Malcolm Robinson, a 6-foot-2, 275-pound defensive tackle from Massillon (OH) Washington, signed with Minnesota in February. He chose Minnesota over offers from Purdue, Virginia, Boston College and many others.
Robinson helped lead the Tigers to an 8-3 record this past season, losing to Dublin Scioto 31-21 in the first round of the Division II playoffs.
GopherHole recently caught up with Robinson.
Gopher Hole: You signed with Minnesota in February and committed in late January. What was the main reason that you decided Minnesota was where you want to play college football?
Malcolm Robinson: I de-committed from Purdue and committed a week before the signing period. Coach (Ed) Warinner (Minnesota Offensive Line/ Run Game Coordinator) eventually came in and recruited me. I didn’t fully turn it down, but I told him that I wasn’t really that interested at the time and then Coach Fleck came in the next week and basically, it changed everything. He came in and gave me his pitch. Just told me all the things that the program was going to be doing over the next couple of years and I wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to row the boat with Coach Fleck and the Minnesota staff.
Gopher Hole: Obviously, Coach Fleck is an exciting dynamic personality. He hasn’t coached a game at Minnesota, but people are excited about him. What makes him so different than the average football coach?
Malcolm Robinson: I’m not sure about the entire nation and different college coaching systems, but in my recruiting, Coach Fleck, came out and being the head coach, you are used to hearing that you are so much better than everybody, whether you are or you aren‘t. That is just the way that you say it, but Coach Fleck, I felt like was more feeling for me when he came in to recruit me. He didn’t even know me, but he told me that he loved me. That is different. It is a different thing and that makes a huge impact, because his goals were so similar to what my goals were and he is a young coach and he is trying to make a difference and he is trying to prove everybody wrong and I could say that I am trying to do the same thing.
Gopher Hole: You had been committed to Purdue and they had a coaching change, just like Minnesota. Did that makes it tough that all of a sudden you didn’t know where you were going to end up?
Malcolm Robinson: My recruiting coach, Coach (Marcus) Freeman, who is now at Cincinnati. That was the guy for me. He meant a lot to me. Recruited me for a long time. I really wanted to play for the guy, so when I finally popped that Purdue offer, I knew I wanted to play for him and the rest of the coaches. I met Coach Hazel. He is a great guy. I remember taking a visit with my mom and my mom cried in his office. It was a great day. I really got along with the coaching staff. They gave me a chance to play Big Ten football, which was something that I always wanted, so when it came to changing coaches, it was a bigger impact than I expected. The new coaching staff, great people, great coaching staff, great guys, but it didn’t seem like the best fit for me. When the Minnesota offer came in, it was a blessing.
Gopher Hole: What other schools were you really considering at the end?
Malcolm Robinson: If it wasn’t Minnesota, I still think that I would be playing at Purdue, which once again, I am blessed to be offered and to be committed to Purdue. They are going to be a great team. They have great things in their future. I would have been blessed and humbled to play for Coach (new Boilermaker head coach) Brohm for the Purdue Boilermakers. At the time, I know that I was being heavily recruited by OU (Ohio University). Actually, a couple guys from Purdue that didn’t get to keep their scholarships, due to the coaching change, committed to OU, so it kind of seemed like the right thing to do. It was something that I was taking note of, but when the Minnesota thing came up, it kind of just threw all that out the window and my focus was on something else. I still think that if Minnesota had never offered up, I would have committed to Purdue.
Gopher Hole: You visited Minnesota in January. Had you ever been to Minnesota before?
Malcolm Robinson: I had never even been on a plane before, so it was amazing. I don‘t know about other athletes and recruiting trips, but this was one of the best recruiting trips I ever took. It was a 13 hour trip. I had never been over here. Everything was different. Just the culture’s different. The way the fans are. They are insane. The football culture around there is just amazing. Everything about Minneapolis and St. Paul is amazing.
Gopher Hole: What all did you get a chance to see and do during your visit?
Malcolm Robinson: We visited the Mall of America. It was strange having a roller coaster inside a mall. I spent a lot of time with Steve Richardson, the top defensive tackle at Minnesota and probably, in my opinion, in the Big Ten, if not the nation. Great guy. Showed me around campus. Showed me the in and outs of the Minnesota life. We ate at some fantastic restaurants and etcetera. Sat down with Coach (Bryce) Paup. Listen to him tell a couple of stores, but he doesn’t talk about his stories as much I expected him, too. Went through a couple of defensive schemes and just had a good time .
Gopher Hole: You mentioned Steven Richardson, who is a little bit of an undersized guy, but has been very effective in college. Is he someone that you really hope that you can learn a lot from this year?
Malcolm Robinson: Yes. It was a blessing that I got to spend a couple of days with him on my official. I am excited to get with him as soon as I get on campus. He is a great guy. He talked about being an undersized player. He was talking to me about a lot of schools didn’t think that he was good enough, but Minnesota gave him the chance.
Gopher Hole: I don’t know if you saw on Twitter, but he had a really good game against Northwestern, which is near where he is from and that he used that as a motivating factor?
Malcolm Robinson: Yes and that is huge. When you think about it, I’m not the biggest guy in the world either. He is a great person, too. I remember him showing his hands. It felt like a brick. I can’t understand how someone swings so hard, like he was hitting walls all day. He is probably 5-11 and full of muscle. Just feels like a big rock.
Gopher Hole: Have you gotten to know any of the other incoming recruits very well?
Malcolm Robinson: Yes. We are actually in a group chat. We talk pretty much every day. All the new recruits. There are amazing guys. I can’t wait to play with them. Talent is very high, but the character is even higher. That changes the whole game. Guys that you can play with that are not only talented, but they are very coachable. Put everything on the line for their brother, so it is like getting another blessing for me to play with guys like these.
Gopher Hole: Do you know who you are going to be rooming with yet?
Malcolm Robinson: I have no clue yet. It doesn’t really matter. Awesome teammates.
Gopher Hole: When are you coming up here then?
Malcolm Robinson: I think that I am reporting June 6th.
Gopher Hole: It sounds like academics have always been important to you. Have you thought much about what you are going to major in?
Malcolm Robinson: I am thinking about majoring in Marketing. Something in the Marketing field. I know that being a coach is big to me, so becoming a GA (graduate assistant) right after is big also.
Gopher Hole: Have the coaches talked to you much about their expectations for you for the upcoming season as a freshman. Have they talked to you about possibly playing as a freshman or redshirting and getting bigger and stronger?
Malcolm Robinson: The coaches aren’t expecting me to redshirt at all. That is an honor for a coach to tell you wouldn’t be redshirted. I am not going to train to get redshirted or anything like that. Minnesota is limited at the defensive tackle position, knowing that they only have a couple of seniors and a junior and that’s it, so I am coming in and working on my strength. Hopefully, get a little bigger, get a little faster and hopefully, I am ready to go on Saturdays.
Gopher Hole: I know that you played in the big Ohio North-South All-Star game and scored a touchdown. What was that experience like?
Malcolm Robinson: Oh man, you played football since kindergarten and never scored a touchdown, that was probably one of the greatest moments in my football playing career. Man, I did not quit smiling. .
Gopher Hole: Did you know that you were maybe going to get a chance to play running back? Had you been working on that in the practices?
Malcolm Robinson: I was repping in at the wing spot in practice. Coach said that he had a play for me to score, but I didn’t believe him and he actually called it.
Gopher Hole: Are you going to be working on the Gopher running back coach and let them know that you know how to get into the end zone?
Malcolm Robinson: You know, I told Coach Fleck that I have a lot of versatility in me now. “If anything happens and you need a little Wing T running back,” he can just throw me in there real quick.
Gopher Hole: You had a great career at Massillon Washington. You finished 8-3 and you beat your big rival Canton McKinley. I’m originally from Ohio, but I don’t think people from Minnesota know how big of a rivalry that is. How would you describe how important it was to beat them as a senior?
Malcolm Robinson: You know, the Massillon-McKinley game, you don’t understand it until you live it. It is way bigger. When you look at it, it is about 100 times bigger than that. You are a five-year kid and it is Christmas time. It is amazing. One of the biggest games in high school history. Red (McKinley’s colors) is nowhere to be seen in the whole city of Massillon, so it is a huge game and just winning that game means a whole lot. You put a lot preparation in it. The city is really involved in. You make a lot of people proud. I actually approached the game a little different this year and not making it bigger than what it was. It’s another game. I played calmly and we ended up pulling out a win. A close win. Two points (21-19), I think it was, so it was a great time.
Gopher Hole: Were you born in Massillon?
Malcolm Robinson: I was not born in Massillon. I was born in Dayton, Ohio. Grew up in Xenia, Ohio for a couple of years, but my whole entire family is from Massillon. My grandfather was a Tiger. Great grandfather was a Tiger and so on and so on.
Gopher Hole: Being from that area, you always hear about if you are born in Massillon, you get a miniature football in your crib.
Malcolm Robinson: I missed out on that.
Gopher Hole: Right, but how do you explain to others about how big football is in that part of the country?
Malcolm Robinson: You know, there is no way to explain it. Words can’t explain how big it is. I tell people, that you have to come down here. Just come to Massillon for a week and you’ll see how big football is in Massillon. You come to Massillon and it is football, football, football and when football season is over, it is nothing until football is back again.
Gopher Hole: Have you played any other sports besides football in high school?
Malcolm Robinson: I wrestled for a year. In high school, I think I lettered as a freshman in wrestling and I gave it up. I wanted to be strictly a football player. I want to work on my talents. That’s what a lot of guys do in Massillon. We play a lot of sports, but we know once football season comes around, we are football players. We have an indoor facility and we are training 365 days a year.
Gopher Hole: What do you see as your strengths as a football player?
Malcolm Robinson: I think that my speed was a big strength for me this season. I can move under 5 flat and I weigh 275 pounds, so you know I didn’t have to wear and tear my body down against big offensive linemen. My hands are pretty good. I like the way I use my hands. I can work on everything. All my talents aren’t superior. I can better myself every day, but my biggest attribute is my knowledge of football. I stay up really late watching film. I’m watching film all the time. When you know what two plus two equals four on the football field is. If you’ve got a guard on his heels and another guard nose forward ready to take your head off, you need to know what is coming and that really puts you ahead of the game.
Gopher Hole: What things are you working on to continue to improve yourself as a player?
Malcolm Robinson: Everything. All-around. Weight from wise. Speed wise Taking care of my body. No injuries. That is the goal. No injuries. Working on bettering yourself and becoming a better you every single day. That is the way that Coach Fleck coaches it and that is the way that I am going to achieve it.
Gopher Hole: The Gophers open their schedule on a Thursday night against Buffalo August 31st. What is it going to mean to you to walk onto the field in front of 50,000 fans?
Malcolm Robinson: You know, it is going to mean everything to me. Minnesota fans are the best fans in the country. Minnesota is the best school in the country. To wear a jersey that has an “M” on it means a lot to me. All the players at Minnesota put their blood, sweat and tears on this football field and on this jersey and things like that. It is a true blessing. I am so excited.
Gopher Hole: You tweeted something recently about wearing the number 75 and that number means a lot to you because of Mean Joe Greene. What do you know about him and why does that number mean so much to you?
Malcolm Robinson: I started playing contact football while I was in kindergarten and the first clip that I was shown of a football player, my dad showed me, was Mean Joe Greene. I remember him having a mean club in his pass rush. I remember in little league, always wanting a club like Mean Joe Greene. Growing up, I just loved him. He was one of my favorite football players. Didn’t get to experience what my dad did or have the experience of watching him, but watching highlights of him was amazing and to be able to wear 75 is an honor and hopefully, I can make a name out of it.