Even without Vince Young, Texas Longhorns could win again the national championship
Texas Longhorns coach Mack Brown thought Vince Young would return.
But Brown thought Young capable of pulling a Peyton Manning or a Matt Leinart, Longhorn-style. Enjoy his senior rodeo. Win a Heisman and be mayor of Austin; take a square-dance class and torment Oklahoma. Be big man on campus. Vince Young is a big man, and UT is a big campus. But young Vince succumbed to the NFL lure of hefty paychecks and academic freedom and challenges a tad stiffer than Sam Houston State, leaving in his wake the weakness of 21st-century Texas football.
A quarterback quandary.
Brown doesn’t know who his QB will be, and that wailing sound you hear barrels from over the Red River, UT fans shrieking at the thought of another Brown derby of quarterbacks.
The Texas options are Colt McCoy and Jevan Snead, neither of whom has a taken a game snap in burnt orange. McCoy arrived on campus last summer and redshirted; Snead landed in January and went through spring drills.
When Vince Young is playing like Superman, there’s no decision to be made. When microscopes are needed to detect the superior QB, Brown seems lost. He kept playing Chris Simms over Major Applewhite, a move that didn’t work out but seems acceptable after several years’ perspective. He spent more than a year rotating Young and Chance Mock, a move that could get your coaching credentials revoked.
Yet Brown has no choice in 2006. He has two guys with loads of promise but void of experience. The ‘Horns have no clue whether McCoy or Snead is the man, and almost surely won’t until game action. That means maybe rotating even against Ohio State in a Sept. 9 Main Street duel.
Young was both a blessing and a curse. His talent and leadership delivered a national title. His talent also kept many a recruit away from Austin. Until Young went into a phone booth last autumn, he seemed destined to spend five years at Texas. Tough to sign a QB willing to sit multiple years behind Young.
So when Young jumped to the NFL, Texas was left to rely on yearlings.
Texas has a superb roster. Sixteen returning starters and many of them stars. With decent quarterbacking, UT again could win the Big 12. With good quarterbacking, UT again could win the Big Bowl.
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