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BREAKING NEWS: Merril Hoge Doesn't Think Vince Young is Good

By Jimmy Morris

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Numbertenox predicted that I would post about this.  He is a prophet.  Hoge was once again shooting his mouth off about Vince Young in this morning's Tennessean:

"What they've done is the first indicator of what happens when you make a mistake with the quarterback you drafted in the first round and he starts to erode your organization,'' Hoge said. "Norm Chow was not the problem. He did what his quarterback was capable of doing, which is not very much. And it is much easier to fire the offensive coordinator than to get rid of your quarterback.

"If it's your quarterback you're saying 'We made a mistake.' Now you get rid of the offensive coordinator and say the reason he is not playing well is because of him. What you're doing is buying yourself another year and you avoid the public relations hit of actually fessing up and admitting 'We screwed up.' ''

Because of Young's limitations, Hoge said, Heimerdinger would not have the freedom of changing game plans each week like he's been able to do with Cutler. He said with 28 starts under his belt, it's up to Young to prove he's a capable NFL quarterback.

"I don't know what coach you fire next, but at some point you have to face the music," Hoge said. "You have a great athlete back there, but you don't have a great quarterback no matter who the coordinator is. One day they'll wake up to that.''

As DannoE said, it is just getting ridiculous at this point.  Hoge needs to find something better to do with his time.

I don't understand how he is so sure that it wasn't Norm Chow's fault.  What has Chow proven in the NFL?  It is impossible to assume he will have success in the NFL just because he did in college.  The playing field, especially at USC, is not equal in college football.  Norm had better athletes than the teams he was playing almost every time.  You just don't have that in the NFL.  Chow even admitted that during his first season with the Titans:

"This is the biggest challenge of my life. ... This is hard. Honestly, it's harder than I thought it would be. Defenses are just so good, so fast. It's such a challenge to find ways to attack."

Anyone who watched the Titans this season, and doesn't just hate VY, could see that the play calling stunk.  Now was that because Norm felt limited by Vince's ability?  I don't know, but regardless the play calling was still terrible.

All of this being said, we will learn what VY is when Mike Heimerdinger comes back to town.  We know Dinger is a good NFL offensive coordinator.  If this time next year we are still talking about the same things, it will be time to take a look at VY.  If not, and I don't think we will be, Hoge will look like a bigger moron than he already does.  If that is even possible....

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