I was just thinking how our beloved ESPN analyst Merrill Hoge got to this point of being ridiculed by Longhorn and Titan fans.  He’s actually not that bad of an analyst, but his seemingly personal vendetta against Vince has been both highly amusing and pathetic.

I like to think of myself as a pretty objective fan, and I think that if Hoge simply stated his criticisms of Vince in objective terms with none of his arrogant predictions, Longhorn fans would have been fine with it.  I think all Texas fans who aren’t stupid knew that Vince still needed development as a passer for the NFL.  Hoge harped on his accuracy and his poor footwork, and I agree with that.  If Hoge was being a responsible member of the media and merely said something like: "Vince Young has a nice quick release, but he has poor footwork which leads to accuracy problems.  Furthermore, the offense he ran in college is not exactly what he’ll be doing in the pros, and he has some learning to do as far as reading NFL coverages," I think no Texas or Titan fan would have had a problem with that.  Instead, Hoge goes further and pretty much risks humiliation, with such (rough) quotes as "This is an initial dismantling of an organization due to a bad pick," "Vince can’t run," and "Vince never could throw in college and he won’t be able to in the NFL," which conveniently ignores the fact VY was the best rated QB of the 2005 season until after the bowl games.  He made it worse by later lying about this, stating that he never claimed Vince can’t run or that Vince never had a shot to succeed in the NFL, despite it being all over YouTube.  Thus, if Vince was even just half-way decent and not a bust, Hoge set himself up as a potential punching bag for VY supporters, and he’s suffering that now.  He may feel a bit validated since Vince had a bad TD-INT ratio this year, but with Vince being the first of the three top QB’s of his class to make the playoffs and sporting an ROY award, Hoge took some pretty big blows to both his ego and his credibility.

I guess the lesson for us armchair analysts is this:  It is easy to predict utter failure for players you dislike (why Hoge ever disliked Vince so much is beyond me), but it is normally better to simply state things objectively as they are with minimal prediction of the future.  If you are predicting, do so in fair terms.  Saying "Player X will be a complete bust" is really putting yourself out there and will require you to start twisting facts and reasons to try to support yourself when it turns out that player is even okay, as Hoge learned.  If you’re confident in your position and want to say it as obnoxiously as you can, you are certainly free to do so; just don’t be surprised that if you’re wrong, people don’t give you a break.  At the least, admit you were wrong and don’t make it worse by lying or rationalizing it away.  Fans who are simply like, "HE SUCKS!" and don’t objectively analyze things are quite exasperating, even if they support the same team I do.  Those don’t create good discussion; they just get people riled up and create spitting contests.  This past year, there were some Texas fans who even did so with our own players, targeting people like Colt, Jamaal, our linebackers, etc, and they were NOT going to give these guys a hint of credit.  I think PB does a good job trying to be as objective as he can, even if he’s talking about players that tick him off (like Killebrew and Bobino).

Hoge is a bit better now, though he still obviously dislikes Vince and jumps at every opportunity to rip him. If you find yourself being like Hoge, take a step back and try to be more open-minded. If not... prepare to be punched.