The Greatest Quarterbacks in Longhorn History

A football team’s fate rests largely on the shoulders of its quarterback. He’s the signal caller, the playmaker, the coach on the field, the leader and the motivator. Without a quarterback football might as well be rugby.

Though the Longhorns are known more for their two Heisman running backs, Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams, some of the greatest college quarterbacks to have ever played the game have donned the burnt orange. But who’s the best?

(Also See: Why David Ash is Set to Breakout in 2013)

Like every list ever created, this is completely subjective and carries a number of caveats. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Perhaps the most significant being the era a college quarterback played in. In the early years of college football all the way until the 1980’s teams were not as quarterback-centric as they are today. Most teams ran the ball and rarely went through the air to gain their yardage.

A perfect example of this is the exclusion of Duke Carlisle from the list. Carlisle led the Longhorns to their first national title in 1963, but the offensive strategy the Longhorns employed led to less-than-spectacular statistics, and this is to no fault of his own.

Thus, you’ll find that two out of the three quarterbacks who appear on this list come from recent Texas teams. This is not because of a short-term memory, but rather a change in football strategy and philosophy, a change from the running back-centric wishbone offense to the pro-style offense.

It’s difficult to compare quarterbacks from different eras, but we do our best.

 

1. Vince Young

Record	Comp%	Yards	TD	Int	R Yds	R TD	Rating
30-2	61.8	6,040	44	28	3,127	37	144.9

 

Young was transcendent. His physical abilities were far beyond the range of what anyone would consider normal. I recall one opposing player expressing disbelief in his inability to tackle Young by telling his coach “He’s got no handles!”

Young could beat a team in two ways, passing and running, yet to the opposition this felt like 50 ways. Teams knew what was coming, they game-planned for it well in advance, but such preparation couldn’t stop the Longhorns from putting up over 50 points per contest.

The 2005 Longhorns are easily the best team in Texas history, and this is thanks in large part (that feels like an understatement) to Young. That year, the Longhorns finished 13-0 while outscoring opponents by an average of 33.8 points per contest.

Because Young forwent his senior year, the numbers don’t tell the full story. Nonetheless, in the two full seasons Young started, he put up some gaudy numbers.

Young finished his career at Texas with 6,040 passing yards, 44 touchdowns through the air, and a quarterback rating of 144.9. In his junior year, Young threw for 26 touchdowns and over 3,000 yards, and had a quarterback rating of 163.9, which is off the charts. But it was Young’s work on the ground that pushes Young’s status from great to legendary.

The untackleable Young ran for 3,127 yards and ran the ball in the end zone 37 times. Running backs only dream of such a stat line.

Perhaps most memorable is Young’s performance in the 2005 BCS National Championship game against the USC Trojans, which has been described as one of the single greatest performances by an athlete, ever. In that game, Young had a higher passer rating than Heisman quarterback Matt Leinart and ran for more yards than Heisman running back Reggie Bush. Young finished second in the Heisman voting that year.

In what would be the game-clinching play, and a play that would live in Longhorn lore for an eternity, Young ran into the end zone, untouched, on a crucial 4^th and 5. His erect running posture as he crossed the goal line cemented him as the greatest quarterback in Longhorn history.

In many ways, it seems that game opened the nation’s eyes to what Longhorn fans knew all along, Vine Young is one of the greatest athletes to have ever played college football.

 

2. Colt McCoy

Record	Comp%	Yards	TD	Int	R Yds	R TD	Rating
45-8	70.3	13,253	112	45	1,571	20	155.0

 

With his baby face, Texas twang and approachable personality, then-freshman McCoy won over Longhorn fans fairly quickly after the departure of Vince Young. It doesn’t hurt that the guy could sure play some football, too.

McCoy is not only the record holder in nearly every quarterback-related statistical category for Texas, but he was also the winningest quarterback in college football history before Boise State’s Kellen Moore broke his record two seasons later. There was even some hesitation putting McCoy at number two instead of number one. In fact, if McCoy had taken more than five snaps in the 2010 BCS National Championship game and won, there isn’t another quarterback in the same zip code as McCoy. But, alas, the injury occurred and Longhorn fans were left with one of the biggest “what ifs” in college football history.

Looking at the win/loss column it’s fairly safe to assume McCoy was both an amazing leader and a winner, leading the Horns to 45 victories in his four seasons as a starter.

Much like Young, McCoy won games as a dual-threat quarterback, presenting problems for defenses as both a runner and a passer. However, unlike Young, it was McCoy’s passing accuracy that gave opposing defenses nightmares. In his final two seasons, McCoy completed over 70 percent of his attempts through the air. In 2008, McCoy’s breakout season when he finished runner-up in Heisman voting, McCoy completed over 76 percent of his passes.  If Texas had prevented Michael Crabtree from entering the end zone in their lone loss to Texas Tech that year, Texas would have gone to the National Title game, and McCoy would have won the Heisman.

It’s a shame, but McCoy’s career is filled to the brim with “what ifs” and “how comes.” Nonetheless, he was a quarterback who epitomized what it is to be a Longhorn.

 

3. James Street

Record	Comp%	Yards	TD	Int	R Yds	R TD	Rating
20-0	48.9	1,845	10	24	815	10	110.0

 

I remember reading an article where an old teammate, and I’m paraphrasing here, said James Street wasn’t fast but he could run, he wasn’t accurate but he could throw, and he wasn’t anything special but he won ball games. And win ball games he certainly did, going a perfect 20-0 as a starter and leading the Longhorns to their second national title in 1969.

Street’s statistics were anything but mind blowing. But, if we wanted to base these rankings purely on statistics, Chris Simms would be in this slot.

Street completed less than 50 percent of his passes in the two seasons he started, threw for a cumulative 1,845 yards, and had 24 interceptions to just 10 touchdowns in his college career. But Street, like the two great quarterbacks above him, was a dual-threat quarterback who was more comfortable keeping the ball on the ground. Street ran for 815 yards on 192 attempts.

Street, a barely recruited 5’9” 150 pound guy with limited physical tools, was tough, wise and a natural born leader. He played both football and baseball, where he excelled as a pitcher. To hear old teammates talk about him today, it’s obvious that he had a personality that commanded everyone’s attention. He was the kind of quarterback that no matter the play that was called, you knew it was going to work out because his hands were on the ball.

What more could you possibly ask of a quarterback?

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