Emails in on OU, OSU quarterback rankings

The new emails are in, and readers talked about my rankings of the greatest OU and OSU quarterbacks.

Bill: “Steve Davis not in the top 10 OU quarterbacks? 32-1-1 and two national championships, plus the 35-10 buttwhipping of Nebraska in the ’75 showdown? Try to be a little serious.

Whenever someone tells me who to put on a list, but then doesn’t offer a suggestion on who to take out, they have joined the likes of Dick Vitale. Who is anything but serious.

John: “Nice piece on Sam. But how can any OU quarterback be judged by his record without taking into consideration the quality of the teams they played such as Texas up and down and the same with Nebraska. Opposition coaches also should be considered with the likes of Darrell Royal and Tom Osborne. Maybe the BCS geniuses can figure out the major criteria using a computer.”

Don’t laugh. Computers couldn’t hurt. But Texas’ primary down times – 1950s, 1980s, 1990s – really only correlate with two or three OU quarterbacks. Jimmy Harris. Jamelle Holieway. That’s about it. All the others went against prime Longhorn beef, and outside the ’50s, there always are great conference foes, be it Nebraska or someone else.

David: “I recently conducted a survey on four OSU message boards about the expectations for this season. I also happened to ask who was the best QB and WR in OSU history (I understand your point about Thurman having a better career than Barry Sanders, but it would be hard to argue that he was a better running back). As you might expect, most people voted for Zac and Dez. I was too young to remember how good Hart Lee Dykes was, but I think people tend for forget how good Rashaun Woods was. He set a bunch of Big 12 records, but he’s mostly remembered for his two great Bedlam performances.”

Do you realize that to this point, Mike Gundy has quarterbacked almost twice as many games as Zac Robinson? And quarterbacked two 10-win seasons? And set Big Eight passing records? The question is not who is the greatest quarterback in Cowboy history. The question is, can Robinson somehow catch Gundy?

Now, on to some other football items. James: I am an OU fan but truly think OSU will run the table this year and win not only the Big 12 South but the title. They have three of the best skilled people in the nation in Robinson, Hunter and Bryant. Look for the Pokes to blow out Georgia, then they’re in the hunt. They could easily knock off the Sooners in Norman, and I think they’ll upset UT.”

Knock off OU? Maybe. Easily knock off the Sooners, who have lost twice at home in Bob Stoops’ 10 years? Nothing easy about it.

Henry is one of those readers who has to find reasons for defeat other than just getting beat: “Everyone claims that the Big 12 is a better league and more fun to watch since it went to the spread passing game. I say the Big 12 is more like the Mountain West, WAC and Pac-10 of decades past. How many national titles did those leagues actually win? Well, there was Washington in 1991 (and Don James was one of the few Pac-10 coaches that emphasized running the ball and playing defense) and the nonsense of BYU getting picked over Florida in 1984. The Big 12 is getting more like that. It has won two national titles this decade, one of those 13-2 over FSU back when Oklahoma actually used to have a dominating defense (remember those days?) and the other was Vince Young running the option at Texas. That is a far cry from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s when Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Colorado won as many titles as anyone. You probably are the only one on the planet who didn’t enjoy Nebraska rolling up 62 points on Florida in 1994. The idea that run-oriented offenses are boring is absurd. If you are scoring points, it doesn’t matter how they are scored. And watching Oklahoma lose over and over again in title games (and increasingly in matchups against Texas) certainly isn’t fun. Back when Miami dominated Nebraska and Oklahoma a couple of times in bowl games in the 1980s, the football world claimed that the option was dead, outdated and that the Big Eight needed to go with the passing game. But now the Big 12 – and Oklahoma in particular – is playing so poorly in big games, and everyone is talking about how fun it is to watch and how many records Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy are going to set? It should be Big 12 teams doing what Florida did with Chris Leak and Tim Tebow in 2006 and Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin in 2008. It should have been Big 12 teams doing what Arkansas did with the wildcat in 2006. A Big 12 team should have been able to recruit Terrelle Pryor from that mind-numbing Ohio State program, or gotten Russell Shepard away from LSU (where they are going to use him as a combination Tebow/Harvin player). And a Big 12 team ought to be running the offense that Oregon does, or running Penn State’s ‘spread HD.’ And Minnesota and Michigan are putting in versions of that offense as well). For all the talk about how ‘exciting’ the Big 12 offenses are, the actual innovation is going on in other conferences. Really, all the Big 12 is doing is running what Hal Mumme was running at Kentucky and Joe Tiller was running at Purdue in the mid 1990s. It isn’t new, it isn’t exciting and most importantly it doesn’t win championships.”