Worst Quarterbacks in the Big XII?

Head coach Mack Brown stated that both Case McCoy and David Ash would see playing time in the team’s opener against Wyoming.Â Ash was named the starter but there seems to be little separation between the two. This is disturbing because last season in a ten-team league, McCoy and Ash ranked eleventh and twelfth.

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In a recent post on the upcoming season, ESPN ranked the ten starting quarterbacks in the league. The Texas two came up tenth.

10.Â

David Ash

/

Case McCoy

, Texas:

Â Mack Brown insists it’s still a contest. My jaw will be on the floor if Ash doesn’t trot out on the field for the first game of the season. Ash has some potential and promising targets inÂ

Mike Davis

Â andÂ

Jaxon Shipley

, but he hasn’t shown the big-play ability of Jantz or Barnett. Expect Ash to move up this list by season’s end, but for now, it’s all just potential.

Potential in the words of the great Darrell Royal means, “he ain’t done it yet.” I would have expected one of these guys to step up but I fear there is no “step up” in either one of the young men?

Are we doomed to repeat 2011 where the quarterback play was fine and dandy against low level teams but failed against the top teams? In the same ESPN ranking, they have Baylor QB Nick Florence ranked as number six. RGIII is gone to the NFL and Texas still trails Baylor in the quarterback rankings?Â Â Oklahoma State loses Brandon Weedon and in steps Clint Chelf at number seven?

I see no help in the recruiting achievement at the position. Mack brought in Connor Brewer and Jalen Overstreet and while there is potential with these guys, I rarely hear their names mentioned when the future of Texas football is addressed. Overstreet, especially, seemed a great fit for the WildÂ Horn formation but… freshman Johnathan Gray and sophomore Malcolm Brown were both tried in that scheme. Sadly, they bothÂ were less than stellarÂ at it. What’s next, a tackle at the Wild Horn?

I then got excited by Tyrone Swoopes and watched as ESPN dropped him out of the top 100 prospects, changing his status fromÂ quarterback to “athlete.”Â Everything I read indicates he is going to red shirt when he arrives in Austin.

Mack Brown sees things a bit different. Earlier this week he was quoted.

I think they both did a good job. And that’s a good thing.Â

I think we are going to have two good quarterbacks to play right now, and we’ll just have to figure all that out as we go through.

Â Still got two and a half weeks. It’s not like it was last year where we are sitting here wondering. I really think that in our mind and we ask everybody in the staff room, and we’ll go around and say, “Who would you play at quarterback.” It’s not only you all asking; we ask, too. I got the same questions you do. And the answers are good. But we are having more consensus that both could play right now and still win a game for us. I think part of that is because a game like an A&M game and a game like the Cal game, is the players have seen both of them win. So they know that most of the time around here, we have not had aÂ backupÂ quarterback that could go in and win. And right now is the first time that I think we are in the best shape

I wish I had Mack’sÂ optimism.