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Success is worth waiting for at Quarterback U: forget about pro potential and draft prospects—I'm all about the U

Sporting News, The, May 20, 2005 by Matt Hayes

Give up? Not now, after four years. Not after watching two no-names suddenly become Heisman surnames. He has waited this long. What's a few more months?

"It's my last shot to get it," says Cody Hodges. "If I don't get it, I'll feel like I wasted five years being here."

If you don't know Hodges, don't sweat it. None of us knew B.J. Symons, either. Or Sonny Cumbie. Now we have Hodges, next up in an odd yet incredibly successful trend at Texas Tech of fifth-year senior quarterbacks starting for the first time.

Maybe it's not such a big jump from the curb to the clouds after all.

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By December, Hodges will have thrown for 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns for college football's new Quarterback U, and he gracefully will answer questions about his legitimacy in the Heisman Trophy race and whether he's a product of the system. You know, all that garbage Tech quarterbacks have to swallow because they play for a coach who knows the passing game--and how to exploit defenses--better than anyone on the planet.

Who plays quarterback is insignificant. Right?

"That's ridiculous," says coach Mike Leach. "If you don't know what you're doing back there, you're going to be in trouble in a hurry."

There's no better proof of that simple declaration than the fifth-year senior trend. Leach would like nothing more than to develop a young quarterback and watch him progress through the system. He had that his first three years when Kliff Kingsbury added more K's to the NCAA record book than Roger Clemens. The problem is, Leach hasn't had it since.

You can't plop just any quarterback into the system--especially a young quarterback with limited knowledge of what's going on--and expect him to continue to produce at Tech's torrid pace under Leach: more than 23,000 yards passing and 185 touchdowns in five seasons. Leach says the best player invariably wins the job; it's just that the previous two seasons, that player was a fifth-year senior who sat and learned as much about patience as the complicated offense.

This spring, redshirt freshman Graham Harrell, Leach's first elite quarterback recruit, had an opportunity to win the job. He battled Hodges to a co-starter spot on the depth chart, then injured his ankle and missed the last two weeks of practice. Meanwhile, Hodges--who learned behind Kingsbury, Symons and Cumbie the past three seasons--used those extra practice repetitions to take command of the position.

After the 15-practice competition this spring, Hodges completed 20 of 26 passes for 237 yards in the annual Red-Black game. Leach says it will take a huge jump by Harrell--who will be limited practicing this summer as he recovers from the injury--to beat out Hodges in fall camp.

In other words, Hodges will be the guy who throws for 400-plus yards and seven touchdowns in the season opener against Division I-A newbie Florida International. It will be Hodges who, after a month of gimme putts to begin the season, will be among the early Heisman candidates. Just like Symons and Cumbie were.

There's only one difference: This Tech team is more complete than the previous two because it has embraced the value of defense--and because this team still is riding the energy and enthusiasm of a big win over California in the Holiday Bowl. After four years of waiting, Hodges' spot in the rotation just might include a championship twist.

Give up? Shoot, four years is nothing.

The fifth year is everything.

speed reads

So the Big East settled its lawsuit against the three former members that bolted for the ACC, and each league school got a cool million for its troubles. That's like your girlfriend leaving you for a better-looking man, then telling you she'll pay the rent for a month. Congrats, fellas. Now go pay your attorney fees.

College football icon Tom Osborne is running for governor of Nebraska. Could there be a bigger lock for anything? Because politics is such a dirty business, I have some advice for Osborne's opponent: Ask Tom Terrific if he plans to give multiple pardons to wayward souls while he's the governor. Then mention the name Lawrence Philips. That ought to pull at least 5 percent of the vote.

I can't understand guys like Booker Stanley. Wisconsin's projected starting tailback had his football career mapped out: two more years in the Badgers' backfield (guaranteed 1,000 yards per) and a spot in the NFL. But he got arrested and suspended from the team. Here's a hint: Don't leave the house.

INSIDE DISH

Don't expect better nonconference matchups with the schedule expanding to 12 games in 2006. When the NCAA passed the proposal, it also passed a resolution that will allow teams to count games against I-AA schools in the race to secure a winning record and reach a bowl game. So instead of seeing more Auburn-Southern California games, we'll see more Auburn-Western Kentucky games. What coach is going to risk a loss to another I-A team when coaches are being fired for 7-4 seasons? Moreover, many mid-major teams now want a home game in return for taking a beating from a BCS school. * If you're looking for an indicator of how things will go during Syracuse's first year under new coach Greg Robinson, check out Nebraska under Bill Callahan last season. Same situation, same lack of talent at quarterback. Although the SU staff maintains the advanced play of the defense kept the offense from making progress in the spring game, it's obvious QBs Perry Patterson and Joe Fields--recruited to run the previous staff's freeze option--are having problems picking up the West Coast offense. Patterson and Fields completed just 19 of 42 passes combined in the spring game. * Part of the ACC-Big East settlement included a batch of nonconference games between the leagues from 2008 to 2012. The highlights are Miami at Pittsburgh and a passel of home-and-home series: Florida State-West Virginia, North Carolina-Rutgers, N.C. State-Pittsburgh and Virginia-Connecticut. So the Big East has that going for it. Which, as Bill Murray says, is nice. * Former Nebraska QB Joe Dailey has sent his release papers to Rutgers, Boston College, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Connecticut, Notre Dame and Ohio. The best bet? Ohio, where former Nebraska coach Frank Solich is desperate for a dynamic athlete to run his option offense. No. 2 on that list: Rutgers. Dailey, who left NU after losing out on the starting quarterback job this spring, went to St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, N.J. * UCLA transfer RB Tyler Ebell went into spring practice as UTEP's projected starter. Now coach Mike Price has three legitimate starters in Ebell, Matt Austin and Marcus Thomas. All three run 4.4 40s, and the staff believes there's a spot for all three in the offense. Ideally, Price would want a starter to carry the ball 20 to 25 times per game, but he's warming to the idea of a rotation. * New LSU coach Les Miles, in Lafayette, La., at his first speaking engagement after spring practice: "The plan is to win every one of them. We want to win in the grandest fashion." Two observations: 1) Miles isn't one to publicly pop off about his team and its ability--even to a bunch of boosters; and 2) LSU is going to be really, really good.

Success is worth waiting for at Quarterback U: forget about pro potential and draft prospects—I'm all about the U

Sporting News, The, May 20, 2005 by Matt Hayes

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