Through the first three games of this season, Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges has tried at times to implement the more pro-style offense that he eventually wants to run in Ann Arbor. When that hasn’t worked — and that’s often — he’s trashed that and gone to a simplified version of Rich Rodriguez’s offense, aka the “Give the Ball to Denard” offense.
Denard Robinson as a runner might be the most dangerous weapon in college football. As a drop-back passer in a pro-style set, he’s not even in the top half of quarterbacks in the Big Ten.
Borges is realizing this, and in recent weeks has gone to the GTBTD offense quicker than he did in, say, the Notre Dame game. Against the Irish, Borges waited until the second half, and had it not been for horrendous fundamental coverage skills by the Notre Dame defensive backs, it would have been too late. Unleashing Denard in the shotgun not only allows him to throw, but also forces single coverage on the outside, which is Michigan’s only chance to get any kind of passing game, because Robinson isn’t going to read a defense effectively.
The challenge going forward, however, is finding a way to make this work during the Big Ten season. A year ago, the better Big Ten defenses figured out how to shut down Robinson, or at least slow him down enough to force Michigan into uncomfortable situations. If Borges tries to go pro-set, Michigan might not win a Big Ten game, and I’m not exaggerating. If he goes simply GTBTD, the Wolverines are probably going to run into the same problems eventually, but it’s easily their best chance at winning games.
Some Michigan fans have brought up using Robinson as a running back and trying out Devin Gardner, a sophomore who was a highly-regarded recruit, at quarterback. That won’t work either, because part of what makes Robinson so dangerous is the fact that you still have to cover receivers down the field when the ball’s in his hands. That goes out the window if you’re just handing off to him. He’s also not big enough to handle the between the tackles pounding that a running back.
So how about the single wing? It’s a pretty simple offense, and it’s really not that far from what Michigan does now. The misdirection keeps defenses from keying on Robinson, and he still has the threat of throwing downfield. Also, nobody plays against the single wing, because nobody runs it. That gives Michigan, and maybe the most dangerous player in the country, the same advantage the service academies and other option teams have: forcing teams to prepare in one week for an offense they’ve never seen before.
I understand that Michigan is eventually going to be closer to the kind of smash-mouth type football team that we saw under Lloyd Carr and Bo Schembechler, but if it wants to win games and take advantage of its best asset this year and next, it’s going to have forget about that.
