The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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inside michigan athletics "I chose softball, because it was a bigger opportunity. The good dance programs are at smaller schools. Coming here, I had the chance to come to a big school, and it's a totally different experience." Major: "Psychology." What She Plans To Do After Graduation: "I am looking at physical therapy, and I am also interested in strength training. I have an internship with the U-M athletic training department this summer, and I am going from there. I haven't decided what I want to do for grad school, yet." Overall U-M Experience: "Every single year has been completely different. I have been a part of four very different teams, and it has been a growth process, and the amount I have learned from school and softball and about myself has been incredible. I've learned a lot of lessons." — Andy Reid Denard Robinson To Headline Video Game Denard Robinson is coming to a video game near you. EA Sports announced that Robinson had bested Texas A&M wide receiver Ryan Swope in an online head-tohead vote, and will grace the cover of NCAA Football 2014. "I wanted to start dancing," Robinson said. "It was an exciting moment for me. Growing up, I never thought I would be on the cover. I'd wish I would be, like, 'Yeah, I'm going to be that guy.' But it actually happened, and you can only say, 'Wow.' "I still don't believe it's true, because I haven't seen it. It's unreal to me." Robinson, who has said he has played the famed college football game since he was a kid, received more than a quarter of a million votes in the finals to edge Swope. A spokesperson from EA Sports has not responded to interview requests to discuss what Robinson's win could mean for sales of the video game, which was released last year on July 10 and has consistently been released in either June or July, but the benefits to Michigan are more intangible than tangible. "It's a great honor, but any marketing value is intrinsic and not measurable," said David Ablauf, associate athletics director, media and public relations. "It's more about the exposure of being on the cover. And that is great for Denard and our fans." Robinson is the third former Wolverine to make the cover, joining Charles Woodson in 1999 and Desmond Howard in 2006. The game's cover has typically featured a recently graduated senior and broke from this tradition to feature Howard as EA Sports introduced a new element to its franchise — Race for the Heisman; Howard was the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner. Michigan is one of just two schools that has been featured on the cover three times, joining Southern Cal, which saw quarterback Carson Palmer on the 2004 cover, tailback Reggie Bush on the 2007 cover and quarterback Mark Sanchez on the 2009 cover.