Over the past five to seven years, the NFL has seen its share of starting quarterbacks from the state of Texas.
Drew Brees, Austin, TX
Matt Stafford, Lake Highland, TX
Andy Dalton, Katy, TX
Those are just three of the more high profile names from this state and it's been a banner run for state of Texas quarterbacks and the schools and NFL organizations in Texas. But, the mass exodus of five-star quarterbacks from Texas A&M truly got my wheels spinning a bit about how rough 2015 was for the entire state. When Kyler Murray announced his transfer, in addition to Kyle Allen's decision a week ago, it hit me that it's been a bad year, relatively speaking, for the Power Five conference college and two NFL teams in this state.
Start with the Texans. We're all well aware of the up and down nature of the quarterback position here in Houston in 2015. Three different quarterbacks have started under center - Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett and T.J. Yates. The good news is that each of the three led the team to at least one victory and here's hoping that Yates gets win number two as a starter in 2015 on Sunday vs. the Colts.
The team up north has also had three different starting quarterbacks. After Tony Romo was injured early in the season, the Cowboys got starts from Brandon Weeden, now a Texan, and Matt Cassel. Then, Romo returned and got hurt again. So, three different Cowboys started at quarterback as well.
I mentioned Texas A&M's revolving door with two different starters during the regular season and a third will start in the team's bowl game v. Louisville. Jake Hubenak is seemingly the last man standing and he'll start the Aggies' bowl game. That makes three signal callers on the whirly-bird that was the Aggies' QB situation.
Baylor started the season with Seth Russell under center and he put up Heisman-like numbers. But, he got hurt vs. Iowa State, which turned the job over to true freshman Jarrett Stidham. He then got hurt vs. Oklahoma State, leading to former QB turned WR turned QB again Chris Johnson's starts vs. TCU & Texas. Then, he got hurt early in the Texas game, which turned the reins over to WR turned QB Lynx Hawthorne.
The University of Texas started Tyrone Swoopes in the first game and the last game, but started freshman Jerrod Heard in the ten other games during the season.
TCU had a Heisman candidate in Trevone Boykin...until he wrenched his ankle in the win over Kansas, missing the majority of that game and the next, a loss to Oklahoma. He returned in the overtime win over Baylor, but limped throughout the game. As such, TCU had two different starting quarterbacks and three that played significant minutes in key games this season.
Even the best college team in Texas, Tom Herman's University of Houston squad, was forced to start two different quarterbacks after star QB Greg Ward was injured early in the comeback win over Memphis. Kyle Postma, a former receiver, led the Cougars back from behind in that scintillating win over Memphis and then started the next week at U Conn.
The only team that started ONE quarterback in each of its team's games? The team that'll join us in Houston for the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl - Texas Tech. QB Patrick Mahomes was brilliant in Lubbock for the Red Raiders and he started all 12 games for Kliff Kingsbury's Red Raiders in 2015.
Thankfully.
