In looking at Terrelle Pryor's freshman season statistics, I suggested the tempting, oft-heard comparison with Vince Young wasn't ideal. The raw numbers help illustrate the point, but in this post we'll look more closely at Pryor's game from a scouting perspective, throughout which the differences between the two will stand out. Why frame the discourse around VY? First of all, because Texas fans know VY -- contrasting the foreign with the familiar might be illuminating. And second, though Pryor is without question a freak of an athlete with stupendous size, agility, and speed for a quarterback, understanding the particular ways that Terrelle Pryor's is both not quite a rusher of Vince Young's caliber and much more of a threat in other ways VY was not (at least at that age) should help nail down what it is that Will Muschamp will be worrying about on Monday night in Glendale.

1. A PURE RUNNER VS. A RUNNING THREAT

More so even than the supremely gifted runner Michael Vick, Vince Young was the best pure running quarterback that I have ever seen play college football. Watching VY's high school highlights offers an excellent view not just of how insanely gifted he is as as a runner, but how natural it all is. Though in high school (and for much of his time at UT) he was unquestionably raw as a skill football player/passing quarterback, the pure rushing ability shines with blinding brightness beginning with the very earliest of his highlights. 

There's unfair speed, obviously, but what really stand out are Young's vision, anticipation, and -- because it truly approaches perfection -- an almost unnatural fluidity. Rushing the football, Vince Young looks comfortable like a caught fish returned to water.  

By contrast, take a look at some of Terrelle Pryor's high school tape; though absurdly impressive in its own right, Pryor's standout ability shines in a slightly different way. He's fast and possesses tremendous vision, but the rushes are noticeably more deliberate and frequently feature an element of power missing from the Young tapes.

If Vince Young was smooth and fluid like Michael Jordan, Terrelle Pryor is powerfully strong and explosive like Lebron James. Prideful fans needn't take sides here: I mean to characterize both as exceptionally talented... just in slightly different ways. Let's take this up a level to finish the point. Relive Vince Young's redhsirt freshman debut against New Mexico State -- from the get-go his unique talents as a pure runner were on full display:

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This may not be the week to bring it up, as I'm pretty sure the TItans' offense is screwed against the Steelers today No Matter What, but as the Titans have begun to slide back to the pack (2-2 in their last 4, following a 10-0 start), it's time for Tennessee to start looking forward to the playoffs, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, and identifying areas in which they can immediately improve.

If Goal #1 is making sure Albert Haynesworth is healthy for the playoffs, this post contends that Goal #2 should be that the Tittans' coaching staff (A) properly identifies the offense's weaknesses, (B) addresses where it can and cannot be improved, and (C) systematically begins (starting now) implementing a plan to improve it. 

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Relentless pursuit of perfection. Colt McCoy hasn't just approached perfection on Saturdays, but during the week of practice as well. Actually, he hasn't just approached perfection, according to Greg Davis he has actually achieved it.  Once each during the OU and Missouri game weeks McCoy completed every pass he attempted in practice. Twice more during the Missouri game week McCoy only had one incomplete pass in each practice.  No wonder McCoy is completing more than 80% of his passes and only needs to complete 63.12% of his passes for the rest of the season to break Daunte Culpepper's NCAA mark of 73.6%. I can't even think of any apt comparisons for what McCoy is doing right now simply because I've never seen anything like it. What a truly amazing season for the baby-faced country boy from Tuscola.

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Beware of Greeks Trojans Bearing Gifts. The college football world is abuzz following Oregon State's stunning upset of #1 USC in Corvallis Thursday night. Though seemingly every other team in or near the Top 10 was mentioned by the ESPN broadcasters as beneficiaries of the Trojans' loss, the only one I didn't hear mentioned was the team which may have benefited the most--Penn State, who defeated the Beavers 45-14 just two weeks ago. (Aside: Read this great post on PSU's hot new HD Formation.)

Even so, if USC fans understandably find themselves feeling sick to their stomachs in the wake of this letdown... they may still be on a very short list of front-runners for a national title game berth. Why? Though no longer leaders of the pack of zero-loss teams, USC shifts now to leader of the pack of one-loss teams. If they win out... and the Big 10, Big 12, and SEC fail to produce two undefeated teams... the Trojans will be sitting in the clubhouse winners of nine-straight, their only loss way back in September.

Best case scenario for USC? Ohio State runs the table in the Big 10 (or at least knocks out Penn State and Wisconsin), the top four SEC teams fail to make the case for a two-team SEC national title game, and neither Oklahoma nor Missouri emerges from the Big 12 unscathed. And there are even more plausible scenarios in which USC winds up in the top two of the final BCS standings. Don't bury 'em yet.

While we're on the subject... Just a quick mention here: Football is a tough game. Things go wrong.

Sometimes all in one half, as USC had happen in Corvallis tonight. Or like in 2001, when Texas fans experienced a first-half horror show against Colorado. Other times, the whole game fails to compute, as in the Trojans' meltdown at home against Stanford a year ago. And so on.

The point? Two points, actually: (1) There are no geniuses in football--just coaches who put their teams in the position to win by recruiting well, hiring good assistants, and being willing to adapt. (2) This is why Mack Brown's biggest detractors (almost all of whom reside outside the fanbase these days, thank God) strike me as out of touch with the modern college game.

Dear Vince, Don't worry. We know better. The last two weeks have been a bit awkward for me as someone whose identity is so frequently associated with Texas athletics in general, and Vince Young in particular. No joke: I've found mysellf sitting in high-pressure, otherwise deeply intense job interviews when a partner will pause to ask, "While I've got you here: What's up with Vince Young?" Hell, even my mother, who follows sports only in the sense that she's sometimes in the same room as my father for SportsCenter, asked me about VY.

I've tried to tell people that there are two (very related) issues: (1) How Vince handled performing poorly and (2) How Vince will respond to this in the long term. On point one, Vince didn't handle himself well. He wasn't meeting his on-field standards, it absolutely killed him, and he lashed out in his own way. But while everyone's focused on point one, I and other Texas fans aren't terribly concerned, because we've seen how Vince handles setbacks. And the same thing that made him react so poorly to his struggles in the season opener is what motivates him to give all of himself to being the best he can be going forward.

We know this. And, probably better than anyone, Mack Brown knows this (read the whole thing):

Brown, who is sitting in the press box next to a giant photo of Young reaching for the end zone in the Rose Bowl, bristles at the notion that Young led a charmed life prior to 2008. And that he was coddled.

Obviously, Brown says, they don't remember 2004.

Young was a redshirt sophomore that year, and he was sacked three times in a 12-0 loss to Oklahoma. The next week, he was booed on his home field against Missouri after throwing two interceptions.

"There were very few people in this city … fans, media … who thought he'd play quarterback and be any good at it," Brown says about Young, who then beat Texas Tech 51-21 and won 19 straight games. "People do not realize he didn't have the perfect little story here.

"So he's been criticized before, he's been booed before, he's been questioned before, and he's lost and played poorly before. And he overcame all that here and handled every bit of it. So anybody who questions his sincerity or his toughness doesn't have any clue who he is."

I have a few more thoughts on this, but I'll save 'em for a full post some other time, in part because I'm headed to bed. I'll get to some Arkansas-related notes tomorrow.

Hook 'em

As is now a regular Wednesday morning event, I spent 10 minutes talking football with Marc Vandermeer and Andre Ware of 610 AM Houston's "The Morning Show". Tune in below for this week's chatter on Vince Young, Chris Simms, the Longhorns, and other Big 12 football action.

Right click and save to download the interview.

Impossible to screw up. Imagine you're in charge of coordinating Vince Young's Saturday night jersey retirement at DKR. As you sit down with your staff to brainstorm the final plan, you know wiggling around and through various set-in-stone game elements is unavoidable, of course, so you decide to launch the conversation into orbit via a perfectly safe starting point: "So long as we don't have the ceremony before kickoff, this will be hard to mess up."

Naturally, the actual celebration Saturday night will be at 5:35 p.m., a half hour before kickoff. Because I'm in too good a mood to go on and on about this, I'll quietly hope that it was Vince's schedule which required the early time slot.

Can we at least make sure he's in the locker room before kickoff?

Related: The athletic department is issuing new programs for this year's games, going so far as to re-brand them the Texas Football Playbook, featuring "rosters, depth charts, standings, player features, color photographs and much more." The first cover will commemorate Vince Young and the first 30,000 through the gates Saturday will receive a free copy.

Crack for Longhorn fans. The Statesman's Alan Trubow has a feature on Will Muschamp which contains absolutely nothing you and I don't already know about him. The Muschamp feature story is always the same boilerplate; the only real difference in most of these stories is the quotes...

Which is precisely why we read them! Your Muschamp-related quotes of the day:

"I didn't think I was going to respect him," [Dolphins linebacker Zach] Thomas said. "I mean, he was about the same age as me and never had coached in the NFL. I was really surprised, because I would have run through a brick wall for him after about a week. He's got this infectious personality. He's intense, but he's also honest and sincere, and you just don't want to disappoint him."

"You see a difference in the defense," Texas quarterback Colt McCoy said. "There is an intensity there that's hard to describe, but it's there because of Muschamp."

"I didn't have as much experience as the other coaches I was going against, but I knew I could outwork everybody," Muschamp said. "I just figured that coaching was all about working hard, preparing and relating to people. That's really what this business is about: relating to your players."

I made a gentleman's wager with Orson on the radio last night that Texas would beat FAU by 21+ points. Though I remain tentative about this offense, my confidence in this Muschamp-led defense really couldn't be higher. Texas, 45-17. The defense scores one.

Pay-per-view details announced. Partner cable companies carrying Texas' season opener on pay-per-view have been announced:

A shrinking violet? The much ballyhooed--here and elsewhere--18 returning starters from Florida Atlantic's strong 2007 season is down to 13. The Palm Beach Post breaks it down, including confirmation that center Nick Paris (foot), tight end Jason Harmon (knee), and defensive end Robert St. Clair (knee) will all miss Saturday's game against the Longhorns.

As is clear from my game prediction above, I feel great about this game three days before kickoff, in part because it feels like Florida Atlantic managed to peak sometime early this month. The closer we get to game day, the worse things seem to be getting for FAU: Injuries are sidelining key players while Howard Schnellenberger's aggressive remarks to the press have shifted media attention and, remarkably, even pressure, the Owls' way.

Not good for the road team.

Mack looking for 10th season opening win over non-BCS foe. This will be Texas' 11th home opener during the Mack Brown era, during which the Longhorns have gone 9-1 to kickoff the year. The 'Horns' only season-opening loss the past decade came in 1999, when Texas played NC State, its only BCS-conference opponent. Mack Brown's nine week one victims have been Arkansas State (2007), North Texas ('06, '04, '02), Louisiana-Lafayette ('05, '00), and New Mexico State ('03, '01, '98).

Florida Atlantic joined Division 1 in 2004 and won two of their four season openers. In 2004, their inaugural Division 1 season, the Owls upset Hawaii on the road in overtime 35-28. Schnellenberger's squad then lost to a pair of BCS opponents in 2005 (Kansas) and '06 (Clemson), before winning last season's opener 27-14 over Middle Tennessee State.

Malcolm Williams hitting a wall? Both Chip Brown and Greg Carlton report that Malcolm Williams closed out camp struggling a bit, including missed blocking assignments and a few dropped balls. Greg Davis suggested the staff may have pushed Williams too hard after he started fall practices so strong. "We've seen something that really has caught our attention. But we're looking for consistency. Malcolm really started off well. We may have put too much on him early cross-training him."

I began singing Williams' praises before fall workouts even began, but his end-of-camp struggles highlight why--even for the most talented of freshmen (redshirt or otherwise)--it's an uncertain bet to expect greatness on a consistent basis. Football at this level requires both skill and repetition; few can perform at a consistently great level right from the get-go.

What's important is that the coaches let the most talented play on the field, pick up reps, and make their mistakes. On multiple occasions during his freshman and sophomore seasons Deon Beasley had his ankles broken in the ugliest of fashions, but he's ready now because of it. Malcolm Williams will need to be pushed and tested, as well, including especially when he makes mistakes.

It's official, per MB-TF: Vince Young will have his #10 jersey retired at the Longhorns' season opener against Florida Atlantic on August 30th, just as the 40AS boys predicted.

For his part, VY is humbled by the news:

"I'm really looking forward to getting back to Austin again, seeing everyone, reaching out to the community with my foundation event and cheering on my team," Young said. "I was speechless when they told me about the jersey retirement earlier this summer and I still don't think it's sunk in. It's such a great honor to be remembered in such a special way. Man, when I see that number and my name on the stadium ... I don't know what I'm going to do. It's just going to be such an unbelievable feeling for me and my family."

Ownage, Part 2. Though it's doubtful to be much consolation to the 'Horns, at least yesterday's setback on the diamond to Missouri was a respectable one. Six weeks after Missouri handed Texas a 44-14 drubbing over two games, the Tigers this time all but ended the Longhorns' Big 12 tournament hopes with a 3-2 win in 10 innings yesterday. Texas had its chances, but couldn't get a clutch hit or, in the 10th inning, get down a sacrifice bunt that probably would have led to a run on an ensuing single. Texas now faces A&M today at 4 p.m., but to advance, the 'Horns must win two in a row and have Missouri drop two in a row. Not likely.

Look up! Seriously, look up - to the header at the top of this page, where I've been counting down to football season. Today we hit the 99 days marker! No more triple digits!

Now this is a playoff I'd sell my soul to see. As ESPN.com works through a series of articles at the 10-year mark of the BCS, today we get the ultimate bar stool argument: Ranking the 10 BCS champions. Mark Schlabach's list:

1. Miami 2001
2. USC 2004
3. Florida State 1999
4. Texas 2005
5. Oklahoma 2000
6. Tennessee 1998
7. LSU 2003
8. Florida 2006
9. Ohio State 2002
10. LSU 2007

Though there's obviously room to disagree, Schlabach does a good job of explaining why he made the picks as he did.  Why Miami '01 in the top spot?

Perhaps no team in college football history had as much talent as the 2001 Hurricanes. Ten players who started for Miami during the 2001 season were first-round selections in the next three NFL drafts. In fact, Miami had 16 NFL first-rounders from 2002 to 2005.

Fair enough, but at least to those of us in Austin, we need an answer to: "Who stops Vince Young?" There's no question that Miami's 2001 roster was top-to-bottom superior to Texas' in 2005, but, seriously: can they stop VY?

I say no. Though the Hurricanes' pass defense was phenomenal, they finished 40th in the country in rushing yards per game (133 YPG), at just over 3.1 yards per carry. (For context: USC '05 finished the season - VY's damage included - at 130 yards per game on 3.8 per carry.) The way this plays out in my head, USC '05 had the better offense than Miami '01, while the 'Canes had the better defense overall. Just not enough to deal with the Vince Young ridiculousness on the ground.

I actually think I'd give the USC '04 team the best shot to contain VY. In my head, though, Texas '05 tops the list. Shocking, I know.

As long as we're here... Sticking with ESPN.com, Ivan Maisel has a nice column trying to make the case for the BCS. Though I obviously disagree with the conclusion, he does bring up a point that has been around so long that we really don't make it enough these days: so long as we're in a voting system, can we please fix the damn thing? Give us a committee like the NCAA Basketball Tournament uses. Anything other than the joke of coaches-with-stakes + Harris Poll (who?).