There is a nice article today about VY in the USA Today. Here are the highlights:
"He can redefine what a quarterback can be," Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow says. "It's just his will to win that gives his teammates confidence and has them flying down the field to block for him." (emphasis mine)
Young gave family and friends flashbacks of his epic Rose Bowl MVP performance against USC.
Coach Jeff Fisher says Young is playing with a much older quarterback's veteran poise. "It's his poise, not just for three hours on Sunday, but seven days a week," Fisher says.
It is pretty amazing Chow said VY could "redefine" the position. Chow is a guy who has seen and developed some really good QB's.
I asked Peter of Burnt Orange Nation his honest feelings about chances of Texas getting a win in the National Championship game last year. If you remember, before the game last year, ESPN ran a "tournament" of the best college teams of all time against the 2005 USC team. No one gave Texas any chance of winning that game. Here is what Peter had to say:
With that said, if Texas had gone 12-0 with any other quarterback, I probably would have been downright terrified of that USC team. That was a great, great football team. It really was. But Texas was not quarterbacked by just anybody; we were quarterbacked by Vince. And Vince doesn't let his team lose.
There was lots of debate about when the "turning point" was for Vince (Was it the Missouri game in 2004? The Michigan Rose Bowl?), but there was absolutely no debate that the corner had been turned, and Vince was playing at a level that none of us had ever seen before. And it wasn't just the great plays he made, of which there were so many. It was something else - something more.
Vince had a leadership quality to him that I've only seen in a handful of athletes. Michael Jordan is the best comp I can give you. Sound hyperbolic? I'm sure it does, but Texas fans feel that way. Almost every last one of us believe, without any doubt, that Vince Young will win multiple Super Bowls in the NFL. Think about that for a second. It's pretty astounding.
Now, we could all be proven wrong, but I think if Vince were anything less than what we think he is, Texas would have lost to USC. I can't name any team that would have beat USC on that night. I'm pretty sure it -had- to be Vince. For us, thank God, it was.
Strangely enough, we all knew it. I was at that Rose Bowl championship game, and so were 50,000 other Longhorn fans. Down 38-26 with 6 minutes left, we all knew Vince wasn't anywhere near done. You've never seen a more calm group of fans down 12 points with so little time left.
That's Vince Young, Jimmy.
Welcome to the show.
Tomorrow we will explore the answer Longhorns fans gave to the questions, "When did you know VY was special?"