Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez is on track with installing what he can of his offense

When dealing with young quarterbacks, especially freshmen, there's a learning curve as to how much a player can absorb without the mental cartoon image of smoke bellowing out of the kid's ears becoming a near reality.

That explains what Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez means when he says his freshmen quarterbacks, Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson, are on learning pace but nowhere near understanding his entire offensive playbook.

"Installation we’re on track as far as what we’d projected but as far as total offense, we’re probably at 65 percent or something," Rodriguez said. "Defensively, I don’t even know. I have to talk to coach Robinson and see where we’re at defensively."

Rodriguez said they've installed almost all of the offense, save for goal-line packages, which will come later this week. So far, too, Michigan hasn't done much about preparing for its opponents other than the casual mention of Western Michigan and telling players during an installation period that they might see something similar to this in the first week.

The transition to full Western prep will come by week's end, two weeks before the opener.

"I always do that the first two weeks, it's always been totally on us," Rodriguez said. "... Our practice schedule and installation is just for us. As we get later this week, it'll be focused on Western."

That's a difference from the program Michigan faces in the second week of the season: Notre Dame. Irish coach Charlie Weis told media in South Bend that they planned to spend a period of practice each day this week preparing for either Michigan or Michigan State.

Never mind the Irish play Nevada first. When asked if he was surprised by this, Rodriguez didn't have much of a response.

"Yeah, I guess," Rodriguez said. "Everybody does their own thing.

"Our focus has been in camp so far on us."

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or on Twitter @mikerothstein.