Denard was a better passer in 2010 than now: Why?

Denard ran a Denard offense in 2010.  In 2011/12,  Al wants Denard to run a Tom Brady offense.   Hoke needs to drop the pocket passer shit and let Denard be Denard.   After the first four weeks, it seems like Denard is thinking way  too much about the pass.  He is obvioulsy coached to hold on to the ball longer and let the play develope.  How many times has Denard remained in the pocket looking to pass with wide open running lanes? 

Anyone know the condition of his arm/shoulder after the game?

I'm sure a certain percent of INTs are on the receivers, and ours are unpolished this year. He also forces a lot of throws. 

I sometimes wonder whether the bad throws aren't part of his attempt to maintain discipline, staying in the pocket, making the play rather than cutting loose.

I think we beat Purdue soundly in two weeks, FWIW. And I think this team is on the rise. 

I wrote this scouting report on Denard back on September 23, 2010, after he had started 3 games at Michigan.  I just glanced back at it today to see how accurate it is and/or whether things have changed since then.

I'll let you decide for yourself (if you want):

http://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2010/09/scouting-report-denard-robins...

The team, the team, the team.

Denard was better a passer 9/23/2012 than he was 9/22/2012

In 2010, Denard got off to an otherworldly start through the first five games, and then came down to Earth after that.  

Through five games in 2010, Denard had completed 69.8% of his passes for 201.6 yards per game, 7 TDs and only one interception.  He averaged an absurd 10.5 yards per attempt and had a passer rating of 179.7. 

Over the final eight games of 2010, Denard completed 59.0% of his passes for 195.3 YPG, 11 TDs and 10 INT.  His YPA dropped to 8.0 and passer rating to 134.6.  Those numbers aren't all that different from what he's done under Borges.  Because of that incredible 5-game start, his 2010 season stats look terrific, but things changed quite a bit from the MSU game onward.

Opposing DCs have caught on to a lot of Denard's tendencies.  They know that he doesn't throw that well on the run, has trouble handling pressure up the middle, and tries too hard to keep plays going when there's nothing there.  In the last two games of the 2011 regular season he looked like he was dropping those bad habits and taking a big step forward as a passer, but since then he's reverted back to them.

I'm a bit of a rookie at this kind of stuff, but this is just a thought process I've been having lately. I really wonder if Borges has Denard taking more snaps under center to get the rest of the offense used to what is to come after Denard graduates. Once Denard is gone, this hybrid style Borges has drawn up is dead. No more QB draws, zone reads, etc. I wonder if Borges is slowly trying to wean the offense off of this style and push more towards what he is building towards for the future.

This is just merely speculation on my part, and even I agree part of it doesn't make sense, as it means you're taking away Denard's playmaking abilities and hurting the team now. Maybe Borges is just trying to prepare the offense long-term so they're not necessarily starting from scratch next year. Yeah it sounds kind of stupid, but I can't think of another reason why Borges wouldn't be consistently running Denard out of the shotgun. He of all people should know by now the areas in which Denard thrives, and the areas that he doesn't. Denard is not a pocket passer. Both he and Borges should stop trying to believe he can be one. He makes plays and wins games when he can get outside the pocket, extend plays, and if he needs to, run like hell.

The passing offense he ran in 2010 is radically different than the one he runs now, so those numbers really are not comparable. And while he makes bad throws at times, most college QBs do the same thing. I mean, everyone talks up Henne as a robot, but he had his moments and guys crutches.

Denard will never be a great passer, but he is still one of the best QBs this team has had, just because of his legs. I am as high as anyone on the future of this team, but let's see what people say when Bellomy our Morris throw 3 picks in a game and have taken 2 sacks as well.

Hes forcing throws, not running enough, and doesnt have the recieving group that we would like to have.. Hemmingway made a huge difference last yr and it shows..His numbers will increase as season goes on so i am not that worried...Also, what the hell happened to Fitz?? A good RB helps a QB also.

Don't forget, for all those screaming that Denard is being used wrong, Denard himself has vehemently argued that he can/will play as a quarterback in the NFL.  This is a pro-style offense....

The Notre Dame game was just a terrible game. It happens to every quarterback in the world. Tom Brady throws a 4 interception game every other year. 

Yeah, Denard doesn't look as good against great defenses. That's pretty standard. He still usually manages to rack up 100 yards on the ground against good defenses fairly regularly. That's not standard. 

2010's offense, obviously, was fit for Denard. He was also playing without a defense and no real running threat, which is another part of why he didn't "perform well against good teams". 

2012 is exactly what happens when you have 3 head coaches in 6 years. Everyone just needs to suck it up and realize that it will be another 2 seasons before the Brady Hoke era begins without any asterisks. 

Despite all this, we're still a favorite to win the Big Ten. For a rebuilding season, that's not a bad place to be. 

Also, what happened Saturday night will never happen again this season and we all know it. That was a fluke of a game. 

Borges is NOT using Denard wrong.  Borges has, in fact, developed Denard into a "WCO Pocket Passer."  He throws very well, has acceptable accuracy, and when he not pressured, he makes good decisions.  I know a lot of you will disagree with me, but I think you're letting the negatives overshadow the positives.

The issue is quite simple: Denard's ability to recognize, evade, and deal with a blitzer in his face.  IIRC, the vast majority of Denard's many INT's come when he has pressure in his face.  It is then that his mechanics and decision making go to hell, and he throws INT's.

There is absolutely NO WAY that Borges isn't hammering Denard continually about how to handle the blitz, but Denard just isn't listening.  In my mind, this was the reason behind his post game comment about accountability to his team.  He's being coached properly, and in practice he's doing the right things, making the right reads, and good decisions.  In a big game, however, he gets too amped, and wants too badly to make a big play on every play.

Think about the difference in our discussion of Borges and Denard if the only INT that he threw was the one at the end of the half -- basically a hail mary, and of little consequence.  If he had evaded, tucked and run -- even for a short gain -- or thrown the ball out of bounds, i.e., lived to play another down.  We'd all be marveling at his development, and praising Borges as a great coach, and more importantly, Michigan likely would have scored a lot, and won the game.  But, Denard didn't do those things.  He reverted to his old bad habits, made poor decisions, and cost his team the game. 

When it comes to dealing with a blitz, he's still in the "conscious incompetence" phase of learning.  He knows what he's supposed to do, but it's not yet instinctive -- he thinking about it too much.  This game will be a HUGE step forward for Denard's development.  Unfortunately, the clock is ticking on his career.  Unfortunately, he didn't RS his freshman year because he's very close.  I know that sounds silly of a QB that threw 4 picks, but he is, and he'll get there.

Uh, let's look at comparable stats:

After 4 games in 2011, DRob had a 8.33% interception rate (ints/pass attempt) and improved dramatically over the last 9 games with a 4.72 int%.

After 4 games this year, DRob has a 8.0% int%. Actually better than last year.

" He throws very well, has acceptable accuracy, and when he not pressured, he makes good decisions.  I know a lot of you will disagree with me, but I think you're letting the negatives overshadow the positives."

But when he plays against a rough tough defense like ND, Ala, MSU he freaks out.  I don't know how else to say it.  He just doesn't play well against good teams.  It would help if the line blocked a little better and gave him some more time.  To many mental lapses by the looks of it because they are capable of blocking.  

Denard wants his University of Michigan degree.  He has sacrificed personal glory for it.  He is better than any other option at QB, but he is a spread QB stuck in the WCO.

It makes no sense for Al Borges to delay putting his own system in; it would just delay the growth curve of the program.  I am guessing that Borges will make a few adjustments after the ND game, which is now going to be seen as an instruction manual for defending Denard Robinson, but they will have to be within his system.

As for the comparison, the sample is too small.  ND is a legit top ten team now, and Bama is an NFL development franchise.  Michigan played two excellent defenses with great athletes out of four games.  I'm not bailing out on Denard or Borges; there's a lot of season left.

2010 Michigan Offense: points per game: 32.77

2011 Michigan Offense: points per game: 33.31

I think Borges has at least some idea of what he's doing, and he's doing it predominantly with spread guys to boot. Denard might have been a better passer in 2010. But we were not a better offense. 

We cannot gameplan poor decision making. The only thing you can do is what Brian Kelly showed; by pulling the player making those poor decisions. That can not, should not, and will not ever happen with Denard. He's just too great a talent and gives us the best chance to win.

We just need to face the fact that while Denard can make throws, he sometimes gets greedy. I think he translates his otherwordliness in running to his arm, when in his mind they need to be completely separate entitites. The man makes plays, and sometimes you get burned in the effort.

Said this before. If I was Borges I would make Denard practice with 20lb wieghts tied around his legs. If you want him to learn new skills you have to take away(in practice)his security blanket, which we all know is his blazing speed. His happy feet, which most often result in errant throws to the other team, are a result of years of playing football the best way he knew how.

 am an OSU fan from TX, and enjoyed talking football with a lot of great UM fans a few weeks ago for the Labor Day kick off game.

I am really stunned at how weak OSU's defense has become - and am equally stunned at the production decline from UM.

Look, no one is going to beat Alabama; however, the performance of our two teams and the B1G overall is really hard to analyze.  OSU is struggling with weak teams and cannot stop anyone.  Their D was solid for a decade and I don't get Fickell and Vrabell and their scheme.

UM is in transition to the style of offense I think OSU should stick with (Bo: FB, TE in a 3-pt stance ...) and I get that; however, Denard is Denard, and he is not being put in positions to make him as multi-dimensional as he should be.

Both OSU and UM have good recruiting classes and the future should - should - be bright.  But right now, Hoke and Meyer as solid as they are, I don't see the B1G competing with the SEC.  Shane Morris is going to be solid, and UM is going to be good.  OSU will be good.  I just don't see the two schools or the B1G winning the NC until Saban retires.

I think UM and OSU will be competitive for the next decade in the B1G.  Don't see a NC unless something drastic happens like changes to oversigning.  The economy is not coming back in a big way ever again to the MidWest, and the recruiting bases will have to compete in the South and the West and those 5* players will stay home and we can plan on developing 4* talent and playing our asses off.  It is a different decade ...

Which brings me back to my opening line - having grown up in the NE/ MW/ B1G country and having lived in TX since the 90's, there is a solid population shift, and the base for our two schools is shifting and that will make it tough to win the NC.  Being competitive is one thing - playing for a legitimate NC title is something else...

Eager to hear from UM fans...

Go Army - Beat Navy!