The Tennessee Titans announced today that former Longhorn quarterback Vince Young would make his first career NFL start on Sunday against his homestate Dallas Cowboys. The Titans picked up Kerry Collins right before the regular season started but he was awful in their first three games. Six interceptions and three losses from a quarterback who won’t be your future starter is kind of pointless.
Young has seen limited playing time through the first three games, playing in a couple of series in each of the first two games. He hasn’t been lights out but he hasn’t been any worse than Collins either. Vince is their future and they’re going to lose anyways there’s no reason not to start the VY Era now. The only concern is whether he’s prepared to go out there and not suffer any setbacks. Young has never known failure and he’s probably going to have to deal with a lot of it both individually and as a team this season.
One of Young’s strengths are the intangibles he brings to the huddle, and it sounds like the Titans’ coaching staff believes he’s ready for the big time:
Titans offensive coordinator Norm Chow said Young has made great strides, “mainly because he’s very determined to be a great football player. He studies, he works, and he’s disciplined. He has great leadership skills. If you’re willing to work at it like he is, you continue to get better.”
One of the more interesting tidbits from this story is that Young had been taking first-team snaps all week long and the media kept their mouths shut about it:
But it became clear during practices that the Titans planned to go with Young, who worked with the starters and handled the majority of the reps each day. Collins, meanwhile, worked primarily with the scout team.
Practices are open to the media, but Fisher threatened to close them if any outlet reported the division of practice-field work between Young and Collins before Saturday.
I don’t know how I’d feel about that information if I was a Titans fan. Is the media in Nashville reporting only what they’re given permission to report on? What’s the point of having open practices if you can’t report anything you learn by watching them? Interesting side story there.
The Dallas defense is a pretty stiff one, but the fact that Young makes his first career start against them is good news for Longhorn fans. No Titans games have been on TV here in Texas this season and they probably won’t show too many more, but Sunday’s game should be on throughout the state.
See the game on your local Fox affilliate at noon.
reply to #1
Matt
October 1st, 2006 at 11:06 am
I almost want to go and get a Vince Titans jersey to wear for the game.
reply to #2
Brian
October 1st, 2006 at 12:12 pm
That’s really cool. Ahmard Hall and Bo Scaife are starting as well on offense for the Titans. Should make things a little more comfortable for Vince.
reply to #3
Boomer Sooner
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:29 am
And he did a bang up job!!
reply to #4
Brian
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:23 am
Actually he did pretty well for a rookie QB making his first start against a good defense. He made mistakes and he forced the ball into tight spots too often, but overall he looked decent and you could see what he’s capable of as they mold that team around him.