Waffling on a quarterback is no way to stay No. 1

Sporting News, The, May 21, 2001 by Matt Hayes

It's strange, really. Everybody loves them. They're the teams to beat with everything in front of them and everyone chasing. And everything poised to crumble from the weight of looming quarterback controversies.

Texas, Oklahoma and Florida, three teams deep enough and talented enough to find a way to Pasadena in 2002, better find a way to navigate through quarterback quandaries first.

Money and attention are heaped on coaches; cliches are connected to defenses. But one thing stands above all in college football: The quarterback wins championships. That's quarterback, singular. Show me a team with two quarterbacks, and I'll show you a team that doesn't have one.

Quarterback controversies simply aren't conducive to winning national titles, which makes the preseason fascination with Texas, Oklahoma and Florida all the more baffling. Texas coach Mack Brown has vacillated between Chris Simms and Major Applewhite the last two years, and Steve Spurrier still hasn't found anyone to live up to Danny Wuerffel. Then there's Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, a Spurrier disciple, who apparently hasn't learned from history.

Stoops was defensive coordinator at Florida in 1997, a year removed from helping the Gators win the national title. He saw firsthand how a quarterback controversy, then between Doug Johnson and Jesse Palmer, can ruin a shot at back-to-back national titles and make a dominating defense nearly useless.

How ironic that the Sooners are in an identical situation going into 2001. Oklahoma will have as good a defense as anyone in the nation, but the uncertainty at quarterback with Nate Hybl and Jason White is rumbling in the background.

"We can win a lot of games and compete for a championship with either one of them," Stoops says.

Just as long as it's only one of them.

A controversy divides teams and takes away from game preparation. It moves the focus of every week from the opponent to the game within the game. It makes players question coaches and doubt decision-making.

Still, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida are at the top of everyone's early list to make it to the Rose Bowl national championship game.

Brown took a step in the right direction in the spring, stating emphatically that Simms is his quarterback, even though the oft-injured Applewhite has been more productive.

Brown tried for two years to say the situation wasn't a distraction for Texas, then admitted this spring that is was.

"There was entirely too much talk about two quarterbacks last year," Brown says. "The only thing that is important to us now is the guy who can help us win."

But don't think this one is over.

Applewhite is Texas' career passing leader, and unlike Simms, he actually has won a big game for the Longhorns. If Texas struggles early and Simms isn't productive, Applewhite will play.

At least Stoops has an excuse for allowing a controversy to develop. He must replace All-American Josh Heupel, and Hybl and White have little or no experience. Hybl, a junior, reminds many at Oklahoma of Troy Aikman with his big frame (6-3, 220) and strong arm.

White, a sophomore with a strong arm and good mobility, never backed off during spring drills. That's the problem.

"I feel great with both," Stoops says. "That's what's so pleasing."

Ask Spurrier if the last four years have been so pleasant For three years, he couldn't get Johnson to stop changing plays at the line of scrimmage. Now he can't get Rex Grossman to change them enough.

Grossman, who threw for 21 touchdowns and led the Gators to the SEC title last year as a freshman, is in a tight competition with heralded sophomore Brock Berlin, whom Spurrier has compared to--you guessed it--Wuerffel.

Lead your team to the SEC title one year, sit the bench the next. Until it's time for a change.

Playing quarterback in college football isn't about the strongest arm or the best mechanics. It's about making the right decisions and putting your team in the right situations.

If only coaches knew as much. Two quarterbacks, one bad decision.

RELATED ARTICLE: inside dish

The budding career of Tennessee OT Michael Munoz, one of the nation's top freshmen last year, could be over sooner than anyone imagined. Munoz, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz, will miss the 2001 season and will have a rare surgery to replace a fragment of decaying articular cartilage in his knee. The degenerative condition essentially means the cartilage won't grow back. Munoz will use donor cartilage (about the size of a dime) to replace the decaying piece. But there's no guarantee it will work. Even if it does work, it boils down to how much pain Munoz can play with.... Oklahoma lost a key player last week when CB Michael Thompson sustained serious injuries in a one-car accident. Off the field, it was the first serious blow in two years of Camelot for coach Bob Stoops. On the field, the loss of the potential All-American will be softened by the emergence of redshirt freshman CB Antonio Perkins, who was pushing Thompson and CB Derrick Strait in spring drills. Thompson won't play this season and might not play again.... Even Notre Dame is giving in to the quarterback shuffle. Irish coach Bob Davie says he'll play two quarterbacks next season and--get this--maybe three. Sophomore Matt LoVecchio is the starter, but Carlyle Holiday and Jared Clark both looked impressive in spring drills. The problem, Davie admits, is getting all three enough repetitions in practice. Look for LoVecchio and Holiday to play and possibly rotate every series.... This season will determine if former Georgia coach Jim Donnan made the right decision three years ago by hitching his future to QB Quincy Carter. Once Donnan made it clear in 1998 that Carter was his guy, Nate Hybl (Oklahoma's projected starter) and Daniel Cobb (Auburn's projected starter) left Athens.