Life After Vince

As happy as I am about the National Championship, it didn't take long before the discussion turned to Vince Young's pro prospects.

Vince said after losing the Heisman Trophy that he would come back next year to win it. Reggie Bush could come back as well, but one has to wonder if he would beat Young in the voting again. Bush had a pretty solid game, to be sure, but Vince really stole the show. That will probably remain in the voters' minds next year.

But even if Mr. Young stays another year, the post-Vince era is drawing rapidly to a close. What comes next?

Vince Young is an incredible athlete, the kind you don't find in every recruiting class, or every decade. So who will pick up the slack when Vince moves on to (much) greener pastures? Of course we really can't know. We didn't know that Vince would turn out to be, well, Vince when he first came on the scene. True, he was a highly recruited and touted high school player, but those are a dime a dozen and rarely pan out.

The fear, of course, is that UT will regress to the old ways. You remember those, don't you? It was the norm only three years ago: Darkie up the middle; Darkie up the middle; Whitey pass; Whitey punt. Yes, that's not a very PC way of describing it, but it is accurate, perhaps in more way than one (i.e. that stereotypes fitting players to positions by race are slow to change, even in the face of prime counter examples).

Much has been made of a transformation on the part of Mack Brown, saying that he has learned to relax and have fun (and let his team have fun). They try to imply that that is why UT is winning now. Oddly, or maybe not, this transformation coincides exactly with Vince Young's ascension. So which was the cause and which the effect? Will Mack's new fun approach carry on when Vince has gone on? Will the team remain unpredictable — and successful?

It will be interesting to watch.