Michigan’s Denard Robinson Runs All Over UConn, Into Record Books

For the first time in three years, Michigan started a quarterback who had taken a collegiate snap in their first game of the season. Denard Robinson took that opportunity and ran with it.

Robinson compiled 383 yards of total offense, slicing and dicing Connecticut through the air and on the ground. He was absurdly accurate as a thrower, completing 19 of his 22 passes, but was even better with his feet, gaining 197 yards on 29 carries, a Michigan record for a quarterback. He spurred Heisman hype and at least one favorable comparison to Terrelle Pryor. And he might well be the reason Michigan fans can have realistic hopes for a return to excellence.

Meanwhile, Tate Forcier may have seen enough to make this one of his last days in maize and blue.

Forcier, who may have been more hyped than Robinson, his fellow Class of 2009 recruit, coming out of high school, didn’t enter today’s game. He spent the end of today’s game alone on the end of the Michigan bench. With Robinson lighting it up on the field and Devin Gardner passing him on the depth chart, it seems like that Forcier has played his last down as a Wolverine.

Briefly a Michigan folk hero for his clutch play late in September games last season, Forcier is now the latest evidence that athletic glory is fleeting. Michigan fans must hope that the Shoelace Era—Robinson is nicknamed Shoelace because he doesn’t tie his shoes—is not so short.