2B - December 12, 2011 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com SPORTFSMONDw COLUMN Following B GI Moments before the 2011 Heisman Trophy win- ner was announced Saturday night; the dual threat Robert Griffin III was seated next to Andrew Luck, who's widely considered the perfect NFL prospect. History said it would be either Luck or Griffin r . who heard his name called, j as 10 of the" last12 win- ners hadbeen TIM quarterbacks. ROHAN Some- where, Denard Robinson was watching. Griffin looked cool and calm. He was the odds-on favorite, though Luck's team won more games and made a BCS bowl. Earlier, the Baylor quarter- back's stats flashed across the screen. Half of his 36 touchdown passes were 36 yards or longer. His 11 yards per pass attempt were third-best in Division-I history. And his 192.31 passer efficiency rating - if maintained in his bowl game - would be the best of all time. "A quarterback first, (but) fast and agile enough to also be a world-class hurdler," said ESPN announcer Chris Fowler, asa montage of Griffin's highlights rolled. "Attacking obstacles full- speed is innate. "Magnetic, always positive, Griffin lifted the Bears through their low points. With toughness, he took more hits and provided heroics. Dynamic - and con- fusing for defenders who had no answer for Griffin's arsenal. Mistake-free precision to slice with screen passes, then deliver daggers deep with stunning unmatched marksmanship." Across the board, Griffin's numbers were more impressive than Luck's. His story was bet- ter too. Taking a mediocre Big12 team to the brink of a BCS game while beating Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech in November built Heisman momentum. Signature momentsbuilt Grif- fin's legend. He downed Okla- homa on a beautiful touchdown pass with eight seconds left, and for the first month of the season everyone loved to talk about how he had more touchdowns than incompletions. The All-American hurdler became known as a lethal quarterback who could run, instead of a lethal runner who could throw. His nickname "RGIII" became part of the college football lexi- con. Then he declared, "I think Baylor just won it's first Heis- man," after he accounted for four touchdowns in the Bears' season- ending win over Texas. Stories emerged about the 6-foot-2, 220- pound signal caller. Everyone formed an opinion. And everyone liked RGIII, the congenial and electrifying Baylor Bear. Griffin's 3,998 passing yards, 72-percent completion rate and 36 total touchdowns may have been enough to win the Heisman, but he added more than 600 rush- ing yards and nine more rushing touchdowns for good measure. Luck's stats couldn't compare. Luck was the first to start applauding beforethe Heis- man trustee could even finish announcing Griffin's name as the winner. When she did finish, she shouted, "RGIII!" She, too, had fallen for his allure. A SUPERSTAR OFF THE FIELD Michigan quarterback Denard "Shoelace" Robinson said Friday he planned on watching the Heis- man Trophy ceremony. He may have witnessed Griffin, a speed- ster who's two inches taller and a more prolific passer, hoist the Heisman. Michigan coach Brady Hoke said he thought Shoelace deserved to be considered for the award. "I can't sit here and rattle off statistics, but in the Big Ten con- ference he took ateam to 10-2," Hoke said. "I'm not a bigstats guy - but what he did (for this team)." To be clear, Robinson's sta- tistics didn't sing. He threw 14 interceptions - just a handful of quarterbacks threw more. He topped 200 yards passingtwice. Griffin passed that mark in all but one of his games. But Hoke saw Heisman-like intangibles and talent in Robin- son. "I knew he would say that," Robinson responded. "He knows what kind of player Iam. And I think I should be there, one day. Hopefully. We'll see." He already has a Heisman- worthy smile and a personality that the nation is begging to fall in love with. Plus, his nickname, stiff-arm pose was captured by Daily photographer Sam Wolson? Robinsonplayed out of his mind for those four weeks. For four weeks he was the Heisman favor- ite. To win the Heisman, he has to play that way all season. He doesn't have to be perfect. Griffin wasn't. But he was close. Somewhere alongthe way, Griffin learned that his athleti- cism was best suited as a comple- ment to his arm. He followed the lead of Auburn's Cam Newton, Ohio State's Troy Smith and Flor- ida's Tim Tebow as dual-threat quarterbacks who ran and threw their wayto the Heisman. Robinson could do the same, only if he continues to flourish - as he did down the stretch against Nebraska and Ohio State - in Al Borges's offense. The coaches say Robinson's starting to get "it." He's starting to go through his progressions. He's starting to read defenses bet- ter. He's startingto make better decisions. At first, Robinson admitted he was confused about the right time to take off and run. Now, it's becoming second nature, once he first stays true to his progression. "Don't force the ball - that's the biggest thing," Robinson said. "I've been forcing it. I got good legs and I've got to use them when I need to.... Sometimes, I forced it and I'd run it when I didn't have to run it. So I learned how to progress, go through everything, and do what I have to do." After the bye week, fifth-year senior wide receiver Junior Hemingway saw a different quarterback emerge the last five weeks of the season. Borges said there would be growing pains and Robinson had endured the worst of them. "I wasn't really worried about it," Hemingway said. "Like every- body else, I knew: Denard's still learning. Coming from the spread to actually dropping back and reading - one read, two read - and then coming back. "And I knew he was still learn- ing. It just came down to a point where he was going to go where he needed to go with the ball - what he thought was best." Next year, it'll be time to make plays, not strides. TIME IS PRECIOUS Robinson has only his senior year left to realize his dream. Of the last (now) 11 quarter- backs to win the Heisman, only Eric Crouch had less-than-stellar passingnumbers. Minus Crouch, the dual-threat winners have averaged 3,200 passing yards, a 68-percent completion rate, 803 rushingyards and 45 total touchdowns. All four - Griffin, Newton, Smith and Tebow - were talented rushers,yet averaged just six interceptions in their Heisman seasons. The statistical expectation is daunting, and it may have cost Luck the trophy. Robinson's 2010 season, his first under Borges: 2,056 passing yards, a 56-percent completion rate, 1,163 rushing yards, 34 total touch- downs and 14 interceptions. Robinson's trek to improve will be all uphill, opening the season against Alabama at Cowboys Sta- dium before playing on the road at Notre Dame, Nebraska and Ohio State - all of which have an axe to grind with Michigan. The sched- ule could swallow him whole or provide the spotlighthis Heisman campaign needs. He'll have to put it all together like Griffin did. The Baylor quar- terback posted similar numbers the year prior to his Heisman year, but in2010 he threw fewer touchdowns (22 compared to 36), more interceptions (8to6) and the Bears had a worse record (7-5 compared to 9-3), losing their final three regular season games. His coaches raved how he then took his proficiency and accuracy to heights previously reserved only for Luck. Griffin seems to have been fur- ther along than Robinson at that point, but it's possible Robinson follows Griffin's path. Then their stories will sound the same: a dual-threat quarter- back with one-of-a-kind speed that decided to throw first, run second. Both withstood their program's doldrums to carry their teams to national prominence. If we get ahead of ourselves for a second, imagine Fowler reading off a similar description during Robinson's montage in 2012. Griffin's personality and legs bought him attention. His arm won him the Heisman. Robinson will have to do the same. -Rohan can be reached at trohan@umich.edu or on Twitter @TimRohan. KELLY KLEIN/AP and ALDEN REISS/DAILY Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin 11l (top) won Baylor's first-ever Heisman Tro- phy on Saturday. Michigan's Denard Robinson is a 2012 Heisman hopeful. "Shoelace," is ready-made for the spotlights. "I bring an energy every time you see me," Robinson said Fri- day, when asked to describe what kind of player he is. "I bring a smile and I want to bright up everybody Isee." WHAT ROBINSON MUST DO TO BECOME A 2012 HEISMAN CANDIDATE How much more improving does Robinson need to do? He needs to become a lethal quarterback who can run, instead of a lerhal runner who can throw. For Robinson to win, he better have watched Griffin closely this season. ' Robinson's team is going to have to win at least nine games, beating a few rivals along the way. Robinson must be the star. Griffin was Superman for the Bears, and so losing three games became acceptable because every- one assumed Griffin had no help. Robinson must continue to cre- ate those signature moments he has already authored - like the comeback wins over Notre Dame and Northwestern this season. He must limit the disastrous shake- your-head moments, like when he couldn't figure out Michigan State's cornerback blitzes or when he couldn't produce one last touchdown in Iowa City. If Michi- gan slips, it can't be his fault. Remember the first four games of his breakout 2010 season? Remember when his Heisman 4 VOLL E YBAL In Gainesville, Gators boot 'M' from Sweet 16 Michigan rallies to top Badgers By LIZ NAGLE Daily Sports Writer By MATT SPELICH Daily Sports Writer On Friday, the Michigan wom- en's volleyball team's fan boat ran out of juice on the Florida bayou. Sinking ever deeper into the murky swamp MICHIGAN 0 brush of FLORIDA 3 the Ste- phen C. O'Connell Center, the Wolverines were down two sets to nothing, against a pack of hungry Gators, chomping atthe bit as they came into the third set. As premonitions of the season's end crept over Michigan, the team came out swinging for its life. The Wolverines played with the unwavering conviction that their season was not about totend in Gainesville, Fla. Senior outside hitter Alex Hunt fought back the hardest, racking 10 kills in the final set, including the tying game point, 25-25. But the Gators took a one-two chomp outofthe drowning Wolverines to dash their hopes of reaching the NCAA Championship. No. 17 Florida swept No. 22 Michigan in three sets in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. "Florida played phenomenal," said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. "In talking with some of their fans and coaches after the game, they said that's the best game Florida played all year. After watching them fall to Illinois, it became clear thatthey had saved their best game for us. "I don't think we played poorly, I just think that we didn't do a very good job of stopping them. I know we're not happy to have finished our season, but I think we over- came a lot of adversity this year and found a way to get deep into the tournament. I'm proud of our team." In many ways, Rosen should be proud of his team's performance. Walkingaway fromNo. 6 Stanford with the win - let alone getting all the way to the Sweet 16 - was far more than anyone could have expected from Michigan, a team that could barely manage to pull out three wins in the first half of Big Ten play back in October. "Winning only three games in the first half of the season was something I've never experienced before with Michigan volleyball before," Hunt said. "The whole thing was an identity crisis. We had a lot of doubt in ourselves. It was the first time our team ever looked at itself and said, 'Wow, we are really bad.' "I think we reallyturned every- thing around in the second half of the season. I'm really proud of how it all came together, and I'm thankful for the people that stuck by us through our rough and darktimes. They are the one's who helped us flip it and get us to the Sweet 16, something no one thought we'd be able to accom- plish." Senior middle blocker Courtney Fletcher, who, like many of her teammates, has devoted her entire life to this sport, feels the engulf- ing void of a world without volley- ball. It's a reality she knew would one day come for her, like it comes for every athlete, but its definitive yet freeing nature is indescribable to someone who hasn't experi- enced it first hand. "This whole process has been really disorienting," Fletcher said. "I don't have anything left now. I don't have practice, there's noth- ing I can change about my perfor- mance. It's over. But at the same time, I feel like I've had a great career, and I have no regrets. It's been a bittersweet ride. It wasn't always easy, it wasn't always fun, but it's made me a better person overall. I've made some great friends, played some great volley- ball, but now it's time for the next chapter." As the team traded in its fan boat for a more suitable form of transportation back to Ann Arbor, the image of that final Florida kill hung heavy in the air. But that wasn't all the seniors were think- ing about. Thoughts stretched as far back as the first kills of their careers and spanned as far forward as the next three years - imagining what lies in store for teammates like fresh- man setter Lexi Dannemiller and all the new hitters she'll be setting for in the coming seasons. Rosen, a little more focused on the here-and-now, kept his intro- spections confined to this season. "We had major doubts about that season during that slump in mid-October when we were really struggling," Rosen said. "It's hard to evaluate your team when you're right in the middle of it all, but looking back at some of the choic- es our players made to continue to fight and push through it, I really am proud of them all." Michigan wrestlers of past, present and future visited Cliff Keen Arenaon Sunday, before the home opener WISCONSIN 12 against MICHIGAN 21 Wiscon- sin. And before squaring off with the Badgers, the eighth-ranked Wolverines hosted a free wres- tling clinic. Olympic hopeful and Michigan alum Josh Churella, along with Illinois' Jimmy Kennedy, led the clinic. Michigan wrestlers not in the lineup against Wisconsin also participated. As the clinic concluded, the children flocked to the bleachers to watch the main event. Michi- gan was expecting an easy win handed to them on a silver plat- ter. But after a few early lower- weight wrestlers struggling to score early on, it was up to the Wolverines' last four wrestlers to claim the 21-12 win. Redshirt sophomore Grant Pizzo earned the first points on the board in the 125-pound match with a 9-1 major deci- sion. He stole an early advantage on Wisconsin freshman Austin Hieptas with a takedown, near fall and almost two minutes of riding time in the first period alone. "Individually, I feel I did really well," Pizzoasaid. "I was on my leg attacks and got the major for the team." But after Pizzo's victory, Mich- igan lost four of the next five matches -'matches they should have won. The lone win came from 141-pound fifth-year senior Kellen Russell. Russell fell to No. 4 in the ered by redshirt junior Hunter nation after his 46-match win Collins. In the 184-pound bout, streak came to an end last week- Collins found a late takedown end. But his champion nature after being awarded a technical was notquestioned as he attacked violation on Wisconsin redshirt Wisconsin redshirt freshman freshman Timmy McCall. Thomas Glen. "He was very strong physi- Wisconsin isn't a ranked team, cally," Collins said. "I knew I had whereas Michigan was No. 8. So, to wear him down and eventually why were the Wolverines trailing through the match that's what by four points after six matches? happened." At intermission, Michigan was Collins pushed Michigan into down 12-8. But when the team the lead with his 4-3 finish, but emerged from the locker room, redshirt freshman Max Huntley after the coaches reassured them and redshirt junior Ben Apland that they were capable of more, secured the victory. they wrestled with a different Huntley, at 197 pounds, faced spirit. Fifth-year senior Justin sophomore Badger Jackson Hein. Zeerip rallied for a10-2 win in the After a scoreless first period, 174-pound contest against Badger Hein scored an escape in the sec- Frank Cousins. He catalyzed the ond and Huntley found a reversal team's comeback with his final in the third to tie the match 2-2. takedown to earn a major deci- They went into sudden victory sion. overtime. His thought through- out the match: "Winning." It was his first match at the Cliff Keen Arena and the spec- "I wanted to tators were eager to witness his firsthome win. score. I w'anted "I could hear, 'Let's go Max,' and I wanted to score," Huntley to win for the said. "I wanted to win for the crowd." crowd." Following Huntley was heavy- weight Ben Apland, who sealed the deal. But it was another comeback story. Tobin stole the "He's a fifth-year senior; he lead in the second period, and should be doing that," Pritzlaff Apland had to wrestle his way said. back to an 8-4 win. As a former Wisconsin associ- The coaches walked into the ate head coach, Pritzlaff had a arena with high expectations but different perspective than any- walked out with a bittersweet one else in the arena. He knew taste in their mouths. The team how both teams operated on the won, but it seemed as if it was mat. Pritzlaff left Wisconsin's resting on its laurels. coaching staff to join Michigan "I didn't think we competed this season. as hard as we should have." Prit- Michigan was in desperate zlaff said. "We have a lot of work need of a win, which was deliv- to do."