Michigan Wolverines Football: Denard Robinson, OC Take Heat, U-M Lands Recruit

It hasn't taken long, but the naysayers are already piling on.

The Wolverines dropped two out of last three decisions, both of them on the road. The first was a 28-14 loss at Michigan State, and the second was a 24-16 loss at Iowa.

There's no question the offense struggled in both games and there's been plenty of blame to go around. It's surfaced, however, in two specific places.

First, the transition between last year's read option attack and this year's multiple offense has been difficult at times.

Second, Denard Robinson has struggled throwing the ball often this season. 

Both Robinson, and first-year offensive coordinator, Al Borges, have taken much of the criticism.

From the season's outset, it became known that the offense would take on a different look. The team would go from no-huddle to a huddle, in hopes of keeping the defense on the sidelines longer. The plan would also limit Robinson's running, in order to keep him healthy throughout the season.

Borges, who arrived at Michigan with Brady Hoke in January, has been a major college coordinator since 1995. His stops include Oregon, UCLA, Auburn and San Diego State.  His credentials are obviously impeccable. 

In fairness, any time a new coaching staff takes over a crippled program, there must be time for a transition. Sure Michigan's offense scored a ton of points in 2010, but what did they accomplish down the stretch?

There is a concern about Robinson's passing. If you look at tape from high school and last season, he threw with confidence much of the time. Don't forget, this is only his second season as Michigan's starting quarterback. We all know he's banged up, but hopefully not as bad as last year.

Hoke and Borges are not giving up on Robinson.

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"We went back to basics on this Sunday," Borges said at Tuesday's press conference. "Earlier in the season, we were doing a really nice job of giving our receivers an opportunity to make plays down the field. Our philosophy is to make sure the receiver touches the ball. We have some good rangy receivers that can make jump balls, take balls away, and we just went back and said, ‘Okay, we can miss a little short, but give him that opportunity,’ because that’s what happened of late that wasn’t really happening that much earlier in the season, is we’ve been overthrowing guys. So we went back and worked on that, and I think you’re going to see some results there."

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Recruiting

Michigan received the first of hopefully two running back commitments this week.

He's Drake Johnson, a 6'1", 205-pound tailback from Ann Arbor Pioneer. Johnson has piled up over 2,700 yards this season, and is also the state's 110-yard hurdle champion.  Running track has kept his recruitment under the radar, but it's hard not to miss a prospect who plays his prep football just a three-wood shot from Michigan Stadium's south end zone.

Bri'onte Dunn, who's already committed to Ohio State, is still very much on Michigan's radar.  He sent the Buckeyes his verbal commitment over a year ago, but has already made an unofficial visit to Ann Arbor.

A pal of mine reminded me that the shake-up at Penn State might affect the status of a few Nittany Lion commits. Michigan has previously shown interest in WR/LB Armani Reeves and LB/WR Camren Williams. 

There are even reports coming out of Happy Valley that support for Joe Paterno might be wavering. The university cancelled Paterno's regularly scheduled Tuesday press conference.