One of the hoary old maxims of football holds that, if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks.
While that may or may not be true, I know what IS factual when a team has two quarterbacks: It gives a guy like me the opportunity to drudge up names from the past, like “Jarrod Reese” or “Chris Chaloupka”!
Quarterback controversies can be fun! They give fans a chance to argue over who’s better or worse, and they give sportswriters a chance to proselytize over who they think should start. (In the case of OU beat writers, quarterback controversies provide more time to beef embarrassingly on Twitter.)
When both OU and OSU benched their starting signal callers in the middle of their games last week, my head was immediately haunted by Ghosts of Quarterback Controversies Past. Since my counselor says it’s good for me to talk out what’s swimming around in this noggin’ of mine, let’s do it! Let’s look at some of the more (in)famous quarterback controversies of the past 35 years in our state!
OU: Steve Collins vs. Cale Gundy (1990)
Recruited by former head coach Barry Switzer to be another in a long line of triple-option artists, Collins was the last vestige of the old wishbone days at OU. Switzer’s resignation and the switch to a more standard offense in 1989 left Collins as a bit of a square peg in a round hole. By the time of the OU/Texas shootout in 1990, hotshot freshman Cale Gundy was the apple of OU head coach Gary Gibbs’ eyes and was eventually handed the reins of the offense.
Gundy performed reasonably OK until injuries sidelined him in the middle of a mediocre 1992 season. Collins responded well in his absence but was banished back to the bench when Gundy was healthy. It didn’t sit well with a large contingent of OU players, however, which fomented a player walkout/mutiny in the last week of the regular season.
OSU: Tony Lindsey vs. Chris Chaloupka (1997)
Chaloupka was your classic mid-90s pocket-passer quarterback, while Lindsey had some serious wheels and iffy passing skills. OSU head coach Bob Simmons chose Chaloupka to start the season, but it soon became evident the Cowboys’ offensive line was incapable of keeping the sessile quarterback upright. So the switch was made to Lindsey, and proved it to be a prescient move, as he helped lead OSU to its only winning season over a 13-year stretch from 1989-2001.
OU: Justin Fuente vs. Eric Moore vs. Brandon Daniels (1997)
That same year, OU fans were watching the rare three-headed quarterback battle. What these guys brought to the table made things interesting, which was a darned good quarterback … if you amalgamized all three into one. Fuente had a rocket for an arm and concrete galoshes for feet. The left-handed Moore’s passes seemed terrified of going near open receivers, but he was experienced. Daniels could run like the wind but threw passes that looked like punts.
In the end, Fuente got more snaps, but Moore was probably the slightly more effective choice, if by “effective” we set the bar at “able to effectively catch the snap and avoid an immediate sack.” Combined, however, they threw an astounding three touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
OU: Jake Sills vs. Patrick Fletcher vs. Brandon Daniels vs. Jarrod Reese vs. Eric Moore (1998)
Never forget that former OU head coach John Blake could really outdo himself. After the unwieldy three-quarterback turntable the year before, Blake found himself in a five-man mess in 1998. It proved to be a Sophie’s Choice, as not one of the five candidates completed even HALF his attempted passes in 1998, although they did achieve a better ratio of nine touchdown passes and 16 interceptions. Fletcher, meanwhile, is remembered as a fan favorite for (checks notes and laughs) a come-from-behind win against North Texas.
OSU: Aso Pogi vs. Josh Fields (2001)
With 20/20 hindsight, it’s hard to believe this was a Cowboy QB controversy. Fields is now known as the quarterback who led OSU back to sustained success after years of wandering through wilderness. Pogi was a nice player out of Lawton, but he never reached the level of Fields’ accomplishments in Stillwater. If Pogi had won the battle for the entire season, the Fields-to-Rashaun Woods connection might not be seared into the nightmares of OU fans much to the delight of Poke fans everywhere.
OU: Keith Nichol vs. Sam Bradford (2007)
Speaking of 20/20 hindsight … Bradford ended up being a Heisman Trophy winner and one of the all-time greats at OU. Nichol, meanwhile, turned out to be a nice possession receiver for Michigan State.
OSU: Bobby Reid vs. Zac Robinson (2007)
Let’s end this trip down memory lane with one of my favorites. Reid was a big-time recruit who had a solid season the year before. Robinson, however, was turning heads in practice before the ’07 season. After a season-opening loss at No. 13 Georgia, Reid threw only five passes in a blowout win over Howard Schnellenberger’s Florida Atlantic squad. Robinson threw 20 passes and three touchdowns, and OSU coach Mike Gundy decided to go with him over Reid the next week at Troy.
Despite a bad loss, Gundy stuck with Robinson for a big win against Texas Tech, which coincided with an infamously tacky article in The Oklahoman and the greatest rant in the history of OSU athletics. (Albeit one that Reid himself did not exactly love.)
I’m not sure if either OU’s or OSU’s quarterback issues this year will lead to an epic rant by Gundy (“I’m a man, I’m 57!” just doesn’t have the same ring) or OU head coach Brent Venables this season, but one thing is for sure: The sub-optimal quarterback play in Oklahoma has been bringing back a lot of memories.
Speaking of memories, what should we recall from this weekend’s college gridiron action? Well, here are the Hangover Highlights!
- I guess Auburn fans now know what Barry Switzer was talking about when he labeled a chapter in his autobiography, Bootlegger’s Boy, with the title, “Sooner Magic.”
- OU won 27-21 at Auburn despite an offense that remained just about as inept as it had been the previous four weeks. Even with a bolt-from-the-blue touchdown run on their first possession from new starting quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr., the Sooners appeared stuck in the same old mud, just in a different red state.
- The defense, for the first 55 minutes, looked good, but nothing special. It seemed like a unit just strong enough to get you beat by 7-10 points when paired with a bad offense. For a while, Auburn appeared to have the largest seven-point lead in the history of organized football. If the defense was TRULY special, I expected it to sit on a mistake-prone Auburn offense, strangle it and get OU’s offense easy opportunities. It simply didn’t happen …
- … until just under five minutes remained in the game, when OU linebacker Kip Lewis made like another more famous No. 10 in OU history by returning a zone-blitz interception for a go-ahead touchdown. After a whirling-dervish two-point conversion by Hawkins, it was just a matter of the Sooners “good” defense finishing things off, which they did.
- What to make of it? On the bright side, nobody should apologize for a road win at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Hawkins’ results certainly ended up better than the last time a freshman OU quarterback made his first start while away from home. The Sooner defense, as I said earlier, continues to show it is good, if somewhat less than dominant. OU is now 4-1. The coaches now have two full weeks to put something together for the OU/Texas shootout, and Hawkins is QB1 now, like it or not.
- On the dark side: How the hell did OU win that game? Is this triumph just a redux of the 1996 OU/Texas win — where the Sooners trailed by an identical 11-point margin in the fourth quarter — only to see the victory as one spark in a dark, miserable losing season? An SEC gauntlet awaits.
- (Editor’s note: Click links at your own risk.) Up in Manhattan, Kansas, Oklahoma State ran into the unstoppable karma of a program buoyed by a deranged fan who promised to stuff a Taco Bell burrito up his butt if his Kansas State Wildcats lost to BYU. Lose they did, but — unlike a certain Florida State Seminoles fan — @SaintBillSnyder kept his word, and the resultant spectacle set the tone for the Cowboys’ day.
- OSU scored on three of its first four possessions, with the only empty drive culminating with a missed field goal, to take a 13-7 lead on Kansas State. It led me to believe the Cowboys were about to win a blowout. Well, the game did prove to be a blowout, but not in the way I (or Taco Bell consumers) envisioned: after reeling off 35 straight points, K-State embarrassed the visiting Cowboys, 42-20.
- The Wildcats (and OSU offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn?) simply had enough of OSU all-world running back Ollie Gordon in the first quarter and refused to watch him do any more. On nine carries in the first quarter, Gordon gained 72 rushing yards. Over the final three quarters of the game, he had six carries for four yards.
- While Kansas State shut down Gordon — his top highlight in the second half may have been threatening to beat up mouthy fans — the Wildcats offense tore through the OSU defense like a sieve. Over and over, the K-State running attack broke through for big gains. After Arkansas, Utah and Kansas State have gashed the Oklahoma State defense for three straight weeks, maybe the ire of OSU fans shouldn’t be at the aforementioned Dunn. Maybe concerns should be equally focused upon the defense?
- Either way, fans in Norman and Stillwater are dissatisfied with their teams’ offensive coordinators. Between OSU’s Kasey Dunn calling 100 quick outlets to stationary wide receivers and OU’s Seth Littrell obsessed with useless pre-snap motion and tight end screens, neither will ever be accused of having over-active imaginations when it comes to play-calling.
- Alabama hung on, 41-34, against Georgia in one of the wildest games of the weekend. The Crimson Tide led 30-7 at halftime, but they had to claw to stay on top. Georgia actually took the lead with less than three minutes remaining before Alabama receiver Ryan Williams made one of the best plays I’ve ever seen a receiver make — leaping, spinning and making his opponents look foolish while scurrying 75 yards for the winning score.
- Army mashed Temple 42-14 on Thursday night, thanks to a hard-to-believe 422-yard advantage in rushing. FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO. Army is now 4-0, and while I don’t believe the Black Knights’ strength of schedule is stout enough to get there, wouldn’t it be awesome to see their flexbone attack as the mid-major representative in this year’s expanded playoffs?
- One of the best games of the weekend happened Friday night when seventh-ranked Miami held off Virginia Tech 38-34. Tech led by as much as 10 in the second half, and it could have been more except for an ill-advised fake field goal attempt that backfired. Still, Miami roared back and held a four-point lead when Tech took possession of the ball with 1:58 and two timeouts out left.
- What ensued was one of the worst examples of being aware of time since Chicago Transit Authority released its first album. Multiple clock bungles left Virginia Tech with nothing but a Hail Mary chance from the 30-yard line with three seconds left. Incredibly, it appeared the Hokies completed it when officials ruled a Virginia Tech player came down with the pass in the end zone. After a lengthy review, however, it was — correctly, from my viewpoint — ruled an incomplete pass, and Miami escaped.
- Finally, I must point out the absolute whipping Florida State suffered at the hands of SMU, 42-16. It would have been comical to suggest SMU would beat Florida State last season, much less by four touchdowns. Much-maligned FSU quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei was just 12 for 30 passing, with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
- I have a hunch Seminoles fans crave a full-blown quarterback controversy at this point. Oooh! Should be fun!
