Keith Price’s ascent toward the top of the Huskies’ single-season passing charts is a surprise that shouldn’t shock those familiar with Washington’s reputation as a quarterback factory.
Of the past 18 starting quarterbacks at UW, 16 went on to the National Football League. Some NFL careers lasted longer than others (Cody Pickett started only two games for the 49ers; Mark Brunell is midway through his 19th season), and one career included a position change. (The Cowboys drafted Isaiah Stanback with the idea of using him as a wide receiver and kickoff returner.)
Still, a program where 16 of 18 quarterbacks attain employment in the NFL is a program that deserves the moniker of “Quarterback U.” From Don Heinrich to Jake Locker, the Huskies’ history of top-quality quarterbacks is almost unparalleled.
Second to none?
Not quite.
Second to one.
That would be Stanford, Washington’s opponent on Saturday. The campus known as The Farm cultivates quarterbacks as if the position was invented there. Which it was, in a way. Stanford’s undefeated “Wow Boys” of 1940, coached by T-formation innovator Clark Shaughnessy, lined up with quarterback Frankie Albert directly behind the center.
The novelty confused teams used to defending the single wing, and virtually overnight, the quarterback replaced the tailback as the most important offensive position.
How rich is the Cardinal’s quarterback tradition? Put it this way: In 2004, a panel put together by the San Francisco Chronicle determined John Elway to be the third-best quarterback in Stanford history. Elway is on anybody’s short list of greatest all-time NFL quarterbacks – if he’s not No. 1, the two-time Super Bowl champion is in the discussion with Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady – and yet expert observers of Stanford’s football teams over the years rated Elway No. 3 at his own school.
Between his electric arm and elite ability to break tackles on the run, Elway is regarded to have as much natural talent as any quarterback who ever lived. But for all his athleticism, Elway had the poor timing to enroll at Stanford during some otherwise lean years on The Farm. Without a supporting cast, Elway’s Stanford teams won 15 and lost 18, and never got invited to a bowl game.
Elway was trumped on the Chronicle’s list by former Rose Bowl MVP Jim Plunkett, who in 1970 became the Bay Area’s first and only Heisman Trophy winner. The No. 2 quarterback was Albert, a left-hander who pioneered the bootleg play.
Filling out the Top 5 were John Brodie (a consensus All-America selection in 1956, the year Notre Dame quarterback Paul Hornung won the Heisman) and Bobby Garrett, the first overall selection of the 1954 NFL draft.
The Chronicle’s ranking of Stanford quarterbacks, of course, did not recognize Andrew Luck, mounting a seemingly inevitable campaign to surpass Plunkett as the Cardinal’s greatest player. A Heisman Trophy favorite and presumptive No. 1 overall pick of the 2012 draft, Luck figures to make any previous rankings of Stanford quarterbacks obsolete.
Elway was renowned for his size: In an era when college linebackers typically weighed 220 pounds, he was 6-foot-3 and 215. Luck is 6-4 and 235. Even if he were a dunce unable to identify defensive schemes in the film room, Luck is blessed with the physical skills to make plays. But he’s no dunce. He’s a star student who’s mentally foolproof.
While Washington doesn’t boast the sheer star power of Plunkett, Elway and Luck, the Huskies’ assembly-line trend of NFL-ready quarterbacks is impressive: 11 draft choices since 1981 – one every three years – with 10 of the 11 going no lower than the fifth round. (The exception was Pickett, a seventh-round choice in 2004.)
The Huskies’ roll call of draft choices, by the way, does not include the great Warren Moon. Deemed unworthy of competing at the next level of American football, Moon was forced to ply his craft in Canada before embarking on an NFL career that culminated with his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Damon Huard is another Huskies product who dodged the draft. He ended up playing 13 seasons in the NFL.
Despite the occasional oversights of scouts, Washington and Stanford have combined to deliver 24 quarterbacks to the NFL draft over the last 40 years – 13 by the Cardinal, 11 by the Huskies. Stanford dominated the draft cycle during the 1970s, with the likes of Plunkett, Don Bunce, Mike Boryla, Guy Benjamin, Mike Cordova, Steve Dils and Turk Schonert.
During the ’80s and midway through the 1990s, the Huskies returned the serve with Tom Flick, Steve Pelluer, Hugh Millen, Chris Chandler, Cary Conklin, Billy Joe Hobert, Brunell and Brock Huard.
A quirky note: Over those 40 years, a Stanford quarterback and Washington quarterback were never taken in the same draft.
An even more quirky note: John Elway, now ranked the No. 3 on the list of all-time Stanford quarterbacks, soon will be relegated to No. 4.
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
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