Long beats out McNeal for this job
Sam Houston QB rated state’s best after transferring
By Dale Robertson | December 22, 2004
There was no escaping the reality of Dustin Long’s situation at Texas A&M. The Aggies were going to be Reggie McNeal’s team, and Long would have to accept that or leave. Long chose to switch rather than fight.
So we should call him a quitter? Hardly. Rather, let’s call him a pragmatist. Long wanted to play football, not watch football. So he left Kyle Field for the cozy 14,000-seat playpen on the Sam Houston State campus, then led his appreciative new Bearkats teammates to the Division I-AA semifinals. His performance was sufficiently impressive to earn him the quarterback spot on the Chronicle’s 2004 All-Texas team.
And he beat out McNeal in the process.
NFL scouts polled by the Chronicle weren’t unanimous on the subject, but all agreed Long had shown himself to be the best passing quarterback in the state by throwing for 4,588 yards and 39 touchdowns during the Bearkats’ 11-3 run to near-national glory.
“He can flat fling it,” said C. O. Brocato, who has scouted Texas for years — decades, really — on behalf of the Houston Oilers turned Tennessee Titans.
It didn’t hurt that Long had plenty of time to flat fling it. He suffered just three sacks on 478 passing plays until Montana got to him for six in the semifinals.
“The kid went over there and just had a great year,” said Mike Maccagnan, the Texans’ coordinator of college scouting.
Strong competition
McNeal, however, earned high marks for his multifaceted skills, with Texas’ Vincent Young, Rose Bowl-bound but still a work in progress as a passer, coming in third.”I’d probably go with Reggie as the best all around,” said Alonzo Highsmith, the ex-Oiler who scouts Texas for the Green Bay Packers. “But I really like Long’s arm.”
Long was one of eight players to crash what, not surprisingly, became a Big 12 South-dominated team. The scouts concurred that, Long’s arm and the churning legs of North Texas’ Jamario Thomas notwithstanding, it wasn’t an overly stellar season for small-school talent.
Thomas’ 1,801 rushing yards, second most ever by a freshman, gained him Texas frosh-of-the-year honors.
“Quick, explosive, good body control,” says Highsmith of Thomas. “He’s already a special player.”
Thomas joins the ultimate no-brainer choice, Texas’ Cedric Benson, in the backfield behind Long. But if you believe the second position should be a fullback, either Rice’s Ed Bailey or A&M’s Keith Joseph is a defensible choice.
The Owls might have had a tough season, but Bailey can’t be faulted for his contributions. He ran for 1,021 yards, finishing third in the WAC in per-game average, and scored 13 touchdowns. Both totals were fourth best in school history.
Rice also was represented on the All-Texas defensive team by junior end John Syptak, another Owl who provided a beam of light at the end of a tunnel-dark season. An All-WAC selection, he had 40 solo tackles — 15 of them for losses — and was second in the conference with eight sacks.
Another WAC intruder was undersized (6-1, 230 pounds) but hyperactive Texas-El Paso linebacker Robert Rodriguez. In Rodriguez, Houston fans attending the EV1.net Bowl on Dec. 29 will see a player who, one scout contends, created as much havoc on the field as Texas’ celebrated Derrick Johnson. Rice would concur. Rodriguez had 19 tackles against the Owls.
Brocato compared him to ex-Aggie and current Dallas Cowboy Dat Nguyen.
“He’ll hit you,” Brocato said, “and he makes a lot of plays. If he’s not a big (NFL) prospect, it’s only because of his size. But I wouldn’t count him out.”
Brocato also put UTEP punter Bryce Benekos on his best-of list, saying, “He can kick the fool out of the football.”
Benekos averaged 44 yards per punt with a long of 66.
Deftly Manning the returns
Easily overlooked by those who don’t follow anything except Division I-A football in Texas was Abilene Christian sophomore Danieal Manning, whose punt- and kick-return averages — 22 and 29 yards, respectively — read like typographical errors. Salivating NFL scouts already have him on their radar screens because his kind of ability translates at any level.That is less the case perhaps with the behemoths in the trenches. Big 12 players occupied four of the five offensive line spots and three of four on the defensive line. (But Sam Houston’s Chris Louvier received multiple mentions.) Note that four of the five OL selections played tackle, with Texas Tech center Dylan Gandy the lone exception.
“It was a good year for tackles,” Maccagnan said.
Texas put eight players on the team, followed by Cotton Bowl-bound Texas A&M with six. Texas Tech, heading to the Holiday Bowl, landed three. The University of Houston wasn’t represented after its down year, but Brocato singled out somewhat underused Cougars tight end Stephen Cucci for a compliment, calling him “a big ol’ kid who can run and catch the ball.”
Five offensive and six defensive picks plus return man Manning and Texas A&M kicker Todd Pegram are underclassmen and will return in 2005.
Not the Chronicle’s Texas Coach of the Year, though. Sam Houston’s Ron Randleman announced his retirement after the Bearkats’ loss to Montana.
dale.robertson@chron.com
Best of Texas
OFFENSE
Pos. Name School
OL Geoff Hangartner A&M
OL Dylan Gandy Tech
OL Jonathan Scott Texas
OL Daniel Loper Tech
OL Anthony Alabi TCU
TE David Thomas Texas
WR Terrence Murphy A&M
WR Jarrett Hicks Tech
RB Cedric Benson Texas
RB Jamario Thomas UNT
QB Dustin Long SHSU
DEFENSE
Pos. Name School
DL Mike Montgomery A&M
DL Larry Dibbles Texas
DL Rodrique Wright Texas
DL John Syptak Rice
LB Derrick Johnson Texas
LB Martin Patterson TCU
LB Robert Rodriguez UTEP
CB Byron Jones A&M
CB Cedric Griffin Texas
SS Jaxson Appel A&M
DB Michael Huff Texas
SPECIALISTS
Ret. Danieal Manning Abilene
Christian
K Todd Pegram A&M
P Bryce Benekos UTEP
COACH OF THE YEAR
Ron Randleman, SHSU
Source: http://www.chron.com/sports/college-football/article/Long-beats-out-McNeal-for-state-s-best-quarterback-1969361.php
