Denard Robinson

[NDGopher]

WOW that dude is fast.....he is going to single handedly win them some games in the Big 10 schedule this year

 

[gopher7]

Fast, and confident.

 

[gophmeister]

He looks good. Michigan appears to be back. Purdue looks so-so versus the Irish. Kerrigan looks good though.

 

[steffyboy]

Thinking the same thing

Gray is similar but a tad bit slower(but more difficult to bring down). I'd love to see him get a chance in a similar offense. I could see our offense being somewhat similar to this next year depending on what happens with Moses. Full disclosure, this is not a rip-on Weber post.

 

[NDGopher]

Gray is similar but a tad bit slower(but more difficult to bring down). I'd love to see him get a chance in a similar offense. I could see our offense being somewhat similar to this next year depending on what happens with Moses. Full disclosure, this is not a rip-on Weber post.

Agreed. If we are just going to run the ball a ton, we'd be even more effective having him.

 

[The 12th Man]

He was definitely recruited for that type of offense. I would not be surprised to see Michigan have a great year this year because Rodriguez has started to get the guys he needs. I love the spread, but it isn't for everyone I guess.

The problem with us running it at this point is that it would once again change our blocking schemes. We are currently running a lot of off-tackle power, counter, etc. which are more "man" blocking schemes. Spread offenses rely almost exclusively on zone schemes. We certainly run some zone plays right now, but not in the same way and not with the frequency that Michigan does.

The biggest difference in offensive line style, however, is in the screen package. You will see Michigan run a ton of fast, bubble, tunnel, and jailbreak screens. These are designed to get defenders out of the box and cover the whole field. In order to run these plays, the linemen need to get outside as well and block downfield. Jeff Wills, for example, is not built for this. We have a huge line right now because that is what we need for our schemes. As you saw in game 1, it works.

I don't know what they will do with Gray, but it will be interesting to watch. I think it would be easy to build in some designed keepers. I also bet they would run more out of the gun package that already exists. Time will tell.

 

[MadtownGopher]

I'm starting to think Moses Alipate will be the starter next year. Then Gray will be one of our starting WRs but we'll do a lot of different things to get him the ball. I just don't think Gray has the passing ability to be a successful QB in a pro offense like ours, he is a spread QB.

 

[AhliBobwa]

I'm starting to think Moses Alipate will be the starter next year. Then Gray will be one of our starting WRs but we'll do a lot of different things to get him the ball. I just don't think Gray has the passing ability to be a successful QB in a pro offense like ours, he is a spread QB.

Gray played in a pro-style offense in high school. Anyway, I think Horton is more than capable of drawing up some plays/wrinkles for Gray in the offense that aren't used for Weber. Gray will do great in our offense next year. Remember, everyone initially said Pryor couldn't run Tressel's pro style offense. Tressel uses some spread elements within the O (similar to what he did for TS), and Pryor is now running the straight pro-style stuff well. I still think Gray will be a great QB in this offense.

And FWIW, I would be somewhat surprised if Alipate ever becomes the Gophers' starting QB for any significant length of time. I think Gray wins the job the next 2 years and one of the other guys steps up after that.

Purdue looked VERY beatable today. Robert Marve doesn't put very much sauce on the ball, not the way we were led to believe. His decision making was pretty poor today as well...and that secondary is a sieve. I think the Gophers handle the Boilers this year (just like they did last year).

 

[josh087]

Everyone thought Michigan was back last year when they blew out some people in the non-conference and beat Notre Dame at home to start 4-0. "A star was born" in the creative Tate Forcier. Then, they played the Big Ten portion of their schedule.

The Big East sucks - I saw no playmakers from UCONN today. Michigan is probably better than last year, but let's hold off just a little bit.

 

[highwayman]

I'm starting to think Moses Alipate will be the starter next year. Then Gray will be one of our starting WRs but we'll do a lot of different things to get him the ball. I just don't think Gray has the passing ability to be a successful QB in a pro offense like ours, he is a spread QB.

Gray is similar but a tad bit slower(but more difficult to bring down). I'd love to see him get a chance in a similar offense. I could see our offense being somewhat similar to this next year depending on what happens with Moses. Full disclosure, this is not a rip-on Weber post.

Once again, posts from people who hope that Alipate is better than Gray but have not seen Alipate in scrimmage situations. He is a good athlete, but nowhere close to Gray, even at QB...

 

[Unregistered User]

Once again, posts from people who hope that Alipate is better than Gray but have not seen Alipate in scrimmage situations. He is a good athlete, but nowhere close to Gray, even at QB...

And he needs how to work harder. His high school coaches in both football and basketball tried like hell to get him to work harder, but he would just rely on ability and did not keep working to get better. I see very little chance of him seeing significant time on the field.