While offenses around the country struggled to shake off the rust of the offseason, Michigan sophomore quarterback Denard Robinson led touchdowns on three of his first four possessions en route to a 30-10 win over UConn.

Robinson, who got the start over last year’s starter, Tate Forcier, looked poised and confident all afternoon. The sophomore rushed 29 times for 197 yards and a touchdown and completed 19-of-22 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown against an experienced Husky defense.

He became just the fifth quarterback in the past five years to exceed 185 yards both on the ground and through the air, and if that’s an omen of what’s to come, things are certainly looking up in Ann Arbor. The others were West Virginia’s Pat White (under Rich Rodriguez), Texas’ Vince Young (twice), Missouri’s Brad Smith, and UAB’s Joseph Webb.

So is the performance against UConn what we can expect from the offense all season? Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

It was certainly a great start to the season and refreshing for Michigan fans to see an offense that was virtually unstoppable for 60 minutes, but we have to be cautiously optimistic.

Last year started off with a bang as well, dominating Western Michigan and jumping out to a 4-0 record before falling back to earth in conference play and going just 1-7 the rest of the season. The true test of whether this offense is for real will be determined in conference play.

That being said, there were some very positive signs that point toward a much improved offense from a year ago.

1. Drive sustainability

Michigan had four touchdown drives of more than 70 yards, as well as a 75-yard drive that resulted in a field goal. Perhaps none was more important than the very first one.

After forcing a three-and-out on UConn’s first possession, Michigan took over just four yards in front of its own end zone. Fourteen plays later, sophomore running back Vincent Smith carried it in from 12 yards out, putting Michigan ahead 7-0. Call it a statement drive: 96 yards (plus 13 yards that Michigan lost on a personal foul committed by guard Patrick Omameh), 12 runs, two passes, and seven points.

Robinson rushed six times on the opening drive for 58 yards and completed both passes he threw for 23 yards. Just like that, questions of whether Robinson was ready to run the offense were answered.

Last season, Michigan had just 13 scoring drives of over 70 yards all year against FBS opponents (Michigan had four against Delaware State). For the Michigan offense to go out there with a quarterback making his first career start and put together five long scoring drives against an above average defense, it was quite a statement.

2. Ball possession

Robinson’s ability to move the ball kept Michigan’s suspect defense off the field. Michigan won the time of possession battle 36:52 to 23:08, the best since Rodriguez took over at Michigan in 2008. The next closest was in last season’s opener against Western Michigan, when Michigan held the ball for 34:20. In fact, that was the only game that Michigan won the time of possession battle last season and just the fourth time in his 25 games at Michigan.

While having the ball for longer than your opponent doesn’t necessarily lead to a win, it’s no secret that Michigan’s weakness this season is the defense. When UConn had the ball, it was able to move pretty effectively against the Michigan defense. Fortunately for Michigan, the Husky receivers didn’t help out quarterback Zach Frazer, dropping several open passes, and Michigan cornerback J.T. Floyd was able to force a fumble inside the five-yard line.

Make no mistake about it, the 10 points given up was not indicative of how well the defense played. It allowed eight plays of 15 yards or more and the game should have been much closer than it was.

The offense’s ability to keep the ball out of Frazer’s hands kept the defense off the field and the strength of the team on the field.

3. Ball security

Turnovers have plagued Rodriguez’s offenses the past two seasons. In 2008, Michigan committed 30, and in 2009, it gave the ball away 28 times. Saturday was the first time since Rodriguez’s second game in Ann Arbor on Sept. 6, 2008 that Michigan has gone turnover-free.

It was great to see Robinson hold onto the ball on his 29 carries and throw perfect passes to his receivers. His decision-making looked far better than last year and if he keeps making the right reads, the offense will continue to plow ahead.

4. Blocking

The offensive line is definitely a strength this season and that was no more apparent than on the first drive of the season. Center David Molk, guards Stephen Schilling and Patrick Omameh, and tackles Perry Dorrestein and Mark Huyge constantly opened up huge holes for Robinson and running backs Michael Shaw and Vincent Smith to run through.

Molk is definitely the heart and soul of the line, providing solid snaps and great protection. When he went down midway through the season last year was when Michigan’s offense started to struggle because it meant juggling the rest of the line to replace him. Provided the line stays healthy this year, it will remain a huge strength for the running game.

In a Rich Rodriguez offense, the receivers have to be just as adept at blocking downfield as they are running routes and catching passes. On several runs, the great blocking by Martavious Odoms, Darryl Stonum, Roy Roundtree, and Kelvin Grady sprung more yards than what should have been. That’s the reason Rodriguez starts Odoms, at just 5’8” and 175 pounds at outside receiver. Despite his small frame, he’s not afraid to throw a block to help earn extra yards.

5. Third-down conversions

Michigan converted 14-of-19 third-down conversions on Saturday, eight of them of more than six yards. Last season, Michigan averaged just under 40 percent on third-downs, which was exactly middle-of-the-pack in the national rankings.

That certainly won’t happen every week, but with a quarterback like Robinson, who can beat you with his feet and his arm, converting third downs is a little bit easier. In fact, this might be the most important aspect of the offense this season, since converting third downs keeps the ball in your hands, keeps your defense off the field, and gives you a chance to score.

It will be interesting to see how the offense handles adversity this season when forced to come from behind. Saturday’s game was never in doubt, as Michigan jumped out to a 21-0 lead before UConn closed the gap to 21-10 at halftime.

Michigan came out in the second half and used a 19-play, 74-yard field goal drive that took 8:05 off the clock. Robinson was effective when he established the running game, both on his own and with Shaw and Smith. That opened up the receivers, which made his throws that much easier. But what happens when Michigan is down 10 in the fourth quarter and can’t afford to keep running? I think that’s the biggest question at this point.

Rodriguez said after the game that he doesn’t plan to let Robinson run 29 times a game, and that’s a good thing. He took some hits and even had to come out of the game for a few plays with a hip bruise. According to Rodriguez, that’s what worked for this game, and Robinson didn’t need to throw more. But that won’t be the case for every game, especially since Michigan’s defense won’t be able to hold every opponent to 10 points.

Overall, it was a great way to start the season and even more encouraging than last season’s opener for a couple of reasons: because UConn is a good team, picked by many experts to win the Big East this season, and because while Robinson is a first-year starter, this is his second year in the system.

I’m certainly not knocking Tate Forcier, but last year no one knew what to expect. As a true freshman he came out of the gates hot, leading Michigan to a 4-0 record, but then everything caught up to him when conference play began and he fell back to earth.

This year, Michigan has a quarterback with a year of experience under his belt, so the performance was much more expected.

I still think a 7-5 record is where the team is headed this season, but next weekend’s opponent, Notre Dame, is one of the opponents I picked to beat Michigan. We’ll find out next Saturday if this week’s performance was indicative of the rest of the season or if it was just an upswing on the pendulum.

Starting spots usually aren’t won or lost in spring practice, but young guys get a chance to prove themselves and gain experience while everyone else gets to show how much they developed throughout the winter.

Development was apparent in one key player today, as sophomore quarterback Denard Robinson lived up to the hype he’s been garnering all spring with a fantastic performance in Michigan’s annual spring game.

On the first possession of the scrimmage, Robinson guided the first-team offense down the field on a touchdown drive that included a nice bootleg pass to Roy Roundtree. Robinson ran it in from 10 yards out to cap off the drive.

On his next possession, which the offense started on its own three-yard line, Robinson hit Roundtree perfectly in stride about 25 yards downfield and Roundtree did the rest, outrunning the secondary for a 97-yard touchdown.

Later on, Robinson found Roundtree in the end zone again, this time from 12 yards out.

In the overtime drill, which simulates an overtime possession, starting from the opponent’s 25-yard line, Robinson completed a touchdown pass to Martavious Odoms from about 10 yards out. On his next possession, also the overtime drill, he threaded the needle for a 24-yard pass to Terrance Robinson to set up another touchdown.

By my count, Robinson led five drives, two of them overtime possessions, and all five resulted in touchdowns. Some of this can be attributed to playing against the second-team defense, but with the way Robinson was throwing, it wouldn’t have mattered if the first-team defense was out there or not.

One of the quirks about the spring game is that the quarterback is down once he’s touched in an effort to avoid an injury. On many of Robinson’s runs, he would have picked up significantly more yardage if he had to actually be tackled.

Most importantly, he showed poise in the pocket, where last year he would tuck and run after three milliseconds. A few times, he looked through several reads before pulling it down and running. On a couple of plays, he kept his head up while on the move and delivered an accurate strike to an open receiver.

This wouldn’t be all that significant if you hadn’t seen him play last season. While he dazzled Michigan fans with his feet in open space, his accuracy was terrible to the point where Michigan fans would rather him just run it up the middle for five yards even though the defense knew he’d do exactly that, than even attempt to throw a pass.

Today, he looked comfortable running the offense and seemed to be having as much fun out there as any other player in the maize and blue. About the only aspect that looked like it needed some work was a couple of bubble screens that were either underthrown or led the receiver too far.

I wish the coaches would have switched things up to pit Robinson against the first-team defense, but it was an impressive performance nonetheless.

The development and comfort level was evident and showed how dangerous a Robinson-led offense can be when every pass thrown doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.

Last year, almost every time he lined up in the shotgun the defense knew he was going to run it. He rarely even ran the zone read, the staple of Rich Rodriguez’s offense.

This year, he should know the offense and be able to effectively run the zone read, and if he can prove he has any kind of accuracy, he would be the ideal quarterback for this offense.

I certainly realize it’s a lot of “ifs” and you can’t really jump to conclusions based on the spring game, but at this point, I would say Robinson is the starting quarterback heading into the summer.

Click here to see highlights of the top 10 plays from the spring game.

Notes:

— Tate Forcier, who started all 12 games as a true freshman last year, looked basically the exact same, although he was working with the second-team offense against the first-team defense.

He made some good plays, scrambling away from pressure and hitting the receiver on the run, but he also made some mistakes.

One pass should have been picked off by linebacker Mike Jones and another was forced into quadruple coverage and somehow wasn’t picked. He also made a bad pitch on an option play, which was recovered by the running back for about a 10 yard loss.

On the bright side, he completed a nice, across-the-body touchdown pass to Je’Ron Stokes in the overtime drill.

—Freshman Devin Gardner started out shaky, fumbling a handoff on his first play and throwing an interception deep in his own territory to Obi Ezeh, but seemed to rebound nicely with a 20-yard seam pass to Brandon Moore.

He looked nimble with his feet, but still has a weird throwing motion that needs to be fixed. He could be great a year or two from now, but I’m glad we don’t have to start another true freshman this season. He’s certainly headed for a redshirt barring a freak injury to Robinson or Forcier.

—Roy Roundtree is the real deal. He played just as he finished last season and looks to be Michigan’s go-to guy this year. He caught deep balls and screens and showed some speed in pulling away from the secondary on the 97-yard touchdown.

—The running back position has a lot of guys vying for playing time and no one really stood out today. With Vincent Smith assumed to be the starter out with a torn ACL, it seems to be a three-horse race between Michael Shaw, Michael Cox, and Fitzgerald Toussaint.

It’s perhaps the most important position that needs someone to step up, at least on the offensive side of the ball, after the departure of Brandon Minor, Carlos Brown, and Kevin Grady.

Cox had a nice touchdown run of about 20 yards against the first-team defense and the other guys didn’t do very much.

Freshman Stephen Hopkins showed some good strength and should see playing time as the short-yardage back this season.

—The defense didn’t show much today in the way of schemes or big plays. Ryan Van Bergen and Craig Roh got some good pressure on Forcier and William Campbell looks huge in the middle of the line.

Troy Woolfolk sat out the game with a dislocated finger and converted wide receiver James Rogers started in his place, opposite J.T. Floyd. Jordan Kovacs remains the starter at one of the safety spots, at least until Marvin Robinson and Demar Dorsey arrive on campus this summer.

The secondary will continue to be the group in question as the season nears, but linebacker will also be a position to watch. Seniors Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton both have a lot of experience, but lost some playing time last season. They both started today, with Ezeh recording an interception and Mouton looking solid.

Redshirt sophomore Kenny Demens also looked promising and could factor in this season as well.

—The kicking game looked pretty shaky and will probably be so all season. Redshirt freshman kicker Brendan Gibbons figures to be the placekicker, but the lefty sure can’t punt. Two of his three punt attempts were shanked out of bounds off the side of his foot.

The punter role seems to be incoming freshman Will Hagerup’s to lose, but he hasn’t even arrived on campus yet, so he better live up to his high school acclaim.

—The stadium looked a bit more than half full, despite the frigid temperatures. The Big Ten Network announcers placed the attendance around 30,000, but it looked to be slightly more.

I’m looking forward to a couple of years from now when Michigan can have a nationally televised spring game drawing near 100,000 fans like Alabama did today.