Michigan Football: Denard Robinson Won't Succeed in Brady Hoke's System

Denard Robinson is not a good quarterback, at least in the traditional sense of the word.

He may have looked great at times against the Irish, but let’s be honest, even I could look like a great quarterback against Notre Dame.

He has shown signs of greatness, and he has shown that he has ability, but when all is said and done he is not a very good quarterback.

To be fair to him, he is an exceptional athlete. He may be one of the most explosive athletes in college football.

Being a good athlete in no way makes you a good quarterback, though, and that’s the problem you run into with Robinson.

He can make plays through the air, but he’s far too inconsistent. He may be good enough to look for a great quarterback against lesser teams, but we’ve all seen what happens once he gets into the meat of the Big Ten schedule.

He is much more adept as a scrambling quarterback, but with the new system that Brady Hoke is trying to run, we are going to see less and less of that.

Ironically enough, the second Rich Rodriguez was fired as the head football coach at Michigan, Robinson’s true potential was squandered.

He’s not a pro-style quarterback, but that is exactly the direction Hoke is trying to take the offense.

Robinson is at his best when his is moving around the pocket and able to scramble, but the more pro-style wrinkles that Hoke adds into the offense, the less effective Robinson will be.

Look no further than the first half of the Notre Dame game for proof of my argument.

The Wolverines couldn’t move the ball if their lives depended on it. They made an effort to keep Robinson in the pocket and run a more traditional offense, but they suffered because of it.

The Wolverines accumulated an abysmal 90 yards in the first half. Sure, Robinson had a nice 43-yard touchdown pass to Junior Hemingway, but against a better defense he’s not going to get that much time to bounce around in the backfield.

At one point Robinson was 3-of-13 for just 59 yards and two interceptions.

He finished the game 11-of-24 with 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. He completed 45.8 percent of his passes.

That’s not going to cut against a good team. News flash: Notre Dame is not a good football team.

Things opened up in the second half for Michigan, but it’s because Robinson found more room to run, and that’s because offensive coordinator Al Borges and Hoke made a concentrated effort to call the read-option plays that have him dangerous in the past.

I understand that Hoke is coming in and Michigan fans are desperate to move away from the Rich Rodriguez era, but that transition is going to come with a cost.

Don’t forget; he created Robinson, which means he can destroy him too.

As time goes on and the Wolverines play better teams, Robinson is going to get sniffed out a lot easier, and he will become less effective with his legs.

We have seen it in the past, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen again.

I’m not writing this to take away from the magic of the Michigan night game or Robinson’s performance. It was truly a classic game, and there is no doubt that Robinson is one of the most exciting players to watch in college football.

All I’m saying is that when the hype fades, we’re left with underwhelming results.

Denard Robinson isn’t a good quarterback when all is said and done. He’s more like a great running back with a good arm.

That may be acceptable right now, but eventually that won’t be enough for the Wolverines.