 "Photo: Tony Gutierrez/The Associated Press")
Mothers, don’t let your sons grow up to be Big 12 quarterbacks.
While the popular adage may have applied to cowboys in the past, nowadays you’re much more likely to be injured if you’re lining up against defensive monsters like Ndamukong Suh (Nebraska), Gerald McCoy (Oklahoma) and Sergio Kindle (Texas).
The list of victims includes Heisman-winner Sam Bradford, Baylor’s Robert Griffin, Texas Tech’s Taylor Potts and Austen Arnaud of Iowa State.
Eight conference teams have injured or benched their starter this season, including every team in the Big 12 North except for Kansas State.
At Texas, true freshman Garrett Gilbert is the backup and has already gotten valuable experience in games against Missouri, UTEP, Louisiana-Monroe, Missouri and Oklahoma State. It all comes down to what Texas coach Mack Brown says is being, “fair to the team.”
“The most important thing is you try to win the game, then you’d also like to get Garrett some quality snaps,” Brown said. “We’ve got to get Garrett ready to go in if Colt [McCoy] has to come out, and he’s got to play at a high tempo.”
It’d be crazy for Brown to put Gilbert in while McCoy could still play, but the senior’s health isn’t guaranteed. He suffered from the flu during the Texas Tech game week and severely bruised the thumb on his throwing hand after banging it on an Oklahoma defender’s helmet.
And to see just how destructive football can be to a college coach’s game plan, all Brown has to do is look around him. Bradford had just 30 snaps on the season before going down with an AC sprain in his throwing shoulder that he eventually elected to have surgically repaired.
That made redshirt freshman Landry Jones the Sooners’ man at quarterback. Thus far Jones has completed 62 percent of his passes and thrown 17 touchdowns.
But the story isn’t quite as pleasant elsewhere. Texas Tech had to go even deeper into its depth chart – Taylor Potts started the year under center for the Red Raiders but left the game versus New Mexico. His backup, Steven Sheffield, made it just three games at starter before breaking his left foot.
Potts was back long enough to start against Texas A&M, but Tech coach Mike Leach chose to put in third-stringer Seth Doege for the second half. Doege was given the starting spot last week against Kansas as well, but now Leach is back to square one, saying that the inconsistency at quarterback has hurt the team. It is a precarious position for a squad perched at 6-3 with tough games at Oklahoma State and against Oklahoma still to come.
Still, Leach insisted on Monday he won’t make a decision on this week’s starter until game time, adding, “It’s something we all are looking forward to, and I’m on the edge of my seat waiting to see myself.”
Baylor’s Robert Griffin made waves in 2008 when he was named the Big 12’s Newcomer of the Year. But the quarterback’s season was cut short against Kent State earlier this season due to a torn ACL.
“Our image may change a little bit, but our structure and determination won’t,” said Baylor coach Art Briles. “Physically we may have to change how we approach things, so that part of it we’ll process through.”
Despite coach Briles’ continued optimism, the Bears have failed to win a conference game without Griffin.
Not all of the decisions have come because of injury, though.
Nebraska’s Zac Lee made it through seven games with a completion percentage of 59.9 before fans began to chant the name of Cody Green, his backup. Coach Bo Pelini responded by giving Green the start at Baylor last Saturday, just the second time a true freshman has started at quarterback in Cornhusker history.
“It’s every young kid’s dream to start for the college team your freshman year,” Green said after a 20-10 win, in which he completed 12 passes for 128 yards. “It was one of those moments I’ll remember forever.”
Even when Green threw a pick in the third quarter that gave the Bears the ball near midfield, the freshman said his teammates told him, “we got your back. Just go out there and play your game.”
That kind of support has been missing at Colorado, where coach Dan Hawkins replaced his son, Cody, with sophomore Tyler Hansen in week 7.
Back in Austin, McCoy has totaled more than 200 yards in each of his last two games. But that doesn’t mean coaches aren’t preparing for the unimaginable.
“We just need to get him ready to play,” Brown said about Gilbert. “He passed for more yards than anybody in the history of Texas high school football (12,534), so he’s been really successful. We think he’s got a chance to be good.”
1. K State HAS changed starting QB's since the beginning of the season.
2. When writing about NU QB Cody Green..."Even when Green threw a pick in the thrid quarter that gave the Bears the ball near midfield" ???? You obviously didn't watch that game...as the pick was thrown at mid-field, and returned for a TD. So he did give the Bears the ball near midflield...he gave them 6 points.
And those are just 2 obvious ones that i know of.