And, in Brodie's case, it was non-contact. He blew his ACL because of a congenital knee deformity which many people have...
News Article: Bateman walks on at Utah
- Thread starter Snuffy Smith
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Well, one of my first posts about the potential for Hurts to start was the prospect of mass transfers. One other thing though is that while some fans still have doubts, it sure doesn't seem like Bateman, Cornwell, or Barnett had any doubts about Hurts. They practiced with the guy, if they thought he was shaky and someone they might be able to take the starting job from, they might stick around. Seems to me they all took a good look at the guy and went, welp, not gonna beat him out so time to leave. That doesn't answer the whole question, but it answers part of it. He might just be that good.
In the past though, guys who got mired on the depth chart did tend to transfer, but there was no true freshman starter before. We saw Fanuzzi, Jackson, Ely, Sims, Del Rio, Morris, all transfer. I'm trying to think of scholarship quarterbacks who finished out at the school as backups, and I'm drawing a blank. So, leaving when not the starter is a fairly routine thing. Also, I don't think you can blame anyone because GMac, AJ, Blake, Coker, and Hurts got the job. They all won SEC championships right? So, I see it more as being about their success than anyone's failure.
Sheesh. I attended the Southern Miss game, in which Avalos started. Seems like that was 2004, maybe? Anyway, I believe we threw about 3 passes the entire game.
*Actually it was 2003, and we threw 7 passes the entire game, completing 3. We won 17-3.
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I was posting from my iPhone - I could have pretty easily typed it that way and not noticed :biggrin:
I remember when we had Billy Ray and Jeff Dunn on campus at the same time and most of us thought we had won the QB lottery.
Edit: Now that I think about it, I believe we had Vince Sutton, Billy Ray and Jeff Dunn all on campus at the same time in 1988. A little help here Selma...?
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This is an interesting piece from TiderInsider. https://www.tiderinsider.com/forum/classics/011229-1.html
Class of 1986 included Billy Ray, Jeff Dunn and Gary Hollingsworth. I think Smith had come in the '85 class. Billy Ray bolted for Duke and Spurrier in '89 and I think Dunn quit before his senior year.
Let me explain why I asked, and it will make sense.
The last starts I could remember our QB missing were when Croyle was here. I knew that he missed....I wanna say the UGA game in 2003. That day we went to String's Cafe in Yuba City (I had the calzone), California - hometown of Washington coach Chris Petersen btw - and we got home just before the half and were getting blown out horribly and our quarterback looked like - well, I don't think I could have done much worse.
In 2004, I DO know that Brodie missed much of the season. I was unemployed and caught a few of our games, but I missed the one where he went down for the year. I was in Rawlins, Wyoming the night we played Ole Miss in 2004, driving back from California to Mississippi. And I knew that in 2005 he played the whole year but the big injury was Prothro in the Florida game.
The reason I asked was I knew we didn't lose a starting QB from 2007 on. But I missed most of the 2006 season even living here in Texas. We moved into a new house the day of the Florida game, and that year was the first year I had taken on a new schedule because I was in school so I literally worked every Saturday but one that fall.......I was off the day of the Iron Bowl, but I missed it, too. My then SIL got married (for the third time), and I missed the Iron Bowl for a marriage that lasted 11 months. (I even remember that Bo Schembechler died the night before that day).
But since I missed those games, I honestly had no clue whether any of our QBs missed a start that year.
That's why I was uncertain.
Oh....also - my son played football that fall and all his games were on Saturday. Back then they weren't all shown here. I was at his game and missed Arky, moved and missed Florida, and worked and missed the others. I was at the 2006 Cotton Bowl, and the next game I saw us play on TV was 2007 LSU. Seriously. But I most certainly was with us during the down years - hell, anyone remember 2000, when we started at #3 and that's the number of wins we had? And 1997.
So that's why I wasn't absolutely certain. My guess was Brodie.
2003 USM?
Avalos was 3 for 7 for 12 yards. I bought that game on the old ESPN GamePlan for $9.99 and then barely paid attention it was so boring.
You're sort of close to right.
Vince Sutton was here 1984-1988. I don't know the details back then but I'm guessing he red-shirted one year. I know he started in 1984 and shared duties with Shula, and I recall him leading the infamous comeback against Kentucky in 1988.
Jeff Dunn started in 1987 and was the starter in 1989 before a knee injury brought Gary Hollingsworth off the bench and garnered him the SEC offensive player of the year.
Billy Ray was gonna be the successor to Shula and redshirted in 1986. I don't think he ever took a snap at Alabama. He backed up Dunn in 1987 and left in the spring of 1988 and sat out a year.
ETA: I just checked and Sutton redshirted the 1985 season as a sophomore.
So all three were on campus together in 1987.
Just to put it in perspective, how many quarterbacks pan out in the NFL even after all the film and professional scouting they have. So, evaluating whether a high school quarterback can play at a high level has to be hard.
Sutton threw the game winning pass vs UK to Gene Newberry. I remember Newberry was a highly rated QB out of Arkansas when recruited to Alabama and ended up playing tight end. Bama has gone through several periods of getting top-ranked QB's in bunches but somehow ending up not getting the results expected.
Actually, it was 2003 because I looked it up.
I think the reason folks are conflating two games with USM is because in 2004 it was Spencer Pennington that was 4 for 9 for 72 yards.
So in consecutive games with USM, our two quarterbacks (Avalos and Pennington) went 7 for 16 and 84 yards.
With the receivers we have nowadays, I think 90% of the posters here could accomplish that in one half behind a solid Tide O-line.
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