Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Michigan Wolverines head football coach Brady Hoke is finally rid of Denard Robinson and can now put together a real offense around senior quarterback Devin Gardner. Granted, Gardner is no prototype quarterback, but he’s 10 times the quarterback Robinson ever was and he’ll do things with Michigan’s offense in 2013 that weren’t possible with Robinson at the helm.
Robinson is a running back/wide receiver athlete of a football player, which is great in high school and some small colleges, but not at the elite level. He would have fit in at Georgia Tech, but that’s about the only FBS team that would have had any decent success with him at the helm. Seriously, when will these college teams get a clue and stopping putting running backs and/or receivers at quarterback? It simply doesn’t work.
Hoke still doesn’t have a pro-style quarterback to work with, but Gardner actually has an arm to go along with his running ability, which is something Robinson did not. Hush your Heisman nonsense. Robinson was a Heisman candidate for five minutes and then got clocked by a real defense that exposed how awful he was. If you want to rack up rushing yards, play running back.
As for Gardner, he consistently improved his play after being inserted as the quarterback in early November. Sure, he threw an interception in each game, but he also had multiple touchdowns in all but one as the starter. He only had double-digit carries once and completed 50 percent of his passes and did all that while Hoke was still trying to get Robinson the ball.
With a full off-season to work Gardner into the real starting quarterback spot, Michigan’s offense will no longer be a joke, granted Gardner continues to improve. As long as there’s no gimmick player like Robinson to get in the way, that should be no problem.
Jeric Griffin is the Director of Content for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JericGriffin, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
