yeah...clemens never played against Oklahoma in the bowl game. So, gee, good analysis. Thanks for the feedback though. Here are a couple notes about Clemens' history and all he's been through. He was recruited by Tedford as the heir apparent to Harrington. Redshirted his frosh year and the next year he and Jason Fife battled for the starting spot. Fife was a sr. and he and I'd say everyone with a brain argued back then that he should've started over Fife. Instead, they split time all the way through a win over Michigan. Then, the bottom fell out for the defensive secondary and the Ducks' short db's got torched every single week for months. Palmer, Andrew Walter, and all pretty much had their coming out parties against Oregon. Meanwhile, Clemens continued to put up numbers. Then, Tedford left and Andy Ludwig came in. Andy who? Yeah, that's the one. He was terrible. Awful. He was so predictable that one opposing player said after picking off a screen pass, 'You know what's coming, their plays are completely predictable. Ludwig was fired...uhhh...sent packing to Utah to be the OC there after Urban Meyer bailed. Insert third offense Clemens has had to learn, this time, The Spread via Gary Crowton (former OC for the Bears when they had a couple huge seasons a few years back) Clemens thrived. Despite all those changes he sucked it up and made huge plays in games against a lot of highly ranked opponents. Never complained, and just worked on his game. He's also smart enough to continue to hammer an opponent if they can't stop something. Against Minnesota in the Sun Bowl he completed passes to Samie Parker (the now KC Chief WR) all day. A Sun Bowl record. Unreal. He just kept looking off the db, and then throwing it to him. All day long. Afterward he said he was going to just keep throwing it until they showed they could cover him. I think he completed over 40 passes that day in El Paso. I really hope he doesn't have to play right away. A year or so learning under Pennnington would really help him. He's got the skills, but the NFL is such an incredible step up, everyone has a learning curve. All of them. Here's a piece from the Ducks' site on that performance by Clemens in the '03 Sun Bowl. Clemens ended with career highs in completions (32), attempts (42) and yards (363), as well as matching one Sun Bowl record with three touchdowns and claiming another pinnacle with a 76.2% completion percentage. Samie Parker ended as game MVP after the school’s single-game record holder broke bowl records for catches (16), yards (200) and touchdown catches (two).
