Check out Corey Robinson's high school football resume and one question quickly pops up.
Is it possible to throw 91 touch*downs in one season? For the record, Robinson, now the starting quarterback for Larry Blakeney at Troy, set a national high school record as a senior at Lone Oak High in Paducah, Ky., by throwing 91 touchdown passes in a 15-game season that ended with an appearance in the 2007 Class 4A title game.
How impressive is that?
"Hey, it's hard to throw that many touchdown passes against air," said Blakeney, whose team will venture to Legion Field on Sat*urday for a nonconference game against in-state foe UAB.
Robinson, who was selected as Mr. Football in Kentucky, finished the season with 5,872 passing yards and threw only four inter*ceptions for a team that lost to Lexington Catholic in the state title game. None of the interceptions came in the final 10 games of the season.
"I had a lot of good guys around me," Robinson said. "We all grew up together so it was a family type thing for us. We told ourselves as freshmen that we wanted to play for a state championship as a senior. We just worked really hard over the summer and we got lucky."
Heavy recruiting attention didn't follow for Robinson, who is now listed at 6 feet tall and 214 pounds.
He received some attention from Sun Belt Conference schools and said "Ole Miss was talking to me a little bit here and there." Troy knew about Robinson because then-offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was a good friend of Lone Oak High head coach Jack Haskins, whose son Billy Jack is a former University of Kentucky quarterback. Lone Oak ran an offense similar to Troy's and Robinson felt comfortable in choosing the Trojans.
It wasn't a quick journey to the field as a college player for Robinson. He spent the 2008 season as greyshirt and a part-time student at Troy.
"Being from Kentucky, it was a little bit tough not knowing many people around here but you just got to keep your mind on that it will pay off in the future," Robinson said.
He used his redshirt season last year but kept busy by watching and learning from standout quarterback Levi Brown, who is searching for an NFL job now after a college career that included 6,417 yards and 43 touchdowns.
Blakeney said the two years waiting his turn were helpful in Robinson's quest to claim the starting quarterback job. He eventually won a narrow decision over junior Jamie Hampton after competing during spring practice and fall camp.
"It's what every freshman needs to do," Blakeney said. "The only thing better than greyshirting and redshirting a kid would be five (years) to play five. There's no way the academians are ever going to let us do that."
Robinson's first two weeks have been a mixture of solid play and mistakes due to inexperience. He is 53-of-76 for 524 yards with four touchdowns but also threw two interceptions in the first half of the win over Bowling Green and lost a pair of fumbles against Oklahoma State. Robinson said everything is a learning experience right now.
"I made a couple of mistakes the first game against Bowling Green but luckily we pulled that one out," Robinson said. "This past week it was a big thing going to a Big 12 school and playing in front of that many people. Being from a small high school, we didn't even have that many people in our town. It was a great time. It showed that we have a lot of heart on this team and definitely some talent."
Is it possible to throw 91 touch*downs in one season? For the record, Robinson, now the starting quarterback for Larry Blakeney at Troy, set a national high school record as a senior at Lone Oak High in Paducah, Ky., by throwing 91 touchdown passes in a 15-game season that ended with an appearance in the 2007 Class 4A title game.
How impressive is that?
"Hey, it's hard to throw that many touchdown passes against air," said Blakeney, whose team will venture to Legion Field on Sat*urday for a nonconference game against in-state foe UAB.
Robinson, who was selected as Mr. Football in Kentucky, finished the season with 5,872 passing yards and threw only four inter*ceptions for a team that lost to Lexington Catholic in the state title game. None of the interceptions came in the final 10 games of the season.
"I had a lot of good guys around me," Robinson said. "We all grew up together so it was a family type thing for us. We told ourselves as freshmen that we wanted to play for a state championship as a senior. We just worked really hard over the summer and we got lucky."
Heavy recruiting attention didn't follow for Robinson, who is now listed at 6 feet tall and 214 pounds.
He received some attention from Sun Belt Conference schools and said "Ole Miss was talking to me a little bit here and there." Troy knew about Robinson because then-offensive coordinator Tony Franklin was a good friend of Lone Oak High head coach Jack Haskins, whose son Billy Jack is a former University of Kentucky quarterback. Lone Oak ran an offense similar to Troy's and Robinson felt comfortable in choosing the Trojans.
It wasn't a quick journey to the field as a college player for Robinson. He spent the 2008 season as greyshirt and a part-time student at Troy.
"Being from Kentucky, it was a little bit tough not knowing many people around here but you just got to keep your mind on that it will pay off in the future," Robinson said.
He used his redshirt season last year but kept busy by watching and learning from standout quarterback Levi Brown, who is searching for an NFL job now after a college career that included 6,417 yards and 43 touchdowns.
Blakeney said the two years waiting his turn were helpful in Robinson's quest to claim the starting quarterback job. He eventually won a narrow decision over junior Jamie Hampton after competing during spring practice and fall camp.
"It's what every freshman needs to do," Blakeney said. "The only thing better than greyshirting and redshirting a kid would be five (years) to play five. There's no way the academians are ever going to let us do that."
Robinson's first two weeks have been a mixture of solid play and mistakes due to inexperience. He is 53-of-76 for 524 yards with four touchdowns but also threw two interceptions in the first half of the win over Bowling Green and lost a pair of fumbles against Oklahoma State. Robinson said everything is a learning experience right now.
"I made a couple of mistakes the first game against Bowling Green but luckily we pulled that one out," Robinson said. "This past week it was a big thing going to a Big 12 school and playing in front of that many people. Being from a small high school, we didn't even have that many people in our town. It was a great time. It showed that we have a lot of heart on this team and definitely some talent."
