Stewart was the best QB I have ever seen in practice. Ensminger really messed he and Pullig up.

Branndon Stewart and Corey Pullig were not busts; they were good solid quarterbacks. They had a weak receiving corps, and poor schemes. Dante Hall certainly was not a bust; he wasn't all that highly hyped to begin with.

It certainly is not unusual for a high school player not to pan out. R.C. has said it this way. About half the recruits will never play, no matter how good a class you think you have. You are recruiting 17 year olds. Boys that age mature at different times. If they are mature enough to live away from homme, if they can adjust to college work, if they can handle their personal affairs responsibly, if they go to class, if their mother, daddy, little brother, or little sister doesn't have a catastrophy back home, if they don't fall into bad company, and if they don't have a career ending injury, then they get a chance to play D1 football. Then, if they can discipline themselves to handle the conditioning program, and if they are good enough, they may beat out the guy ahead of them. Otherwise, they never play. All these off-the-field issues play as great a part as the athlete's ability, and all these things eliminate about half the recruits while they are in school. I don't know if we should call a 17 year old a "bust" for getting screened out by one of these problems. How mature were you at 17?

Squadron 11,

The posts are not implying that any of these guys are busts in life, simply as QB's at A&M. All of them were prep superstars and cratered at A&M. It is not just a coincidence that they all went to A&M. There is something about our system that destroys the prototypical drop back passers. That is why I think Dustin Long will never sniff the starting job as long as RC is around. RC's offensive philosophy is run first, pass second. I think Jason Carter and Reggie McNeal will be the future of the position at A&M.

Everyone talks about how great Mark was in 2000 because of the passing yards he put up. But our record in 2000 stunk. Who cares if you QB throws for 2500+ yards if you end up playing in Shreveport at the end of the year? Bucky was not glamorous, but he got the job done because of his heart and his feet. If practice reports are true, then both Jason and Reggie are Bucky with an arm. That may be just the type of QB A&M needs to move to the next level.

12th Man

I think Greek nailed it. Pullig looked VERY good as a sophomore in 1993 under Bob Toledo. He never approached that level under Ensminger. Firing Toledo is the worst coaching decision RC has made to date.

You're right about Granger and his slider not translating well to football. Our joke then when immitating Aggie QB's of the day was to throw the ball short if you were Pullig, in the dirt if you were Granger, and end over end, but complete, if you were Bucky.

"Your function is to send money to the government, not to understand what the government does with it."

- Dave Barry

LOYAL,

I agree with you on the firing of Toledo. I know RC has tried to bury that one, but it is the worst episode of scapegoating ever under RC. Toledo may have eventually left anyway for a head coaching job, but he was the guy we needed to stay at A&M and develop our offensive consistency.

No way Stewart was a bust for us! Only a sip would say something like that about a guy who gave us a come-from-behind, double-overtime victory in the Big XII Championship game.

I would consider Toya Jones a disappointment, but not a total bust. He did recover that fumbled punt against Missouri and make a game saving tackle in the '98 Big XII Championship game. Other than that, his career was uneventful.

I agree with the poster who mentioned Dante Hawkins. He had great potential, but a bad attitude.

As for the sips, they're all busts for not choosing A&M.


Texas A&M TaeKwonDo
2001 National Champions

Antwan Kirk-Hughes started three years at OG for Texas -- not an All-American, but hardly a bust. He also played the last two years with a shoulder that kept popping out of joint. For everybody naming Shea Morenz, the guy was starting as a freshman or sophomore, then lost his job to James Brown due to injury. After that, he left school to play pro baseball. I don't consider him a bust, I just think he chose a different career path.

If you want to talk about busts for UT, try Will Goodloe, Ryan Haywood, or Kenny Hayter.

I can't get over seeing Toombs on this list. Not only did he have HUGE games for us, but to mention that he was supposed to be a dominant blocking back when he came in is just flat wrong.

He rushed for 2,600 yards and 29 TDs in his two seasons at Kilgore. He was never a blocker.

I'm from there, so I'm definitely biased, but he wasn't a bust. He came in from the get-go and controlled big games like Nebraska and Texas when we couldn't run the ball with anyone else.

I am not going to say that Brandon Stewart was the biggest bust, what I will say is that it appeared to me he didn't work as hard as he could have for the job. I watched him play in many games at Stephenville and he was by far the best player on the field against some very good teams. Everyone is always talking about his arm, but in high school and at Tennessee he was also blazing fast. He got to A&M and got slower. Maybe the coaches bulked him up too much, or maybe he just got lazy. The point is that he got beat out by Randy McCown and shouldn't have. On another note, I have yet to see Jason Bragg mentioned.

Simms is the starting QB for a team that finished in the top 5, and he is breaking tu passing records.
I wish we had a 'bust' that could beat the sips back to back, lead us to a top 5 finish and break our passing records all BEFORE he is even a senior.
I just don't understand some of y'all. You want to hate him so much you lose all rational football thought.

I agree with others on one thing though. We have signed a superstud Qb nearly every year for 10 years. All of them have not been bad, IT IS THE SYSTEM.

Trent Driver was our biggest bust.
Butch Hadnot and Montrell Flowers for the sips.


[This message has been edited by wittyusername (edited 6/6/2002).]

All of y'all should be careful with the negativity on A&M QBs on this thread. The implicit message repeated over and over is that A&M QBs are busts and the system ruins QB talent. Not an impression you want to give potential recruits visiting this BBS.

IowaBoy,

The system doesn't wreck all QB's, just the pure drop back type. Those that can run and throw will be just fine. That is why I think Jason Carter and Reggie McNeal will be battling for the starting job for the next few years (maybe by mid-season this year if Farris doesn't respond).

Brandon Stewart was not a bust. I felt sorry for him when the hype started because I knew there would be no room for him to struggle without some people labeling him a bust.

Stewart was probably the most physically talented QB we've had since Murray.

My personal opinion, from the outside, it appeared that Stewart's problems were simply that he didn't possess the QB personality. His physical skills were outstanding, and his ability to read defenses didn't really seem to be the problem either. A QB on offense, much like a a CB on defense, has to possess a stunning amount of confidence (read arrogance), they have to be able to make the biggest boneheaded play in history and be totally certain that they are still the best player on the field. Brandon didn't seem to have that kind of personality, when he made a mistake he seemed to get very down on himself, and it very quickly turned into a downward spiral. If he avoided those early mistakes he put together some really nice games, but when he made a mistake or two early I knew we were in trouble.

Bucky didn't have nearly the passing ability of Brandon, but he did have the personality. The entire offense ebs and flows off the confidence of the QB. If you look in his eyes and see confidence it's a lot easier to do your own job. If you look there and see confusion or self doubt, your own confidence (in the offense) departs.

My theory on Corey Pullig, and Mark Farris is actually the same. The revolving door at OC has made it impossible for either of them to ever really flourish in a system. If memory serves me correctly Pullig had 4 OCs in his 4 years, learning a new offense every year is not conductive to growth as a player. And there's no doubt in my mind he regressed over his years. Farris was showing signs of becoming a very, very effective QB in 2000, he seemed to suffer badly with the change to Babers.

I would love to see what could happen if we could give a QB 3-4 years learning and running the same system. I think it would be a signifigant difference we'd see.

[This message has been edited by OregonAg (edited 6/6/2002).]

I have the utmost repect for both Brandon and Corey as people and football players. Steve Ensminger was a an ass.

The bottom line is this. Succeeding at the D1 level is very difficult. I wasn't able to do it, and I know countless other guys who weren't either. I wouldn't characterize Brandon or Corey as unsuccessful. They may have not lived up to the high expectations that other people put on them, but they weren't busts by any means.

Just an FYI... Ensminger is now serving as Head Coach at Baton Rouge Central HS.

[This message has been edited by GreekAg (edited 6/6/2002).]

The earlier poster that claimed Dontae Hawkins was our first big time WR recruit was wrong. Percy Waddle was the first highly touted WR to come to A&M and he had a fairly good career despite a run first, run second, run third offense.