The reference to Staubach reminded me of the 1/1/64 Cotton Bowl - number 1 Texas v. number 2 Navy, with the eastern press telling the world that Navy ought to be number 1. When Coach Royal pulled the first team at the end of the third quarter the score was 28 - 0. Against the second team Staubach brought Navy back to a mere 28-7 defeat. I don't want to say that he had a tough afternoon, but his 12 rushes for minus 47 yards was indicative. Navy rushed for negative 14 yards for the game. Yeah, inability to control the pass rush makes even the best in the world look bad.
As I recall that Cotton Bowl game, Staubach spent most of the afternoon on his back looking up at the Texas sky.
I think at this point the only way you can compare Ash to either of those Alabama QBs would be on raw tools - and in that regard it would be hard to argue he isn't just as capable. The question will be a lot easier to answer this year. I tend to see that SD game as an example of what he could do with just a little more experience. There was a third-down play in the first quarter, where he had the TE in the flat, and he throws the ball low and behind, he makes the catch but can't get turned up field and we go three and out. In the third quarter - exactly the same situation, exactly the same play, but this time he puts it right on the money and the TE turns it up for about 10 yards and an easy first down. As he gets more consistent with those plays, he'll move the offense. The other play was the deep ball to Goodwin from his own end zone. A year under his belt, better timing and a little more arm strength and he hits that for a 99-yard TD and all of a sudden a "bus-driver" performance turns into a coming-out party. So I do think that the difference between Ash as a place-holder and Ash as a playmaker is very thin right now.
There weren't qb controversies during DKR's tenure. He did not run an offense so totally dependent on great qb play as are most of the modern offenses. We saw the problem with this in the last UT Rose Bowl. Maybe this year we will go back to team play versus a qb oriented system. Like Alabama.
The mistakes Mack Brown feels he made by not having an experienced backup when Colt went down against Bama, and by putting all his eggs in the Garrett Gilbert basket by pretty much anointing him the starter the following season, have haunted him since. Mack now seems obsessed with using the SEC blueprint for success: a shutdown defense, a power running game, and a quarterback who's not a "star" but who manages games and doesn't make mistakes and who he won't be afraid to pull (i.e. Gilbert) for fear of shaking his "confidence." Hopefully the past two years have signalled that the era of entitlement is over at Texas. EVERYBODY must earn playing time, no matter how many stars or accolades you arrive with or what you did last year - or even the last game.
When our QB Bill Bradley became unable to function properly Royal announced that Bradley was changing positions and that James Street was the new starter. Discussion was over. (FYI, the Ags had intercepted four of Bradley's passes the year before. That year, after his famous "It don't make a ****" response to the ref at the coin toss, he picked of four Aggie passes.)
The Bradley-Street situation came to mind, but since the latter had success from the moment he came in for the former against Tech, it became a non-issue. I wonder what would've happened if that wasn't the case? I can't even recall who the third team QB was at the time. I believe Eddie Phillips was a freshman in '68 and of course, they had their own team and didn't play varsity back then.
Thank you for hi-jacking this thread... Mack talking about the quarterbacks or more articles being posted about a QB controversy are becoming unbearably annoying! Ash. End of story.
