Like most college football viewers, I have always loved watching exciting players like Denard Robinson play. Almost every year it seems that there are some players who are so attractive to watch, that you support them no matter what team they are playing for. What usually, but not always, captures the attention of most fans is the glare or explosiveness of the player. Sometimes it’s just his moxie or toughness that wins over fans and makes it hard to cheer them on.

There are already three players I can’t rally against this year: Stanford’s Andrew Luck, Baylor’s Robert Griffin III, and Michigan’s Denard Robinson. All three are exciting players, full of moxie and seem to have great character and leadership qualities. But only Denard Robinson has that certain video game quality to his gameplay that he only appears a few times in a decade. Since Reggie Bush played for USC, I have not seen a player like Robinson that all kids want to be when they play the EA Sports NCAA Football video game.

It wouldn’t even surprise me in the least if so many Ohio State alumni had kids who can’t resist the allure of playing the video game with Michigan for a chance to control Denard Robinson. When Reggie Bush was at USC, I had friends who worked for opposing conference teams who would ask me to buy autographed Reggie Bush t-shirts for their children for Christmas. Despite parents’ deep dislike for USC, the smile could not be wiped from their faces when their children opened that gift.

As obvious as it is that Denard Robinson is one of those few players who transcends his team affiliation, it was his interview with the GameDay varsity team after the Notre Dame win that convinced me. When it was mentioned that he had rushed through a combined 446 yards in the game, he was clearly genuinely surprised by the news (watch his reaction to the 2:06 mark in the video). This exemplified the winning mindset that I try to instill in all of my clients. True big winners and champions are so consumed with being in the moment that they have no idea how well they performed until after the competition is over. If you are monitoring your performance during the competition, you are not 100% and you are not performing at your best.

Denard Robinson and his Michigan team are still a work in progress and still have a long way to go to get back to the top of the college football world. But with Denard’s continued development and the leadership and training of Brady Hoke (who I wrote about earlier here), the future looks very bright for both Robinson and Michigan.

Posted in The Mind Side Blog Supertao.com