browningmontana
Well-known member
A note from the windy plains of Browning:
I saw this article in this morning's online Wall Street Journal - can't wait for the print copy if you live on the high-line. This article discusses the problems UT has had finding quality quarterbacks, which is surprising given that they are surrounded by such great prospects. Gives a little perspective to the task facing coach Stitt - his future will depend on quarterbacks that were already committed when he arrived. Didn't Coach Read face the same situation?
Anyway, enjoy the high caliber of writing as well as the interesting reader comments. Go Griz! I thought of driving over the pass to attend the signing in Kalispell but a bit of ice fishing beckons.
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Signing Day 2015: Has Texas Finally Found a Quarterback?
Updated Feb. 3, 2015 6:22 p.m. ET
There are roughly a thousand 11-on-11 high-school football teams in the state of Texas, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. There are another 13,000 nationwide.
You would think that the University of Texas would be able to find a good quarterback at one of them. For a half-decade now, though, you would have been wrong.
Texas’ inability to land a quality quarterback has been one of the most confounding tales in college football in recent years. The list of stars from the state of late goes on and on—Andrew Luck (Stanford), Robert Griffin III (Baylor), Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M), Trevone Boykin (Texas Christian), J.T. Barrett (Ohio State)—yet they all went to school elsewhere.
As college football’s national signing day arrives on Wednesday—traditionally the day that high-school prospects officially sign with their chosen colleges—Texas’ search for a quarterback has become the recruiting world’s foremost drama. In a near-last-minute turn of events, Texas is expected to land quarterback Kai Locksley, a four-star (of five) prospect from Baltimore, who had previously verbally committed to Florida State.
For the Longhorns, who were scrambling after failing to poach five-star recruit Kyler Murray from rival Texas A&M and losing Zach Gentry to Michigan, the signing of Locksley is a critical development for second-year coach Charlie Strong. It is Texas’ latest attempt to solve a long-standing weakness at the game’s most important position.
“They were in for three and they swung and missed twice,” said Scott Kennedy, an analyst for Scout, a recruiting website. “Will they get a hit with Kai Locksley? It’s really all or nothing for them.”
Not long ago, the quarterback of the Texas Longhorns was the most charmed position in college football. Between 2004 and 2009, with Vince Young and Colt McCoy under center, the Longhorns went 69-9 and reached the national-championship game twice, winning it in January 2006.
But ever since McCoy got hurt during the first drive of the January 2010 title game against Alabama, the quarterback position in Austin has been a revolving door of injury and ineptitude. Last season, the Longhorns hit rock bottom, finishing 90th in passing offense.
What is unfathomable about this situation is that it comes at a time when the advent of seven-on-seven football tournaments and the rise of the spread offense have turned Texas into the premier breeding ground for quarterback prospects.
In the last decade, the Lone Star State has produced elite college passers as freely as it pumped out oil, churning out 34 quarterbacks who were given four- or five-star rankings by Rivals, another recruiting site. Last season, 19 of the 128 starting quarterbacks in major college football came from Texas, which also had 15 of the 54 quarterbacks to start an NFL game this season—by far the most of any state.
Texas actually signed five of those blue-chip quarterback recruits. The problem was the ones they got didn’t work out.
“There are so many quarterbacks now,” said Gil Brandt, a longtime college scout for the Dallas Cowboys. “How Texas hasn’t hit on one of them one, it’s hard to understand.”
As it turns out, the offenses that keep the state’s supply of blue-chip quarterbacks flowing may be the problem.
Within the last decade, Texas high-school football has undergone a near-universal conversion to the spread offense. The development began in the mid-1990s, when Texas sanctioned spring high-school seven-on-seven football tournaments.
This stripped-down version of the sport doubled as a perfect primer for aspiring quarterbacks. In 1997, Marcus High School, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, became the first pass-first team in Texas history to win a state championship. Soon, a state long known for its smash-mouth tactics had embraced the wide-open passing game.
It didn’t take long for the state’s college football programs to catch on. In 2000, Mike Leach became the coach at Texas Tech and took the school to new heights with his “Air Raid” offense. His success led to pass-happy offenses catching on throughout the Big 12 Conference, including at Texas A&M (which has since left for the Southeastern Conference), Baylor and now TCU.“
So many high schools are now running it and so many colleges are running some version of it,” said Ty Detmer, a Heisman Trophy winner at Brigham Young and now a high-school coach in Austin. “It’s everywhere.”
Almost everywhere. Even as the spread has become the state’s default offense, the Longhorns have remained largely committed to the sort of traditional attack that emphasizes the running game. In the past four years, Texas has run the ball on 55.35% of its offensive plays, 34th highest in the nation and far more than any other major college team in the state.
Granted, no one would confuse today’s Texas offense with the run-heavy wishbone teams of the Darrell Royal era. But for high-school quarterbacks accustomed to slinging passes downfield on every play, the idea of executing handoffs isn’t exactly a selling point.
“If you’re a big-time high school quarterback in Texas and you want to throw the ball a lot, you have a lot of options in the state,” said Greg Tepper, managing editor of Texas Football magazine. “And right now, Texas isn’t one of them.”
Some of the Longhorns’ quarterback struggles are due to bad luck. Garrett Gilbert, McCoy’s replacement, was one of the best Texas high-school quarterbacks in history, but he fared poorly after becoming the starter. He later found success after transferring to Southern Methodist and is now on the practice squad for the New England Patriots.
David Ash, who entered last season as the starter, flashed promise in two injury-riddled seasons but was forced to quit football after suffering multiple concussions. Tyrone Swoopes, a top dual-threat recruit, had an up-and-down year after replacing him.
For a Texas program looking to rebound, the hope is that Locksley will provide a long-term solution at the quarterback position. But even if he isn’t up to the task, the good thing is that Texas won’t have to look too far for its next highly touted recruit.
“There’s a kid from Mesquite, Chris Robison—he’ll be a junior next season and a couple of years from now, he’s the guy everyone’s going to want,” Brandt said. “That’s the thing about Texas: There’s just so many quarterbacks out there now.”
Reader comments:
Wanna throw the ball? Go to Miami.
----------------------------------------------
This is Mack Brown's legacy. He was paid too much and allowed the team to badly deteriorate. He focused too much on the brand and not enough on player development or winning. Charlie Strong found many of the players he inherited to exhibit an appalling lack of discipline and commitment to winning.
RG III, Johnny Football, and Andrew Luck all wanted to play at Texas, but went elsewhere, either because Coach Brown didn't know talent when he saw it, or he wasn't interested.
It was evident in 2010, if not earlier, that the team had serious problems, yet Mack was allowed to continue to run the show through 2013. In the process, Texas A&M became the preferred choice of the best recruits in the state.
Rebuilding the Texas football brand may take years. Meanwhile, Mack Brown continues to take a handsome salary from the school.
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Don't forget that "Mack Brown's legacy" also includes a national championship
--------------------------------------------
5*, 2x state 5A champion and Rivals #85 overall player in 2014 Jerrod Heard doesn't even get a mention, WSJ?
----------------------------------------------
The article was about UT's inability to successfully recruit quarterbacks. Jerrod Heard is a running back.
-------------------------------
I like Strong, but the horns need to produce this upcoming season. They need to beat OU and get into a prominent bowl and win. Texas forever!
-------------------------------------------------------
I saw this article in this morning's online Wall Street Journal - can't wait for the print copy if you live on the high-line. This article discusses the problems UT has had finding quality quarterbacks, which is surprising given that they are surrounded by such great prospects. Gives a little perspective to the task facing coach Stitt - his future will depend on quarterbacks that were already committed when he arrived. Didn't Coach Read face the same situation?
Anyway, enjoy the high caliber of writing as well as the interesting reader comments. Go Griz! I thought of driving over the pass to attend the signing in Kalispell but a bit of ice fishing beckons.
---------------------------------------------
Signing Day 2015: Has Texas Finally Found a Quarterback?
Updated Feb. 3, 2015 6:22 p.m. ET
There are roughly a thousand 11-on-11 high-school football teams in the state of Texas, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. There are another 13,000 nationwide.
You would think that the University of Texas would be able to find a good quarterback at one of them. For a half-decade now, though, you would have been wrong.
Texas’ inability to land a quality quarterback has been one of the most confounding tales in college football in recent years. The list of stars from the state of late goes on and on—Andrew Luck (Stanford), Robert Griffin III (Baylor), Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M), Trevone Boykin (Texas Christian), J.T. Barrett (Ohio State)—yet they all went to school elsewhere.
As college football’s national signing day arrives on Wednesday—traditionally the day that high-school prospects officially sign with their chosen colleges—Texas’ search for a quarterback has become the recruiting world’s foremost drama. In a near-last-minute turn of events, Texas is expected to land quarterback Kai Locksley, a four-star (of five) prospect from Baltimore, who had previously verbally committed to Florida State.
For the Longhorns, who were scrambling after failing to poach five-star recruit Kyler Murray from rival Texas A&M and losing Zach Gentry to Michigan, the signing of Locksley is a critical development for second-year coach Charlie Strong. It is Texas’ latest attempt to solve a long-standing weakness at the game’s most important position.
“They were in for three and they swung and missed twice,” said Scott Kennedy, an analyst for Scout, a recruiting website. “Will they get a hit with Kai Locksley? It’s really all or nothing for them.”
Not long ago, the quarterback of the Texas Longhorns was the most charmed position in college football. Between 2004 and 2009, with Vince Young and Colt McCoy under center, the Longhorns went 69-9 and reached the national-championship game twice, winning it in January 2006.
But ever since McCoy got hurt during the first drive of the January 2010 title game against Alabama, the quarterback position in Austin has been a revolving door of injury and ineptitude. Last season, the Longhorns hit rock bottom, finishing 90th in passing offense.
What is unfathomable about this situation is that it comes at a time when the advent of seven-on-seven football tournaments and the rise of the spread offense have turned Texas into the premier breeding ground for quarterback prospects.
In the last decade, the Lone Star State has produced elite college passers as freely as it pumped out oil, churning out 34 quarterbacks who were given four- or five-star rankings by Rivals, another recruiting site. Last season, 19 of the 128 starting quarterbacks in major college football came from Texas, which also had 15 of the 54 quarterbacks to start an NFL game this season—by far the most of any state.
Texas actually signed five of those blue-chip quarterback recruits. The problem was the ones they got didn’t work out.
“There are so many quarterbacks now,” said Gil Brandt, a longtime college scout for the Dallas Cowboys. “How Texas hasn’t hit on one of them one, it’s hard to understand.”
As it turns out, the offenses that keep the state’s supply of blue-chip quarterbacks flowing may be the problem.
Within the last decade, Texas high-school football has undergone a near-universal conversion to the spread offense. The development began in the mid-1990s, when Texas sanctioned spring high-school seven-on-seven football tournaments.
This stripped-down version of the sport doubled as a perfect primer for aspiring quarterbacks. In 1997, Marcus High School, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, became the first pass-first team in Texas history to win a state championship. Soon, a state long known for its smash-mouth tactics had embraced the wide-open passing game.
It didn’t take long for the state’s college football programs to catch on. In 2000, Mike Leach became the coach at Texas Tech and took the school to new heights with his “Air Raid” offense. His success led to pass-happy offenses catching on throughout the Big 12 Conference, including at Texas A&M (which has since left for the Southeastern Conference), Baylor and now TCU.“
So many high schools are now running it and so many colleges are running some version of it,” said Ty Detmer, a Heisman Trophy winner at Brigham Young and now a high-school coach in Austin. “It’s everywhere.”
Almost everywhere. Even as the spread has become the state’s default offense, the Longhorns have remained largely committed to the sort of traditional attack that emphasizes the running game. In the past four years, Texas has run the ball on 55.35% of its offensive plays, 34th highest in the nation and far more than any other major college team in the state.
Granted, no one would confuse today’s Texas offense with the run-heavy wishbone teams of the Darrell Royal era. But for high-school quarterbacks accustomed to slinging passes downfield on every play, the idea of executing handoffs isn’t exactly a selling point.
“If you’re a big-time high school quarterback in Texas and you want to throw the ball a lot, you have a lot of options in the state,” said Greg Tepper, managing editor of Texas Football magazine. “And right now, Texas isn’t one of them.”
Some of the Longhorns’ quarterback struggles are due to bad luck. Garrett Gilbert, McCoy’s replacement, was one of the best Texas high-school quarterbacks in history, but he fared poorly after becoming the starter. He later found success after transferring to Southern Methodist and is now on the practice squad for the New England Patriots.
David Ash, who entered last season as the starter, flashed promise in two injury-riddled seasons but was forced to quit football after suffering multiple concussions. Tyrone Swoopes, a top dual-threat recruit, had an up-and-down year after replacing him.
For a Texas program looking to rebound, the hope is that Locksley will provide a long-term solution at the quarterback position. But even if he isn’t up to the task, the good thing is that Texas won’t have to look too far for its next highly touted recruit.
“There’s a kid from Mesquite, Chris Robison—he’ll be a junior next season and a couple of years from now, he’s the guy everyone’s going to want,” Brandt said. “That’s the thing about Texas: There’s just so many quarterbacks out there now.”
Reader comments:
Wanna throw the ball? Go to Miami.
----------------------------------------------
This is Mack Brown's legacy. He was paid too much and allowed the team to badly deteriorate. He focused too much on the brand and not enough on player development or winning. Charlie Strong found many of the players he inherited to exhibit an appalling lack of discipline and commitment to winning.
RG III, Johnny Football, and Andrew Luck all wanted to play at Texas, but went elsewhere, either because Coach Brown didn't know talent when he saw it, or he wasn't interested.
It was evident in 2010, if not earlier, that the team had serious problems, yet Mack was allowed to continue to run the show through 2013. In the process, Texas A&M became the preferred choice of the best recruits in the state.
Rebuilding the Texas football brand may take years. Meanwhile, Mack Brown continues to take a handsome salary from the school.
--------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget that "Mack Brown's legacy" also includes a national championship
--------------------------------------------
5*, 2x state 5A champion and Rivals #85 overall player in 2014 Jerrod Heard doesn't even get a mention, WSJ?
----------------------------------------------
The article was about UT's inability to successfully recruit quarterbacks. Jerrod Heard is a running back.
-------------------------------
I like Strong, but the horns need to produce this upcoming season. They need to beat OU and get into a prominent bowl and win. Texas forever!
-------------------------------------------------------