TCU’s failed savior at QB is a success that changed Gary Patterson’s tenure | Opinion
According to the design, Shawn Robinson would be in his first season in the NFL having completed his four years at TCU for head coach Gary Patterson.
Instead, Robinson is still playing college football. He’s no longer a quarterback. Patterson is no longer TCU’s head coach.
But Shawn Robinson is a college football success.
“Make sure that they know, that TCU knows, it wasn’t TCU. It was me,” the former TCU quarterback said in a recent phone interview.
Had Robinson’s career transpired the way it was projected, Gary Patterson is still this team’s head coach.
Good quarterbacks keep coaches from getting fired. Or resigned.
As TCU fans bemoan their standing in 2021, and looks for its next head coach, the state of the most important position on the team remains a concern.
Max Duggan is a three-year starter because the Shawn Robinson era didn’t work out.
And Duggan’s future is uncertain with the emergence of Chandler Morris, who is no guarantee.
Robinson was The Guarantee. Instead, he’s the starting safety at the University of Missouri.
He was a four-star recruit who signed with TCU out of DeSoto. He succeeded Kenny Hill at the position, and had all of the tools and toys to be TCU’s next Trevone Boykin.
Robinson is athletic. Big. Strong. Fast. Good arm. He won a lot in high school. He was the quarterback you wanted for a college offense, at least.
In 2017, as a true freshman Robinson had to fill in for an injured Hill as the starter and won at Texas Tech in late November. TCU reached the Big 12 title game that season.
In 2018, Robinson was named TCU’s starter. He showed so much promise, talent and ability that even when the immediate results were not great it looked like he would become a great quarterback.
But it didn’t work out, and TCU has not found a quarterback with that potential since.
He suffered an injury to his left shoulder and missed the final five games of the 2018 season; shortly thereafter he announced his intentions to transfer to Missouri.
The transfer process was not exactly pleasant.
“My relationship with TCU was good,” he said. “It’s part of the business. I don’t hold grudges. I loved [former TCU offensive coordinator] Sonny Cumbie. I am not going to say it was perfect, or it was wrong.”
After sitting out the 2019 season because of NCAA transfer rules, he was Missouri’s starter.
In Week 1 of the 2020 season he started against Alabama and played OK. The next week, against Tennessee, he was not OK.
Missouri first-year coach Eliah Drinkwitz then sold Robinson to move to safety.
Once one of the most decorated quarterbacks to ever sign with TCU was no longer even an offensive player.
“I could have left for somewhere else, but I didn’t want to be sitting here and wasting my time,” he said. “Initially it was extremely hard. I went through a real period of adjustment.”
It was not long after practicing at safety he texted a friend, “I am meant for this position.”
A redshirt senior, he is a good player on a 5-5 team that needs one win in its final two games for bowl eligibility.
Robinson, 22, plans to play next season with the eye to earn his MBA from Mizzou.
“I had to leave to grow. I am so thankful for everything that has happened,” he said. “A lot of things that happened at TCU were not external. They were internal. I have a good support system with my family and they helped make the decision easier.”
Shawn Robinson the college football student athlete is a success.
He’s just not at TCU. He’s just not a quarterback.
It just didn’t go according to plan.
