Fun Little Gardner Stat
Currently, Gardner's passer reating is 190.2 according to ESPN. Obviously he has played against some assy mc-ass defenses, but extrapolated over an entire season, that would be the second best all time passer rating for an NCAA quarterback. Not bad for a guy who played wide receiver all year.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:06 AM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^
but Denard has always carried the ball in his left hand. In fact, his unwillingness to move the ball to his right hand, ever, has been a criticism of his around here. Some examples of left handed Denard:
November 18th, 2012 at 12:17 PM ^
In Rothstein's defense, this article http://espn.go.com/colleges/michigan/football/story/_/id/8644437/michigan-wolverines-denard-robinson-passes-torch-devin-gardner-symbolic-senior-day
(including a video of Chantel & Rothstein reporting) seems very fair and accurate about the history behind Denard "passing the torch" -- the hope of the coaches that they could put in the two-QB system they'd tried previously without much success, now forced by Denard's injury and the desire to get him on the field, and aided by Devin's improved passing [and confidence/experience]. Rothstein didn't ignore the injury:
The new package, once Robinson was cleared six days ago, allowed for him to play even though he still missed some velocity on his throws, evidenced in warmups when he tried to complete longer passes with little success.
By then, though, Michigan knew what it was going to do, knew Robinson was going to play and surprise most of the 113,000-plus in attendance. Robinson had no problem with it. After the past two weeks, all he wanted to do was play again.
And when he did, he showed that even though he couldn't throw as well as he wanted to, he could still run the way he always had.
It was, after all the last home game for the seniors, so passing the torch is certainly the right choice of phrase. Seems to be confirmed by their choice of photo to end the article:
November 18th, 2012 at 10:53 AM ^
3.5 years at qb + 1 game at rb/wr/qb = rb. yep...good job espn.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:49 PM ^
Michael at Wolverine Nation says it's an automated system that updates the roster.
November 18th, 2012 at 11:20 AM ^
-"Damn, I wish we had him for one more year."
-"We do."
November 18th, 2012 at 11:24 AM ^
This was covered previously, but according to an ESPN article, we can apply for a medical redshirt at the end of any year. We apply to the conference, not the NCAA. So we should know at the end of this season once U of M applies for the redshirt.
Regardless, at least Shane Morris will have a redshirt season (save injuries) before he needs to start.
November 18th, 2012 at 1:43 PM ^
I guess the one caveat is, though pretty awesome, Devin may only need one year to become the best QB in college football and enter the draft as a top ten pick.
November 18th, 2012 at 1:44 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 2:26 PM ^
November 18th, 2012 at 11:43 AM ^
Something else that I find pretty remarkable considering that Gardner has only been at this for a month, if you will, is that our average passing yards per game going into the Minnesota game stood at 171.5 yards, or 109th nationally. Right now, the average is 200.5 yards, which is about a 15% jump in the average, good for 95th nationally. That's a sizeable jump for three games, and we've not lost too many steps in the running game either, rushing for only about 6% fewer yards than a month ago.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^
The Washington Post had a note that only 6 QBs did this since 2000. Gardner is also the first Michigan QB to do it since 1983.
November 18th, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^
After the offensive meltdown at Nebraska the fear-level around these parts was definitely high and getting higher. Somehow our QB-turned-WR-turned-QB turned out to be a pretty great option after all. I'm really glad to see him having such success and excited about next year's offense (a thought I was previously dreading).
Devin's chemestry with the WRs is also notable. I wonder if playing alongside them at their position has something to do with that.
And regardless of all of the "Devin should've been at QB and Denard moved somewhere" talk I've heard (mostly other places) I think the coaching staff here made the best decisions regarding Devin and Denard's position given the information they had at any given time; and a healthy Denard starts at QB. In the spring it was clear that Devin was stuck behind Denard for the starting job and maybe getting pushed by Bellomy for the backup position. On top of that he's an athletic phenom, so getting him on the field looked benificial, if not crucial, to Michigan's success this season. Without injury, or with full recovery, Denard is the starter; though I think our new offense is looking like a potent combination of their strengths and I'm hopeful the enough wrinkles have been installed that the offense doesn't become predicable based on personel/formation.
BEAT OHIO!
November 18th, 2012 at 1:53 PM ^
That's all I care about in the end.