Texas head coach Mack Brown met with the media Wednesday and did what many expected him to do naming sophomore David Ash the starting quarterback. “They’ve handled the preseason well. They’re getting along well. And we are not hesitant to put either one of them in the game, but David will start.”
Ash had been competing with junior Case McCoy for the starting job going back to spring practice and was rumored to have a clear leg up on the competition.
The good news for Texas is that both guys have shown supposed steady improvement in their play and Brown believes he now has two guys capable of leading the Longhorns. “I think both of them are more accurate, both of them are more confident, both of them are leading the huddle better.” He went on to say that during the preseason scrimmages, there were only two interceptions and both were on tipped balls.
Brown also reiterated what offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin said on Monday and that both quarterbacks are expected to play even though how or when has yet to be decided. “What we have constantly said and what we believe, both quarterbacks are good enough to win games, and both of them will play. We do not have a plan of exactly how that’s going to be done yet, and we don’t have to. That will probably be next Thursday, and we’ll look at it to see how we feel like it works,” Brown said.
On the surface, it’s easy to jump all over the decision to play both quarterbacks because history has proven in most cases, playing two quarterbacks is rarely a good thing. But until we know exactly what they’re going to do, it’s hard to make any accurate assumptions on how this will turn out.
Even if Texas has a plan going into a game, that plan can change in a hurry once the bullets start flying. McCoy was expected to play in last year’s Holiday Bowl but the circumstances never presented themselves and Ash was under center the entire game.
Brown will surely face criticism, however, if the offense is humming along with Ash running the show and they put McCoy in just for the sake of getting him some experience. Of course, Brown didn’t get to where he’s at by being stupid.
The flow and situations of each game will more than likely be the determining factor on how much McCoy sees the field which is why it’s hard to make any judgments until we see firsthand how the rotation – or lack of one – is handled.
For now though, Texas has their man at quarterback . As long as the Longhorns’ running game is as good as most expect to go along with Manny Diaz’s defense, Texas doesn’t need a great quarterback. They need a starter who can get them in and out of the huddle, make the right checks at the line of scrimmage, and make good decisions with the football. Should be easy, right?
As long as they have that, there's probably no reason to play both guys but that's for another post once it actually happens. All we know right now is that David Ash will be the first to see the field. After that, it's anybody's guess what happens next.
