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Denard Robinson Won’t Leave Michigan Following Coaching Change
Record-setting College quarterback Denard Robinson acknowledged he thought about transferring when Michigan fired Rich Rodriguez.
“Rich Rod was one of the few coaches that gave me a chance to play as a quarterback on the next level,” Robinson said in an interview scheduled to be posted on mgoblue.com, the school’s website, on Monday.
Robinson decided to stay after talking to his parents, brother and high school coach.
“This is my family — my home now,” he said.
Rodriguez was fired Jan. 5 and Brady Hoke was hired a week later. Robinson told Hoke a day after he was hired that he was committing to staying to play for him next season.
Robinson’s high school coach said “every school” wanted Robinson to leave and he had heard from 10 to 15 coaches within a day of Hoke’s hiring.
The first player in NCAA history to throw and run for 1,500 yards said new coach Brady Hoke was “terrific” and added that he was eager to learn his offense.
“It’s going to be something to learn,” Robinson said. “It’s going to be fine.”
Art Taylor, who coached Robinson at Deerfield Beach (Fla.) High School, backs Robinson’s decision.
Is Yankee Stadium Enough to Spark Notre Dame?
Everything was glorious Saturday night for the Fighting Irish, ranging from the moon-lit sky to the pageantry inside stuffed and loud Yankee Stadium to a 27-3 rout of Army. And, no question, they needed such a diversion. That’s because reality for Notre Dame College football these days is an ugly thing.
It’s just less ugly at the moment.
Despite the dismantling of overrated Utah and overmatched Army in consecutive weeks, and more specifically, despite flashing signs of owning a defense for the first time in years, the Irish still have issues. They are a study in mediocrity or worse at a 6-5 record before their expected beat down next week in Southern California, where they’ve lost four straight to USC by an average margin of 20 points.
Beat a USC team that is highly talented but clearly vulnerable, and then we can believe Notre Dame’s revival is here.
For now, Charlie Weis, Tyrone Willingham and Bob Davie likely are giggling to themselves when the topic is this first edition of the Irish under Brian Kelly and then saying, “It wasn’t just me.”
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Notre Dame Made For the Worste Strecth in College Football
The Almighty Father required just seven days, according to the Book of Genesis, to construct the universe.
Brian Kelly needed one more than that to raze Notre Dame’s 2010 football season. Eight days. From a failed fourth-and-goal attempt on the one-yard line in the game’s opening drive against Navy to an ill-conceived end zone pass to Michael Floyd on Notre Dame’s final offensive play against Tulsa on Oct. 30, Kelly shepherded the Irish through, and was certainly as responsible as anyone for, the worst eight-day stretch in the school’s gridiron history.
In the midst of it, of course, was the horrific death of Declan Sullivan, which occurred two days after Kelly celebrated his 49th birthday.
It was a week of unspeakable loss, wrapped inside a season of unforeseen defeats, lapping up against a decade or so of interminable anguish.
Lost games, lost coaches and ultimately, for this once-proud program, lost aura. The most oft-repeated scene any Notre Dame senior has witnessed is the players of an underdog, unheralded program celebrating inside Notre Dame Stadium. Read More >>
Notre Dame Understands the Importance of Defensive Points
Of all the numbers that have haunted Notre Dame the past three-plus seasons, this one may be the most obscure: 1,594. That figure represents the number of snaps the Irish defense has been on the field for since it last scored a touchdown.
On September 27, 2008, then-freshman cornerback Robert Blanton intercepted a Purdue pass and raced 47 yards to the north end zone of Notre Dame Stadium for a touchdown. The Irish won that afternoon, 38-21. Since that day, 24 games — and that dizzying number of 1,594 snaps — have transpired without the Irish defense celebrating a score.
Not surprisingly, the Irish have gone unranked during this period.
Notre Dame has scored 74 touchdowns since Blanton’s pick-six, but only three of them have come via special teams: Toryan Smith’s 48-yard return of a blocked punt in 2008 at Navy, Armando Allen’s 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the 2008 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, and Golden Tate’s 87-yard punt return last November at Pitt. If you’re breaking down Irish scoring since Blanton’s INT, the offense has scored 96 percent of the touchdowns, special teams four percent and the defense zero.
For equally poor measure, the Irish last recorded a safety on November 29, 2003, at Stanford. That was 79 games ago. Read More >>
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