Denard Robinson: Return to Michigan is ‘A Dream Come True’

Former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson is a legend in Ann Arbor, one of the shining beacons in an otherwise disappointing era of Wolverines football. He led the Wolverines to an 11-win season in 2011, set national quarterback rushing records and proved to be a great representative of the program.

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Following his NFL career with Jacksonville (2013-16), Robinson got into coaching, starting as an analyst at Jacksonville University. The Jaguars hired him back for offensive quality control before moving him to the scouting department. He and new Michigan player personnel director Tom Gamble worked together to find players others might have missed, and now they’ll do the same at U-M.

Jim Harbaugh hired Robinson as his new assistant director of player personnel under Gamble, completing his 2022 staff.

“I’m excited,” Robinson told former Michigan All-American Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches Podcast. “To be honest with you, I was just excited about being around the game. I always knew, thought in the back of my head I was going to do something along the lines of football when I was done playing. Whether it was coaching or being in the player personnel department. It was something I was going to be around. 

“I love the game too much to just walk away from it.”

Now, Robinson will be doing his work back in Ann Arbor, having gotten a taste of both the coaching and the front office side in Jacksonville. He and Gamble worked well together in Jacksonville and will be reunited at Michigan, where Gamble spent three years with Harbaugh earlier in the coach’s tenure.

Thought he’s been hands-on coaching on the field, Robinson loved scouting.

“I like both, but I enjoy seeing how everything comes together on the player personnel side,” Robinson told Jansen. “To see how you build a team, fill the holes you’re missing on the team — it’s cool to see that side of football. To see a guy’s background, how a guy would fit with them …”

Last year, Elijah Mitchell was one he scouted out of Louisiana-Lafayette, having seen something on film he loved. Mitchell ended up as San Francisco’s sixth-round pick and was a rookie steal, rushing for 878 yards in 10 games.

Robinson will be studying high school rather than college film now, looking for guys like Hassan Haskins and Ronnie Bell. Both were overlooked but shined at U-M … still is, in Bell’s case. 

“I’m excited to find that guy nobody’s seen,” Robinson said, citing Mitchell as the example. “You see that in some players. Now that I’ve had success on this level, it’s just exciting … that’s the type of stuff I enjoy. I love doing it. 

“[You’re] looking for the ‘it’ factor. A guy has got to have the ‘it.’ You can’t coach it and you can’t put it in somebody. You’ve either got it or you don’t got it. He had great vision. You can’t teach a guy how to run the ball. It’s like an art. Watching that made me realize he had that ‘it’ factor.”

Just like Robinson did when he played, only everyone saw it since he played at such a high level of football in high school. 

Now, the former All-American gets to help his alma mater find guys who weren’t as fortunate, and he can’t wait.

“I’ll be back in a couple weeks. I’m excited,” Robinson said. “I’ll be trying to find those diamonds in the rough, have them at the Big House running wild and having fun — being great young men, becoming great men … on the campus of the University of Michigan. I can’t wait to interact with these athletes and these families. It’s going to be a life-changing situation. I want to help mold these guys and be a part of it. 

“I can’t even put it in words. Everybody asks me that [how it will feel], and I really don’t have an answer for that. It’s just a dream come true. It’s something that you dream about, you know? I feel like that’s something I have to wait until [I get there] …  I’m just so excited about the situation.”