March 2, 2006
What Happened to Vince Young?
Don’t pass on Young because of Wonderlic score
You’ll have to pardon my confusion. It’s just that I recently emerged from a seven-week hibernation that began the day after the Rose Bowl, and I can’t figure out how, in that time, Vince Young went from being the nation’s reigning football hero to a plummeting draft prospect who supposedly can’t run, can’t throw, can’t catch, can’t dress himself, can’t sing, doesn’t know the Dewey decimal system and, based on last weekend’s combine Wonderlic bombshell, can’t read or write, either.
…
And that was before Young got to the dreaded Wonderlic. There are only about eight billion conflicting reports out there right now as to what exactly took place in Indianapolis this weekend — that Young scored a disastrous 6 out of 50, retook it and got a 16, that the first test wasn’t graded properly, that his agent inexplicably failed to tell him about this part of the combine, that the first score was legit and the retake was part of an NFL cover-up of its embarrassment at letting the score leak in the first place. Either way, 6 or 16, Young bombed. There’s no sugar-coating that. While plenty of elite prospects over the years have done similarly poorly and not had it affect their draft status, the NFL cognoscenti say they hold quarterbacks to a different standard. They’re understandably reluctant to hand their playbook over to a guy who can’t figure out which is the ninth month of the year.
All of a sudden, Vince Young’s draftability is in question. Not like he’ll be anything other than a top ten pick, but people are wondering if he’s still 1st or 2nd pick material.
Now, the Wonderlic is a difficult test. It’s 50 logic questions in 12 minutes, which means you have to know what you’re going into before taking the test. It would be very, very easy for someone to get flustered by one hard question, spend a minute and a half on it, and then suddenly realize that they have no time to complete the rest of the test. I find it hard to believe that anybody capable of scoring high enough on the SAT to qualify for an NCAA scholarship is dumb enough to score a 6 on the test, if there aren’t extenuating circumstances.
Frankly, I think that Vince Young has shown in his consistently amazing performance from the Rose Bowl against Michigan through the Rose Bowl against USC, that he is a truly special player. He understand the game of football, and I think he’s a future hall of famer. If Vince Young is truly this much of a liability, it’s an indictment of the University of Texas for admitting him in the first place. Something doesn’t add up, and at this point, I’m willing to give Vince the benefit of the doubt, and assume he was having a bad day.
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I think Vince Young is top notch material and he will end up on a team one way or the other. Who cares if he is 1 or 2 draft pick? He certainly knows how to play football. He can’t be that dumb.