It's DejaVu All Over Again

They call him Shoelaces up in Ann Arbor. His game is shifty and sleek and if you listen to those who root for the maize and blue, Denard Robinson is the epitome of all things good in college football.

In two games as a starter for the University of Michigan this year, Robinson has thrown for 430 yards and 2 touchdowns while racking up a whopping 455 yards and 3 scores on the ground. His performance thus far has even drawn the praise of former Rich Rodriguez quarterback Pat White who has called Robinson a “Beast.”

Shoelaces is single-handedly resurrecting the Wolverine tradition and proving Rich Rod to be the genius he was hired to be. The more this young signal caller improves his quarterback rating, the more his legend and fan t-shirt tributes will grow.

Believe it or not, Robinson’s emergence as a star also coincides perfectly with Michigan’s return to the Top 25. A feat made even more impressive considering it was done in serendipitous fashion by beating Notre Dame in South Bend on national television.

Now, before we assume this story has the fairy-tale ending that sees everyone yelling “Go Blue” in Pasadena, let’ read the rest of this story, for some reason it sounds very  familiar.

There you go, if you look closer at the writing on the page, you’ll notice every time this story mentions Robinson, you see another name that has been scribbled out. The reason this story sounds so familiar is because it’s the exact same tale we watched unfold with former Wolverine golden boy, Tate Forcier.

In consecutive years, Michigan has opened the season with the same question marks surrounding the team and its coach. They have a new starting QB that is supposed to be a prototypical fit in the Rich Rod offense. Rodriguez is again mired in turmoil and his system has yet to stick with his players.

They opened the season at home with a very winnable game against an inferior opponent. For the second straight year, a win against the Fighting Irish all but guaranteed the U of M a spot in the AP rankings. Feel free to stop me if this is beginning to sound like a replay of last season.

Now, sitting at number 20 in the nation, Shoelaces will rack up another 1,000 all purpose yards while smacking around UMass and Bowling Green. Then, in his most impressive game of the year, Robinson will lead Michigan to a victory against the Big Ten’s perennial bottom feeder, Indiana.

By the time Michigan State rolls around, Robinson will have the Wolverines undefeated and pushing for a spot in the Top 10. But again, this is almost exactly what happened last year with Forcier under center.

This story is not intended to be a declaration that the Wolverines will finish the season below .500 and miss a bowl game for the third straight year but it’s also important to recognize the underlying factors in Robinson’s performance.

Credit is due to Michigan for beating UConn and Notre Dame and starting the season 2-0, but wins over these two programs is hardly something to boast. UConn is the third best team in a conference that has failed to achieve a single marquee win this season, unless you consider Syracuse beating Akron a big win.

As for Notre Dame, they may finally have a coach that will lead them back to respectability in a few years, but it’s a team that is both rebuilding and learning a new scheme that is hardly known for its defensive stoutness. Not to mention they are breaking in two new safeties, a new quarterback and three new starters on the offensive line.

It is also true that Robinson has been much more effective than Forcier in his ability to run the ball, but Robinson is also averaging 20 more rushing attempts per game compared to his predecessor. This may be due to the loss of Brandon Minor and the Wolverines inability to find a suitable number one back, but the reason Robinson is putting up the statistics two people would is because he’s performing the roles of two players each game.

This may be a fine strategy for the Wolverines to employ at the start of the season, but what happens when they get into the heart of the conference schedule. Five of the final seven teams Michigan faces this year will be in contention for a New Year’s Day bowl game and will bring a little more defensive ferocity than the Colonial Athletic Association can provide.

Robinson may prove me wrong and go on to be the second Rich Rod quarterback to fail miserably in the NFL, but without a few compliments in the offense to limit the hits Robinson has to take each game, one has to imagine his durability may become an issue. After all, isn’t that what happened with Tate Forcier last year?

Welcome to BIG TENish Country

After months of speculation the Big Ten has officially given us our first glimpse of what the new conference will look like.  Upon initial review there's nothing to be upset about despite how much the Michigan Wolverines fan base may moan and groan.

The conference will be separated into two six team divisions that break down like so:

          Division 1: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa,
          Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota

          Division 2: Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin,
          Purdue, Indiana and Illinois

Alot of the worry around how the Big Ten decided to align itself into divisions was based on how much tradition the conference lost.  Unfortunately, there was no way to guarantee that all of the rivalries would be preserved. Under the circumstances though, the Big Ten did a stand up job. If you look at a list of the conferences rivalry games, listed below, you can't help but realize how well the conference did in keeping tradition alive.

          Illinois vs. Northwestern for the Land of Lincoln Trophy
          Illinois vs. Ohio State for the Illibuck
          Illinois vs. Purdue for the Purdue Cannon
          Indiana vs. Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket
          Indiana vs. Michigan State for the Old Brass Spittoon
          Iowa vs. Minnesota for the Floyd of Rosedale
          Iowa vs. Wisconsin for the Heartland Trophy
          Michigan vs. Michigan State for the Paul Bunyan Trophy
          Michigan vs. Minnesota for the Little Brown Jug
          Michigan vs. Ohio State, no trophy
          Michigan State vs. Penn State for the Land Grant Trophy
          Minnesota vs. Wisconsin for the Paul Bunyan's Axe
          Ohio State vs. Penn State, no trophy

Of the 13 longstanding rivalries the Big Ten enjoys every year, 7 are preserved by the yearly divisional match-ups.  The Big Ten has taken another step to ensure 4 more rivalries by pairing each conference member with a parnter from the other division to form a guaranteed match-up every year. Those match-up's are as followed:

          Michigan vs. Ohio State, Illinois vs. Northwestern,
          Purdue vs. Iowa, Michigan State vs. Indiana,
          Penn State vs. Nebraska, Wisconsin vs. Minnesota

This means that only two standing rivalries are not guaranteed to happen every year, Michigan St. vs Penn St. and Iowa vs. Wisconsin.  Although attribution can not be provided as to why these match-ups were chosen as the sacrificial lambs, it doesn't take an expert to realize that tradition is the answer. 

We'll begin with Iowa vs. Wisconsin.  This has only been an official trophied rivalry since 2004, easily the least historically significant official rivalry.  After Iowa vs. Wisconsin, the two least historically significant rivalries are Penn St. vs. Ohio St. and Penn St. vs. Michigan St.  The more marketable match-up with the Buckeyes is preserved by way of realignment which leaves Penn St. match-up against the Spartans on the chopping block.

What this realignment also does is create a few new rivalries as well.   Nebraska vs. Michigan and Iowa instantly becomes a very marketable rivalry while the Huskers cross division game against Penn St. allows for a very marketable rivalry as well.  So by my count the Big Ten sacrificed two of its shortest tenured match-ups in favor of three instantly marketable games the conference can build on.

The most important detail to remember here is the importance of the Big Ten Championship game in the overall scheme of things.  The conference's cash cow has always been U of M vs. OSU and splitting the two teams into different divisions creates the possibility that fans might be able to see this game twice a year.  This also gives the Wolverines a second chance at winning the Big Ten despite constantly losing to the Buckeyes year in and year out.  At the end of the day, the Big Ten made itself stronger by doing what many considered unthinkable in separating the Wolverine's and Buckeye's.