Tag: michael robinson

The social media history of Penn State Whiteouts

A quick social media look back at the Penn State Whiteout.

The Penn State Whiteout is arguably, no, it is the best tradition in not only college sports but all of sports one could argue. A sold-out Beaver Stadium with 106,000 screaming fans and students that make the entire stadium shake, especially the press box.

This year it is rumored the Whiteout game will be played at noon against Ohio State but that could change. Looking back though, the first primetime Whiteout was something special. After rolling out the first student-whiteout in 2004 for a game against Drew Brees and No. 9 Purdue, it was Penn State’s 2005 student whiteout that took things to the next level.

Penn State took on Ohio State in a top ten matchup between the teams in 2005, as Penn State was pulling itself out of some truly forgettable seasons and looking to win back some national respect. The game would get all the bells and whistles including College Gameday coverage.

As far as how the game would go, Penn State would go on to win the game led by then quarterback, current NFL Network analyst [autotag]Michael Robinson[/autotag]. Ohio State was led by Troy Smith, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy the following season but Penn State was able to keep him in check, thanks to the Whiteout conditions the students created for the student-organized whiteout.

Since that moment we have been privy to a ton of fun camera angles, fan views, and reporters being left in shock over the atmosphere the Nittany Lion faithful can create. Thanks to social media we can see some of these moments captured to look back on. And as the whiteout morphed from just a student section gimmick to a full-blown stadium-wide whiteout (the first coming in 2007 against Notre Dame in the first college start for Jimmy Clausen).

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WATCH: Former Nittany Lion Shareef Miller makes nice defensive play in USFL

WATCH: Former Penn State QB breaks down replay of former PSU DL in USFL broadcast

The USFL officially kicked off a new era of spring football this weekend, and those paying attention to Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Breakers and Philadelphia Stars may have seen some familiar names. In the broadcast booth for USA’s coverage of the game was former Penn State quarterback [autotag]Michael Robinson[/autotag], who has enjoyed a nice career in sports media since his playing days came to an end in the NFL. But one player looking to keep his career going, [autotag]Shareef Miller[/autotag], was seen making a nice defensive play in the backfield for New Orleans.

And Robinson was more than happy to break down the play and give a little shoutout to the alma mater.

Miller had 100 career tackles during his time at Penn State, between 2015 and 2018. Miller was a three-star recruit in Penn State’s Class of 2015, and he finished his career with two solid back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018 with 5.5 sacks and 7.5 sacks, respectively.

Miller went on to be a fourth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2019 NFL draft. After just one season, Miller was waived by the Eagles just before the start of the 2020 season. He was quickly signed by the Carolina Panthers and spent one season with the team before being waived once again and returning to the Eagles as a practice squad member. Miller was released again by the Eagles in December 2020, and he made a couple more quick stops with NFL franchises in Arizona and Atlanta before being drafted by the New Orleans Breakers in the inaugural USFL draft.

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Cameron Jordan hired as an analyst for upstart USFL

Cameron Jordan to work as an analyst for upstart USFL alongside Jason Garrett and Michael Robinson:

This flew under the radar when the United States Football League announced it on Tuesday, April 12, but New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan has another big gig coming up soon: working as an analyst for the upstart USFL. This spring league will kick off on Saturday, April 16 at 6:30 p.m. CT with a contest between the New Jersey Generals and Birmingham Stallions from Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Ala.

The game will be broadcast on both NBC and FOX, with Jordan joining a panel of analysts including former NFL head coach Jason Garrett and longtime NFL Network analyst Michael Robinson to share their insight on the game. Play-by-play duties will be managed by NBC Sports’ Jac Collinsworth and Paul Burmeister.

Jordan has worked extensively in sports media over the years — often making studio appearances on ESPN and NFL Network, but most interestingly working as a sideline reporter for the XFL during its short-lived 2020 season. He’s got a clear future in front of cameras whenever he’s finished playing football, and this is another great opportunity for the seven-time Pro Bowler to pad his resume.

He’s certainly playing for the right team to parlay his pro experience into a turn to media. Many of Jordan’s former Saints teammates have since gone on to work for ESPN (Reggie Bush, Benjamin Watson, and Roman Harper), FOX (Jonathan Vilma), NBC (Drew Brees), and other platforms after hanging up their cleats. Longtime Saints head coach Sean Payton is also still weighing offers from interested networks after stepping down from his post earlier this offseason. Jordan is putting himself on the right path to joining them.

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Super Bowl champion Michael Robinson eviscerates Trent Baalke on NFL Network

Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke is certainly not the most popular guy in the league.

Current NFL Network analyst and former fullback Michael Robinson’s playing career is perhaps best remembered for his time with the Seattle Seahawks, where he won Super Bowl XLVIII. But he began his career with the San Francisco 49ers, who he played for from 2006-09. During that time, Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke, who would eventually hold the same role for the 49ers, was the director of player personnel.

Robinson recounted his negative experience working with Baalke on Saturday on “Good Morning Football.”

“Now guys, I’ve got to preface my comments by saying Trent Baalke is the guy who cut me in San Francisco,” Robinson said. “I remember walking up to his office… Trent Baalke looking at me in my face and saying ‘You aren’t good enough to play in the National Football League. You’re a fourth-string running back and, at best, you’re a third-string fullback. Maybe you should go into scouting, you want to have a job?’ I was a 26, 27-year-old young man. Young in the National Football League, and I was p****d off.

“I went to a Pro Bowl, a Super Bowl. From a talent evaluator perspective — you can say what you want about my comments because he cut me — say what you want about Trent Baalke, but I just don’t think he’s a great talent evaluator. That’s just my personal opinion.”

As Robinson suggests, we should take his words with a grain of salt considering his issues with Baalke seem to extend into the personal realm. But at the same time, the way you treat players matters, and this seems to play into Baalke’s prior reputation and helps explain why he appears to be so disliked around the league.

Jacksonville’s head coaching search has apparently been held back by reticence to work with Baalke, and the Jaguars could be forced to make a change to hire their first choice of coach, which is apparently Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.

Baalke’s fate is to be determined, but public comments like this certainly don’t paint him in the most sympathetic light.

By the numbers: Top 10 single-game passing outputs in Penn State Nittany Lions history

Trace McSorley left his mark on Penn State’s single-game passing record sheet, but what other quarterbacks have had big games through the air in Nittany Lions history?

College football has seen the offensive schemes transform in favor of the passing game over the past couple of decades, and Penn State has been catching up to that trend. It should come as no surprise that the list if Penn State’s all-time single-game passing records has been significantly reshaped over the past 10 years, and Sean Clifford aims to keep rewriting the record book this upcoming season.

Prior to 2010, Penn State’s list of 300-yard passing games was up to 14 total games. Penn State will enter the 2021 season with 42 300-yard passing games in program history, and odds are fairly good the Nittany Lions could come close to 50 by the end of the season.

Clifford enters his third season as Penn State’s starting quarterback and he already owns three 300-yard games in program history, including one in the top 10 in program history.

Penn State still has just one 400-yard passing game in program history. That belongs to Christian Hackenberg, who passed for a school-record 454 yards in a season-opening victory against UCF in Ireland in 2014. The North American single-game passing record for Penn State still belongs to Zack Mills, who came one yard shy of the first 400-yard mark in school history back in 2002 against Iowa.

As for the school’s all-time passing leader, Trace McSorley? He’s had his share of 300-yard games during his time in Happy Valley. McSorley passed for 300 yards 10 times.

Here is a look at Penn State’s top 10 single-game passing yardage leaders in program history.

Penn State’s top 21 all-time rushing touchdown leaders

Curt Warner, Franco Harris, Saquon Barkley top a star-studded list of Penn State rushing TD leaders

Penn State has had more than its share of great players, Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell, Saquon Barkley to name a trio of running backs. What Nittany Lions have found the end zone the most on the ground during their college careers?

Penn State’s all-time leading passers in Nittany Lions history

Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford has a chance to be a top-three all-time passer at Penn State in 2021.

Penn State is hardly the first school you may think of when it comes to passing offenses, but the Nittany Lions have had some tremendous players at the wide receiver and quarterback positions over the years. And in more recent years, college football’s evolution to more of a passing game has started to rewrite the Penn State record book when it comes to all-time career passing leaders.

Entering the 2021 season, Sean Clifford is primed to easily make his way into the top 10 on Penn State’s all-time passing list, and he could move into the top three on Penn State’s all-time list, just behind the two quarterbacks who started before him.

Trace McSorley remains the school’s all-time leading passer, having the benefit of three years as a starter in an offensive system that was at the height of its game at the time.

Here is a look at Penn State’s top 20 all-time leading passers, including Clifford’s pursuit of moving up the board this fall.

All data is credited to College Football Reference. This list will be updated accordingly.

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Michael Robinson criticizes Russell Wilson for tension with Seahawks

Former Seattle Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson blames quarterback Russell Wilson for the tension between him and the organization.

The acrimony between the Seattle Seahawks and quarterback Russell Wilson and the possibility that the former might trade the latter has provoked reactions from around the NFL, including from division rivals and former teammates.

However, many have censured the Seahawks organization for making the veteran quarterback unhappy and few takes have criticized Wilson himself. Former Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson did just that on the NFL Network, stating that Seattle has given him enough over the years and made him the centerpiece of the team.

“I don’t know what Russell wants,” Robinson said. “He’s paid. They paid him twice in Seattle. The front office made sure that every other alpha male — with the exception of Bobby Wagner, KJ Wright and some of the old school guys that are there — they made sure that all of us were out the door so that this team could be Russell Wilson’s. And now this?”

It is true that Wilson has been the unquestioned leader of the Seahawks since the Legion of Boom departed, but his offensive line has consistently failed to protect him over the years, as evidenced by this statistic.

Even if Wilson is responsible for some of those, he has also avoided countless sacks with his mobility. Yes, he has several deadly weapons on offense and has been paid handsomely by the organization twice, but the lack of pass protection has needed to change for some time now.

“I just don’t know how you walk back in the locker room where you’re saying my O-Line is getting me hit too much, I don’t have that much say,” Robinson said.

Wilson and the Seahawks could be heading for a divorce, but nothing is certain in the NFL, and certainly not this.

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Ex-Jets QB Josh McCown: White people ‘must change conversations in our own walls’

Josh McCown said while appearing on NFL Network that white people must “change the conversation in our own walls.”

Former Jets quarterback Josh McCowan wants to see a change in the United States.

McCown, who played for New York from 2017-18 and spent last season with the Eagles, has established himself as one of the more respected players in the NFL throughout his lengthy career. He continued to prove why on Monday, as he participated in an NFL Network forum on race relations in America alongside Bills cornerback Josh Norman and NFL Network’s Michael Robinson, who is also a former NFL fullback.

McCown and Norman are members of the Players Coalition, an organization seeking to end social injustices and racial inequality, so it comes as no surprise that both players took part in the forum in an effort to take a stand. As the only white person participating in the forum, McCown reiterated that black and white people have different experiences living in the United States — especially when dealing with law enforcement. He believes that this is something all white people must now understand in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derrick Chauvin.

“If our experiences are different, we have to talk about that,” McCown said. “And that’s not for the African-American to talk to a white person about it. It’s [for] white people to talk to white people about that. It’s the conversations inside our own walls that we must change. And it’s a language inside our own walls that we must change.

“It’s on us as white people to step up, have a conversation with one another that would start to change — and break the generation of cycles of racism that we see throughout our country.”

Currently a free agent, McCown has spoken on the social and racial injustice issues plaguing America before. He knows that it is going to take more than words for real change to take place, though. With more people across the country finally coming to grips with what black people and minorities deal with on a daily basis, McCown is hoping major changes are in store sooner rather than later.

“I’m thankful that other people, in the middle of this global pandemic, we’re finally realizing what the real pandemic is — and we’re finally seeing it,” McCown said. “I’m so heartbroken for George Floyd and his family.

“So my prayer is that there would be courage to rise out of this and good to come from this — and that we would continue to move this thing forward and gain ground in this area. Because this is a true thing that’s going to kill us. It’s not COVID-19. It’s this. This is what we have to fight against.”

Former Seahawk Michael Robinson talks Russell Wilson criticism

Former Seattle Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson joined the Talkin’ Seahawks podcast to discuss quarterback Russell Wilson.

Former Seattle Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson recently hopped on the Talkin’ Seahawks podcast to discuss quarterback Russell Wilson and his rise to the top.

Robinson stated that several Seahawks players in 2012 were ready to give up on Wilson after his first career start against the Arizona Cardinals, which was less than stellar and ended in a 20-16 loss.

“I remember guys on that plane ride going back saying, ‘We need to sit Russell. Play the other guy,'” Robinson told NBC Sports Northwest. “Russell was sitting around hearing all of this, and he came out the next week, and he played with passion.”

The other guy was veteran quarterback Matt Flynn. However, Wilson followed up his first game with an efficient performance against the Dallas Cowboys that resulted in his first career victory – and left Flynn on the sideline.

“He played with emotion,” Robinson continued. “It’s almost like he wanted to make up for that performance because he knew he’d let some older guys down.”

Robinson went on. “It was in that moment when I said, ‘OK, we’ve got something a little special with Russell Wilson.”

Robinson stated that, while Wilson still has his doubters, the narrative of skepticism surrounding him may disappear completely if he wins another Super Bowl – especially if he spearheads the effort.

“If Russell can lead a team to a Super Bowl and win it, just off his abilities – because most people would say we won that Super Bowl (XLVIII) off our running game and defense,” Robinson said. “If he can get this Seahawks team back in that type of position, I think you’ll see the narrative change about Russell Wilson.”

At 31 years old, Wilson is in the prime of his career and has every opportunity in the next few years to lead the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl.

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