBMWolverine readers: Here is a brief overview of Denard Robinson and GBMWolverine’s analysis concerning how he did this spring with the new system.

Note: We will not evaluate every player on the team and with this position group we will not evaluate #4 Steve Wilson or #14 Jack Kennedy. If you would like to chat about these players bring them up on the message board, in chat on Monday nights or send us an e-mail request.

Coming in: Russell Bellomy (Martin).

Losing: Nobody

Denard Robinson.
Height: 6’0
Weight: 193
Number: 16
Position: Quarterback
Year: Junior
City/State: Deerfield Beach, Florida
High School: Deerfield Beach

Overview:

Denard showed improvement during the spring. He is faced, like all Michigan players, with learning an entire new system that is based on a quarterback making proper reads and checks. His progress will continue to be a work in progress.

In our opinion, Michigan is still Denard Robinson’s team, he is the unquestioned leader. As he goes so goes the entire team.

He is one of the top overall athletes to ever wear the Michigan winged helmet.

One cannot dismiss how coachable Denard is and how he seems to soak up everything given him.

He is still a work in progress but the improvement in his footwork and mechanics was noticeable this spring compared to last season.

Denard will always be a scary weapon with his legs.

At this time we believe he still gives Michigan the best shot at winning football games this fall.

Strengths:

Needs Work:

We mentioned above about Denard’s progress, but he still needs to improve on his mechanical fundamentals and footwork.

Denard clearly needs to improve the timing of when to release the ball to his receivers, again a work in progress since Coach Borges’ offense relies more on timing routes than Denard has encountered in the past.

Denard will need to work on the passing scheme of this offense which includes the deep passing scheme and the more complex-Ed routes the receivers are learning. This is something we believe the new staff is working on to improve the offense, and in the process viewing how Denard reacts. Yes, we know some Michigan fans seeing a practice would freak out when Denard wasn’t running the ball twenty-five times a game or wasn’t in the shotgun all the time.

Another thing to work on is reading the defense and being able to check out of the play call. This spring we are sure they were told to run the play called to work on certain things the coaches want to accomplish.

Contributing This Year?

We believe Denard is likely the starter again at quarterback for Michigan this fall. At least coming out of spring practices Denard has shown us he is the leader of this team and as stated gives Michigan the best chance to win in the fall at the quarterback position.

Final Thoughts:

Another new offense to learn and another new coaching staff to learn it from, which is tough on players, especially with limited access prior to spring practices and only having fifteen practices in the spring to get acclimated to the new scheme.

We will see the biggest improvement, not only with Denard, but the entire team, during the summer workouts and fall camp.

Competition in a coach’s eyes is a beautiful thing with Coach Borges and Coach Hoke. Denard Robinson and Devin Gardner pushing each other during the spring practices will only make them better, especially with the opportunities of summer workouts, film studies, and fall camp.

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You can contact us at our e-mail address: GBMWolverine

Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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