Horns247 Board

You put the up against a good defense and they disappear. Maybe he can play D1 in the WAC or sunbelt conf. But he hasn't done a darn thing to hang his hat on in the Big 12. And their problems may all be coaching as we all agree we are lacking there. But Texas ain't going no where with these boys at the wheel.

Please just stop already. You started by arguing that Ash wasn't a D1 qb. You've now backed off that absurd claim and granted he could play in the WAC or Sunbelt. Your new claim is he hasn't done anything in the Big 12. Ok, let's take a look, shall we? We should start with Ole Miss, who though they don't play in the Big 12, are an SEC school. Ash's stat line? 19-23 for 326. 4 td's...no picks. QB rating of 259.1. Ok, but that's just one game, right? What about the next two games against Big 12 competition? Against OSU he was 30-37 for 306 with 3 td's and a pick. QB rating of 171.4. Clearly not Big 12 material, right? What about WVU in the next game?20-29 for 269 and a td. No picks. QB rating of 165.2. Thats still only three games though. Probably just a fluke. After all, he was terrible against OU. Baylor? 19-31 for 274 and a td. QB rating at 146.1. But Baylor's terrible. Tech's defense was going to be the real test after shutting down WVU's offense. 11-19 for 264 and three td's. No picks. QB rating of 226.7!!!! Could he do it against a physical team like ISU? 25-31 for 364 and two td's. QB rating of 200. Now I grant you he was awful against OU, KU and TCU. But to say he is not a good qb, or that he has nothing to hang his hat on in the Big 12 is ignorant. He has more good games than bad in conference play. Is that gonna win us a championship this year? No. Should that be Texas' standard? No! But does that show the guy has the potential to be a very good qb for you? Yes. I think it perfectly reasonable to believe Ash is a guy who can win Texas a lot of games over the next two years...assuming he continues to develop. On the other hand, it is unreasonable by any objective measure to say this guy isn't a major conference caliber qb.

What's unbelievable is that you post some stats and make that the standard for Ash's ability to play QB at a big time level like what is expected at Texas. Ole Miss and WVU had garbage defenses....Brewer would have had the same stats against those teams. Playing QB at Texas means you are going to HAVE to have a certain mentality about winning, be a confident leader, and make the RIGHT decision most all of the time. Ash's problems are not just mechanical, they are mostly mental and show up like a burnt orange neon sign when he has some adversity. He just completely loses it......everything and doesn't recover. I wonder how many other "Top 10" rated QBs have been benched in the 10th and 11th games of the season this year. Answer: 0
That says it all. Nobody has confidence Ash can lead this team to a win, much less a championship. You never know which Ash is going to show up. That is not the formula for leadership or for a championship team.
Face it...we don't have the type of QB playing right now that can overcome adversity and you would say, "Great, I want the ball in his hands when we are behind with 2 minutes left in the game." That guy does
not play on this team right now and that is our main problem on offense. Terrible evaluations of recruits has led to this situation and we are still in trouble in that area.

The system is a failure and an embarrassment to the University of Texas and it's tradition. There is only one coach in the nation that is paid more than Mack Brown and his Alabama team will once again be playing for a National Championship this year. Let's see........one coach is playing for a National Championship and the other is facing the Alamo Bowl......who do you think is getting the best "bang for the buck" ? It's more than obvious where the problem is with the Longhorns and it is time for a change. That's the bottom line of what will be an 8-4 season, and without two miracles happening against Oklahoma State and Kansas, we would be 6-6.
Think about that.......The University of Texas Longhorns with the best players in the state could easily be 6-6 this year. Gee, I wonder what the problem is????????

I agree with you on a lot of your points. But, I don't agree that Ash, under this coaching staff, can become the type of QB we MUST have at UT. It is a combination of both, Ash and the coaching staff. The sad thing thing is that Vince and Colt just had so much talent and were surrounded by so much raw talent the coaching staff couldn't screw it up. Ash is no Vince or Colt, few QBs are, and this coaching staff can't coach him up enough to get him over his obvious lack of confidence when something goes wrong. He just folds up and they are forced to bench him in hopes that Case can at least not turn the ball over.......oh wait, that didn't work either!
Sure Ash can play for some D-1 college team.......just not a championship college team.

Combine that with one of the worst defenses in the nation and you get the TCU debacle.