jterrell said:
Aikman also never seemed to win the big game in college. You know who said that? Jimmy Johnson.
He was owned by crosstown rival USC and Rodney Peete.
That QB rating you speak of isnt so high nowadays.
Lots of QBs have put up better stats playing in a passing friendly Pac 10.
I saw Troy as a rookie and 2nd year guy. I saw him play in the Cotton Bowl in college and he wasn't even close to the same guy. He develped a great deal. He worked hard and learned the offense backwards and forwards.
And UT had a QB much like Aikman in Chris Simms. He got vilified because he couldn't win a title or beat their biggest rival. He's also probably going to be a good pro though expecting him to be Troy would be a huge leap of faith.
Troy, Chris and Vince were all ranked number 1 overall by several services when they came out of high school.
This is a lot of BS contained in only one post. USC was a great team at that time. USC owned a lot of team then. You want to compare QBs from 15 years ago to QBs now, that's fine but it's not accurate. You want to see how good he was, compare him to contemporary QBs and see how he ranks. Lots of QBs have played down through the years and they too don't have as good a passing stats as many average QBs do today. Does that make them poor QBs? Doesn't hold water.
I too saw Aikman play in the Cotton Bowl against Arkansas. We must have seen a different game because the game I saw, he dominated. A brief recap, from an Arkansas Razorback site might be of interest here.
1989 Cotton Bowl
UCLA 17, Arkansas 3 - January 2, 1989
Arkansas found UCLA's Troy Aikman almost impossible to stop. The Bruin quarterback engineered two commanding scoring drives of 93 and 74 yards, the first one consumed 19 plays for a Cotton Bowl record. Aikman was so proficient that at one point in the game he was 13-of-14 on third down. He controlled the clock for almost 43 minutes and completely wore down the Razorback defense. After Aikman delivered the knockout punch on offense, in came the Bruin defense to finish the job, limiting Arkansas to just 42 yards in total offense...
[ Cotton Bowl Website ]
Aikman was 19 for 27 for 172 yards that game with 1 TD and zero INTs I believe. Aikman actually didn't play as well in this game as I had seen him play through much of the season but Arkansas was a very strong team that year. In fact, one of the best defenses in the country that year. Arkansas came into that game with a 10-1 record, losing only to Miami in Miami (eventual national champs that year), 18 to 16. A game they really should have won. This was a great Arkansas team.
Aikman and Simms were alike in that they were both highly recruited and had excellent natural skills but that's about where it ends. Aikman may not have had great success with USC but I would definatly stop short of saying he couldn't win the big one. Aikman won a lot of big games while at UCLA.
You don't have to like Aikman JT but the stats don't support your theory that Aikman was not a great QB in College. 20-4 is a pretty convincing statistic if you ask me but I guess we are all intitled to our own opinions.
