From: marc@yogi.austin.ibm.com (Marc J. Stephenson)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Re: longhorn football
Date: 15 Oct 92 19:34:42 GMT
Organization: IBM, Austin

In article <1992Oct14.203643.5172@digi.lonestar.org> mhorbove@digi.lonestar.org (Mike) writes:
>From: HADCRJAM@admin.uh.edu (MILLER, JIMMY A.)
>> >  Ahh, Mike.  Tsk.  And again, tsk.  Yes indeed, folks it is true.  The Long-
>> >horns do indeed have a winning record against every SWC team.  It is also true
>> >that have sucked rocks for all but 1 year since 1986.  If you desire to live
>> >in the '70's, by all means go right ahead...:-)

Actually, they were remarkably mediocre over that span.  They did actually win
the Bluebonnet Bowl (FWIW) in 1987 over Pitt.  The records since '86 are 5-6,
7-5,4-7,5-6,10-2,and 5-6.  Poor for a national-level program, but then again,
McWilliams wasn't treating the program as if it were a national-level program,
a danger that I see A&M potentially falling into.  With the ever-increasing 
trend of nationwide recruiting, it is dangerous to try to do all of your
recruiting in one state, even one as rich in talent as Texas.

>
>i'm a Longhorn, through and through...sorry, i don't have a Longhorn past
>record book in front of me but why stop at 1986.  why not keep going back...say
>to the day the university had a division 1-a football team ;-)

True enough, Texas has an exceptional record over the years, one of the best
in college football history.  It is difficult to sustain that excellence for
a long period of time these days, for a number of reasons (see USC, Ohio
State, Arkansas and others; even Notre Dame dropped completely out of sight
during the mid-80s).

>
>
>> Ali R. Vali - reza@magellan.ae.utexas.edu
>> Gardere is gone after this season, and the new QB was the most highly
>> recruited QB in Texas (maybe the nation).  We'll see...
>
>> >  Indeed we will.  A word of warning: Highly touted QB recruits do not always
>> >seem to pan out.  Take it from someone who knows. :-)
Who are you talking about?  Granger?  Not that highly touted on a national
level, as I recall - roughly at the same level as Steve Emerson, and a notch
below Clements.  Actually, I guess Pavlas was highly touted in the state, if
you want to go back that far.  Richardson wasn't highly touted as I recall.
>
>this is correct, jim.  ut has had the top recruited qb in the nation the last
>two recruiting years, steve clements (sp?) and shea morenz.  i think i have my
>years straight.  i may have been two out of the last three recruiting years.
>in any case, look where clements is now (BYU).  morenz has played in a couple
>of games and has not looked all that well but this is a learning season for him.

Gee, was Clements really top qb in the nation out of high school (3 years ago)?
He may have just been top in the state; Texas isn't known for producing all
that much in the way of high school qb's anyway.  

UT's previously most highly touted quarterback, the record-setting Todd Dodge of
Port Arthur Jefferson, was blessed with the best set of receivers that I've
ever seen on a high school team.  He never did have a real good arm.

I've watched the Aggie and Longhorn qb's in practice.  By far the best arms
belong to Morenz and Pullig.  Morenz throws the prettiest passes of any
young qb that I've personally seen since Tommy Kramer of Rice (and San Antonio
Lee).  Pullig also throws a very nice pass.  It's just hard to come in and
direct a college team as a true freshman; defenders move at a different pace
than these guys have ever seen before.  It takes time.

Regarding redshirting Morenz, Mackovic has to get somebody ready in case of
injury to Gardere.  If he really believes that Morenz will be the quarterback
of the future, then he should play him rather than the linebacker-recruit-
turned-quarterback Chad Lucas.  One of McWilliams's mistakes was leaving
Clements at third-string behind Jimmy Saxton, never a very able quarterback
(he's been moved to the secondary since).
-- 
Marc Stephenson		    IBM AWD (Advanced Workstations Division - Austin,TX)
DISCLAIMER: The content of this posting is independent of official IBM position.
INTERNET->marc@austin.ibm.com      VNET: MARC at AUSVMQ        IBM T/L: 678-3189