Scout analysis on Denard, with Comments from Henne and Griese
An interesting read on Denard and what it takes in the transition from the spread on Scout.
I think I have read Brian Griese's comments somewhere before, but this bit:
The benefit is if they develop that running game and give him an opportunity to hand the ball off more, they’ll throw the ball from the pocket with the linebackers and safeties reacting to a real running game. Then they can have the naked game off of that, where he has run/pass options. He has plenty of talent to throw the football to. You could see guys wide open in that kind of an offense because did you fake the ball or did you give it? The linebackers have got to make that read. ‘If he keeps the ball, we’ve got to get back into pass coverage to defend the pass.’ But the third aspect of it is, okay, they did a good job on the run and they did a good job on the pass, so now I’m just going to tuck it and run it myself. That is a dynamic that in that offense as a third read can be so dangerous.
is how I was feeling last year: basically if we had a viable run threat other than Denard, then the three way level of uncertainty that a defense would have to account for, would undo them. (i.e., they wouldn't just have to defend against Denard)
The article says we'll have to be patient in the transition, but both Chad and Brian think Denard will get through it (albeit Chad hasn't met Denard personally). This is in line with my feeling that next year is Denard's year for serious Heisman contention.
The one thing about the Heisman that I think people are overlooking is that while it's supposed to go to the best player in the country in the last decade or so it has really morphed into an award that is given to the best player on one of the best teams in the country.
For Denard to be in serious consideration, UM would probably need to be at worst 9-3 if not 10-2. Either that or Denard would have to put up mind boogling stats.
If we win more games I don't care what they do with Denard. All the heisman hype was great but it meant nothing when we lost to MSU Iowa, Penn St, Wisconsin, Ohio , and MSU again.
Denard won't win the Heisman because someone always comes of obscurity to win it. Before they won their Heisman's, the average fan had never heard of Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Matt Leinart, or Jason White.
Also, how can Denard not be able to throw when completed 63% of his passes last year? If Tim Tebow dreamed he could pass better than Denard Robinson he would wake up and slam himself.
I'm sick of all these Denard Robinson bashers. A football team is composed of 22 players (plus the kickers). It isn't Denard fault when 11 of them can' t keep the other team from scoring 35 points a game.
Interesting article. Brian Griese makes a very intelligent explanation of the difficulties of moving to a pro style offense for a QB that is used to a spread..... that you dont hear every day from most analysts...but he's been in the pocket before and knows what its like back there.
I think (or maybe I'm just wishcasting) that Hoke/Borges are creating something of a smoke screen - they will keep enough of the shotgun spread offense in so that if the Manball isn't working early they can go heavier on the Denard-friendly playbook and pull the games out as long as the defense doesn't massively suck again.
Another possibility to me is (though I'm no X and O guru) that they may instead go with the VT/Mike Vick playbook if Denard struggles with his reads - cut the field in half with the plays along the lines of "One read and if it isn't there take off".
I'll too lazy to chase down the video link, but Borges already said that Denard's third or fourth option (I can't remember which) will be to run.
And I think our best run and pass play will be the same this year as it was last year. The play where denard just takes the snap in shotgun and runs behind a FB/TE, and play where denard fakes run and then throws to a wide open roundtree in the seem.
If the team as a whole doesn't win more games, he's not going to have a chance to win it anyway. When we were winning, Denard was a front-runner. When we started losing moved into "also mentioned" category. And his numbers slid a little, but he wasn't completely shut out. Paul Hornung in at ND in the 50's this ain't. Start winning some games, then you can worry about the rest of the stuff.
I've heard speculation that Michigan will be running more conventional offense during the non-conference part of the season, but once B10 play starts more of the spread will be in the playbook.
If that's the case, I'll be more "satisfied" after a game than after sex.