The story behind Brad Robbins' now-famous mustache has to do with Michigan team's mentality
Michigan Wolverines football graduate punter Brad Robbins only got to punt twice in U-M’s 51-7 win over Colorado State to open the season. However, Robbins got more air time than hang time, with his mustache drawing rave reviews from the ABC broadcast team.
“That was pretty cool. It was what it was,” Robbins said of his time in the spotlight due to his facial hair.
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There’s a story behind the mustache, too, and it serves as a visual reminder for Robbins to focus on the details.
“Where this originated from, so during the offseason, one of the things we all focused on as a team was really high attention to detail,” Robbins explained. “And you guys are going to think it’s funny, me saying attention to detail. What does a mustache have to do with it, right? And really, a lot of us, people changed our routine and really tightened things down.
“I’ll go back to a story with our team in the weight room. You bring a couple different shoes to each lift — squat shoes, tennis shoes, cleats. The way you set them up, last year we would set them up directly side by side. And that was good — that was last year. We won a Big Ten championship. That was what it was, right? But really, we’re trying to go from here to here, we’re not trying to make these giant gains now. So what we did is we flipped 1 of the shoes around, and we measured the space of the shoes that were here versus one of the ones that was flipped around. And it really tightened down the space in our weight room.
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The Michigan punter continued: “That was one of the things that we really focused on, was that attention to detail thing. I changed my routine. I got a clean-shaven face, left my mustache. I kind of pride myself on being a guy who has high attention to detail. This is a mental cue for me. I have no choice. I had 2 reps at punting, right? I have to be perfect to do everything I can to help this team win.”
Robbins also discussed how he and Michigan graduate kicker Jake Moody, in their 6th and 5th years, respectively, have control over their routines in practice. Special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh takes their input into account, too.
“It feels great, being able to have that opportunity to have your own routine,” Robbins said.
Having been around so long, too, both are naturally leaders.
“Our leadership styles are a little bit different,” Robbins explained of he and Michigan’s kicker. “He’s more of the quiet guy, but he is so consistent and so good at executing and doing his job. And because of that quietness that he has, when he talks, everyone wants to hear what he says, because what he says matters.
“I, myself, kind of pride myself on being more of a social butterfly, a guy who’s talking to everybody on the team, making sure everybody’s OK, trying to develop a bunch of these different relationships. It’s bigger than just being a good punter or a kicker, it’s about being a great teammate. I think that’s huge.”
