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Brown inherits next great quarterback controversey
Posted On: Wednesday, August 30, 2006
By Jim Vertuno
The Associated Press
AUSTIN – OK, so Mack Brown has named Colt McCoy as the Texas Longhorns' starting quarterback for the season opener against North Texas.
That was the easy part.
Much more difficult is figuring out how much he plays and what to do with freshman backup Jevan Snead.
Even if the Mean Green doesn't give the defending national champions much of a scare Saturday, Brown's quarterback juggling skills will be severely tested.
Here's the conundrum: With top-ranked Ohio State coming to town next week, McCoy is a redshirt freshman who needs as much game experience as he can get. His first snap against North Texas will be the first of his career. But Brown and offensive coordinator Greg Davis have also said throughout the preseason they want Snead to play.
On Monday, Brown said he'd like Snead to play but backed off any guarantees for the first game.
"We will tell Jevan to be prepared to play. We'd love to get him in the game, but we'd rather not back ourselves in a corner," Brown said.
"Winning the game will be the most important thing, and we'll decide what we need to do as we go through."
Brown doesn't want to script a scenario for Snead to avoid hurting the players' feelings if the game doesn't allow it. The coach remembers when he was a player and a coach promised to get him in a game.
It didn't happen and Brown was upset.
"Being a 19-year-old, I thought I was lied to," Brown said. "We're really cautious about telling young guys you will play at a specific point, because if it doesn't happen, then you become a liar and sometimes it's just out of your control. So we've tried to back away from that like we used to."
Brown has to consider McCoy's feelings, too.
If the youngster has first-game jitters and struggles early for the No. 3 Longhorns, it puts the coach in a difficult spot.
He can't afford to keep the game close, but he must also avoid crushing McCoy's confidence by pulling him early.
With McCoy starting, Snead has no pressure this week and can practice and play fast and loose.
If McCoy moves the offense in fits and starts and Snead comes in and leads a touchdown drive, the next great Texas quarterback controversy will have started before the first game finishes.
Brown has said he's learned lessons on how to handle all this from seasons past.
In 2000, when Chris Simms started the season opener, he threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown and Texas was sitting in a 10-0 hole in the first quarter against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Brown pulled Simms for Major Applewhite, who led the Longhorns to 31 straight points.
The battle to be the starter raged for two seasons.
Of course, there are a couple of major differences between then and now.
For starters, Applewhite was a seasoned junior in 2000 and had started the previous two seasons. Snead won't bring that kind of experience off the bench Saturday.
Second, Brown waited until game day six years ago to announce his starter. He got that out of the way early this time, preferring not to drag it out any longer than necessary.
That may be a sign that Snead just isn't ready.
Snead was the Longhorns' top offensive recruit and pushed McCoy in the spring when he enrolled in school early. Although Brown and Davis said McCoy had the edge in reading defenses and mastering the playbook, they gave the impression that Snead had a chance to earn the start.
Brown's reluctance to promise Snead any snaps suggests McCoy separated himself from the true freshman.
It wouldn't be a surprise if Snead's inexperience finally caught up with him as the offense got more complicated. He won't turn 19 until Saturday.
In a best-case scenario for Brown, Texas blows out North Texas, allowing him to play McCoy for three quarters and to let Snead handle the fourth.
The worst case would be that neither is really ready and Texas staggers into the Ohio State game re-evaluating who starts.
Texas fans, and the Ohio State Buckeyes, will be watching closely to see what happens.